plain old telephone service

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PA Judge Fines Verizon $3,750 For Leaving Elderly Couple Hanging Without Phone Service

We’ll grant: landline telephones are not exactly the new hotness. Copper-wire service is, slowly, on its way out, and tends to be most preferred by older consumers. But just because millions of people have smartphones is no reason for any company to be jerks to senior citizens who do want to keep their legacy phone service, as Verizon is now paying for having done. [More]

(Alan Bruce)

FCC Proposal: Phone Companies Need To Offer Backup Power, Actually Notify You If They Kill Off Your Copper-Wire Landline

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is introducing a new proposal to the commission today that would attempt to protect consumers’ interests while advancing the transition away from plain old copper-wire service and onto IP data networks. [More]

Verizon Threatens To Disconnect NJ Landline Customer Unless They Switch To Fiber

Verizon Threatens To Disconnect NJ Landline Customer Unless They Switch To Fiber

Copper wire is expensive and old-fashioned. Phone companies don’t want to maintain or use it anymore. Still, some customers like their reliable old land-lines, and the law creates certain obligations for phone companies to provide and maintain them. But Verizon is apparently so sick and tired of providing plain old telephone service that they’re threatening to disconnect customers who don’t “voluntarily” upgrade to fiber A.S.A.P. [More]