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Just over a week after Verizon Communications announced it would stop selling DSL service to customers without landline voice telephone service, the company today confirmed it plans to stop selling DSL to customers who live in an area also served by the company’s fiber optic FiOS network.
New customers looking for broadband from Verizon will have to sign up for FiOS to get it.
The announcement came as part of a quarterly conference call with Wall Street investors.
Some consumers looking for the cheapest Internet access packages have gotten them from the phone company, often years earlier, and are grandfathered in at those prices. Verizon says it does not intend to disconnect existing DSL customers, who can keep the service indefinitely, but will not sell the slower broadband service to new or moving customers.
No exact timing for the new policy to take effect was given.
Verizon’s broadband success story has been with its fiber optic network, which continues to add customers. The same cannot be said of their DSL service, which continues to lose business to Verizon’s cable competitors, especially in areas where FiOS remains unavailable. FiOS was designed to protect Verizon’s landline business and it seems to be doing exactly that. At least 63% of Verizon’s landline-associated revenue now comes from its fiber optic service.
Verizon’s executives have made it clear change is coming to the traditional landline business. The company has not said what it intends to do with DSL customers in non-FiOS areas but did announce they would decommission pay telephones and discontinue long distance calling cards in the future.
Other stories of interest:
- Wall Street Encourages Verizon to Get Completely Out Of Landline/FiOS Business
- Verizon Will Cease Selling Standalone DSL Service May 6th; Voice With DSL Only, Please
- No Wireless Spectrum Swap Until We See FiOS, Say Cities Waiting for Verizon Fiber Upgrade
- Verizon FiOS: No Expansion in 2011; Existing Franchise Areas Will Be Completed, But That’s It
- “The Verizon FiOS of Hong Kong”: Fiber to the Home 100Mbps Service $35/Month
I’d say you really can’t blame Verizon either for the most part. I suppose the days of getting cheap $15 dollar Internet are over, but if someone is looking for Internet on the cheap that isn’t rediculous for what they use it for, Verizon does offer a 3Mbps/1Mbps package for roughly the cost of DSL itself. I’d say it’s a bit better to get that but they could reduce the price on it as FiOS hookups continue as $40 a month seems kinda steep for such a speed. Yet again, FiOS is known to get cheaper per megabit the higher in speed you go (See: 150Mbps package).
Either way, I do support them in shutting off DSL in FiOS-wired areas, especially in my area where the areas that have FiOS often have worn out copper networks that have trouble with DSL in the first place.
Verizon really couldn’t disconnect DSL service in cities/towns where FiOS is available, because the company does not provide 100% coverage in those cities/towns.
If it looks like the costs associated with fiber deployment will not be recovered in a particular area, Verizon will claim a “hardship” and slap the “dark zone” label on said area.