Verizon FiOS is off limits to rural customers. Wireless voice and satellite broadband is in your future.

Verizon Communications has big plans for its “miraculous” wireless home phone replacement which will soon find itself in rural homes across Verizon’s service area as part of a larger plan to dismantle rural America’s wired telephone network.

Just as company executives promised more than a year ago, Verizon wants to transition rural customers to fixed wireless phone service that could mean the end of wired broadband for millions of Verizon customers still using DSL.

Verizon senior vice president Tom Maguire told Communications Daily Voice Link is Verizon’s answer for customers it cannot easily transition to fiber optics. He is thrilled about the prospects of getting rid of deteriorating copper networks in favor of an inexpensive wireless alternative.

“I’m super jazzed about this because I think it will be good for everybody,” he said. “I think it’ll change a lot.”

For rural Verizon customers, the changes could be profound, dramatic, and not exactly a win-win scenario:

• No more wired phone service, which means medical monitoring, many home security systems, and inexpensive dial-up service that all rely on landline technology will be rendered unusable;
• No more unlimited use DSL service, no business broadband service, no credit card processing or other electronic business transactions that depend on a wired connection;
• No enforced quality of service standards, rate oversight, or guarantee of access to quality voice service;
• No prospect of advanced fiber optic FiOS services, including high bandwidth video and broadband.

Verizon is making it clear Fire Island and the New Jersey Barrier Island are just the first steps towards the retirement of copper, either in favor of fiber optics in high profit/low-cost areas or wireless in rural areas not worth upgrading.

Maguire claims Fire Island residents did not want the company to tear up yards or streets to replace its damaged copper wire network with newer technology like fiber. But Fire Island residents and administrators tell Stop the Cap! they were never asked. Instead, residents are being told Voice Link is likely their only option for traditional phone service on the western half of the island, and some customers are unhappy they will never get FiOS broadband upgrades Verizon says are financially untenable to provide.

Verizon has quietly tested Voice Link in Florida, giving customers the option of keeping their wired service or switching to the wireless alternative. But the test may have been stacked in Voice Link’s favor, as the choice was given to voice-only customers having chronic service problems with Verizon’s deteriorating copper wire network.

Going forward, many rural customers may not have a choice. For those who want Internet access, Verizon isn’t promising its wireless network is up to the task. Their suggested alternative?

Verizon’s solution for rural broadband.

Get a satellite dish.

Maguire acknowledged Voice Link customers won’t be able to fax or do certain activities, but he said the telco never pretended they would. Verizon won’t be offering data services with Voice Link, but if Fire Island customers want more options, they can potentially choose satellite, he said.

Maguire believes that customers living with a deteriorating copper landline network will gravitate quickly towards a wireless phone replacement.

Verizon arranged a blind test of Voice Link for 40,000 customers in another company’s territory with unbranded devices. When the copper wire network performed normally, customers preferred the quality of traditional landline service. But after it rained, the poorly maintained network made all the difference.

“The copper sounded like hell, it was noisy and static-y,” Maguire said.

Maguire did not say if Verizon blind tested whether customers preferred traditional landline service, Voice Link, or its fiber optic FiOS network.

Verizon hopes to begin introducing its Voice Link service in other markets as early as June.

CenturyLink’s massive nationwide broadband service outage on May 7 hurt Florida schools trying to administer online testing, small businesses in Nevada that were forced to close for the day, and frustrated nearly six million customers across both states and in Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Michigan, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Illinois.

An unspecified router failure disrupted broadband service for up to eight hours, and it could not have come at a worse time for Lee County and Cape Charter Schools in Florida that had to postpone state-mandated tests that are completed by students online.

Dr. Lee Bush told WZVN when things like this happen it is not good for the students or area schools.

“There’s a window of time for these tests and there’s a short period of time left. It does affect us,” said Dr. Bush.

The Las Vegas Sun also found itself without Internet access for much of the day, which also brought the newspaper’s website down. Several area businesses that depend on the Internet decided to send workers home late in the morning after it became clear CenturyLink had no realistic expectation of when service would be restored.

The Clark County School District, which serves Las Vegas, also reported their broadband service was interrupted.

In Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin outages created a significant problem for farmers cut off from commodity trading markets during the morning hours.

“An early Tuesday morning in May is definitely not a good time to have a long-lasting service outage for agribusiness,” said Sam Haupmann, who advises small and medium-sized farms on telecommunications matters. “Connectivity is very important for the farm economy these days, and farmers can’t just switch to the cable company or a cell phone. There often is no cable company serving farms and cell phone service can be difficult in rural areas.”

Ask CenturyLink to credit your account for the May 7 outage.

Ed Perrine, the chief of operations of Network Tallahassee, a Florida provider, told the Tallahassee Democrat all of his operations went down in the outage, affecting at least 4,000 customers and the 600 to 700 businesses they serve on the Florida Panhandle alone.

Perrine is not too happy with early reports CenturyLink’s massive outage could have come as a result of botched routine maintenance right before the start of business on a weekday:

Perrine said he spoke with CenturyLink at 6 a.m. where they advised him the company was doing scheduled maintenance. At 7:35 a.m. they told him something had gone wrong during the maintenance and it was affecting customers in 13 states.

By 10:30 a.m., the company advised the outage had spread to 22 states.

Perrine said the company has not told him what is causing the outage, but said that just after 11 a.m., the company advised Perrine that they were in the process of restoring service.

The timing of the update is questionable according to Perrine, who said maintenance is normally scheduled on early Sunday morning so if something goes wrong businesses won’t be affected.

CenturyLink had no plans to issue automatic service credits to affected customers, but you can request a refund for a day of lost service by contacting CenturyLink by phone or e-mail.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WBBH Fort Myers CenturyLink Outage 5-7-13.mp4[/flv]

WBBH in Fort Myers explains how a nationwide CenturyLink Internet outage on May 7 hurt the local economy, affected area schools, and frustrated area businesses and residents. (2 minutes)

Verizon says customers are responsible for maintaining and replacing backup batteries used with its FiOS service.

Beep.  Beep.  Beep.

Verizon FiOS phone customers will one day hear that ominous sound in their home and begin searching for the source. The audible alarm isn’t coming from the smoke detector or your computer’s uninterruptible power supply. It is coming from a square white box mounted in your garage or basement with a Verizon logo on it.

The Verizon Optical Network Terminal (ONT) Battery Backup Unit (BBU) provides up to eight hours of backup power for your FiOS voice services in the event of a commercial power failure.

Verizon considers its battery your problem, even though you lease the equipment from Verizon as part of your monthly service. After one year of standard warranty coverage, customers are responsible for maintaining the battery and for any damages that might occur if one fails to replace or remove it. Verizon’s website warns not promptly removing the spent battery could result in leaking corrosive battery acid which might damage the BBU itself. You would be held responsible for any repair or replacement costs.

Some Verizon FiOS customers cannot understand why they should pay to maintain equipment Verizon still technically owns.

“They require us to lease the equipment (set-top boxes, wireless router, backup battery device, etc.) so they are responsible,” believes one disgruntled customer. “If they would sell it to us or allow us to provide our own I could see us paying for it.”

Verizon representatives say they fully disclose customers are responsible for maintaining the battery. But customers complain it is buried in the fine print. Many more are unhappy to learn Verizon charges at least $45 for a replacement battery that seems to last only about two years.

Joanne Gaugler is on her third battery in seven years, and that one is now on its way out.

“The battery I have now has been beeping for a long time,” Gaugler wrote.

Not only does the battery beep incessantly, but the company also begins sending e-mail messages warning customers they need to replace it to avoid the possibility of damaging their equipment.

“When I called about this problem ten months into my FiOS service, the representative had me remove and reinstall the battery, claiming it was probably a loose connection and that I did not need a new battery,” says Stop the Cap! reader Jim Connor. “When I called back about the same problem 13 months into my FiOS service — one month out of warranty — the representative insisted I buy a new battery.”

Connor said Verizon charges an exorbitant amount for the replacement.

“Another profit center for Verizon, because they charge $35 for the battery and another $9 to ship it, before taxes,” Connor writes. “I ended up paying $10 less at a local battery replacement store, but Verizon got all bothered I did not buy it from them, warning it could ‘damage my service.'”

Verizon strongly discourages customers from buying replacement batteries from anyone other than themselves and disclaims any responsibility for damages caused by “an improper battery.” Verizon also offers customers free battery replacement if you happen to buy a Verizon Protection Pak plan, which starts at $19.99 a month.

There is nothing special about Verizon’s backup battery, a standard issue 12-Volt 7.2Ah SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) model often found in home alarm systems. Frugal Verizon FiOS customers can find equivalent batteries online for less than half the price Verizon charges, often with no upfront sales tax or shipping.

A Stop the Cap! search for “GS Portalac PX12072” or “GT12080-HG” (from labels on current batteries) on websites like Amazon or eBay quickly uncovered several highly rated alternatives that cost as little as $18 with identical specifications.

Batteries of this type have a shelf life of 3-5 years, and an in-service useful life of 1.5-3 years, after which they should be replaced and recycled.

Another alternative is to simply remove the battery altogether. That will result in no backup landline service in the event of a power failure, but your cell phone may already offer a suitable alternative.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KDKA Pittsburgh Verizon FiOS Battery 5-09-13.mp4[/flv]

KDKA in Pittsburgh reports around 10 Verizon FiOS customers a day are flooding into local Batteries Plus stores looking for new batteries for the company’s equipment.  (4 minutes)

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Verizon Install Replacement Battery 2012.flv[/flv]

Now that you have a replacement battery in hand, here is a Verizon-produced video explaining how to safely install it.  (4 minutes)

Cisco 170HD DTA

Time Warner Cable customers in greater New York will soon need set-top boxes or CableCARD technology to keep watching cable television.

The cable operator will be dropping analog television service, starting in Mount Vernon, Staten Island, and Bergen County, N.J. with much of the rest of the downstate region switched over the summer.

Cable television customers who already use Time Warner Cable set-top boxes, including DVRs, will not notice any change. Customers that plug a cable directly into the back of a television will need to take steps to keep their video service working after the digital conversion.

Time Warner’s digital switch will also disable viewing on televisions equipped with a QAM tuner. Cable operators now have the power to encrypt their entire television lineup.

The company is mailing letters to affected television subscribers advising them to get a Time Warner Cable DVR, traditional set-top box, CableCARD or Digital Adapter (DTA). For secondary televisions, Time Warner’s new DTA for downstate New York is the Cisco DTA 170HD, which supports both High Definition and Standard Definition channels and digital-only QAM tuning up to 1GHz. This model is also capable of providing HD premium channels, which are currently not available to customers with earlier generation DTAs. It is unknown if Time Warner will support that functionality.

Time Warner is making DTA units available to customers at no charge through the end of next year. Effective Jan. 1, 2015 each DTA box will cost $0.99 a month.

The company says the digital conversion will open extra bandwidth on the cable system to support more video on demand, HD channels, and faster broadband. Each 6MHz analog channel will make room for 10-12 digital channels, three digital HD channels, or an extra 40Mbps of download speed, according to Time Warner’s blog.

Residential customers can get DTA boxes as follows:

1. through the website at www.TWC.com/digitaladapter
2. via the telephone at 1-855-286-1736
3. in-person at a local TWC store
4. have a tech visit and install it

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/TWC Digital Conversion NYC 4-29-13.mp4[/flv]

 Time Warner Cable produced this video to explain the digital conversion, who needs to get ready, and how.  (2 minutes)

A California federal judge has rejected a class action case against Comcast for allegedly hiding modem fees as high as $15 a month when signing up new customers.

In 2010, Athanassios Diacakis made several calls to Comcast inquiring about cable service as a new customer. Diacakis claims several Comcast representatives offered a bundle of broadband, television and phone service for $99 a month. When he asked Comcast about any other charges, company representatives eventually admitted there was a $25 installation fee, but never mentioned any modem rental fees.

After Comcast installed service, Diacakis began receiving Comcast bills that included a previously undisclosed monthly modem fee of $10 and an extra “lease charge” of $5 a month associated with his broadband service.

Diacakis alleged in his complaint charging $15 a month for cable modem equipment was “outside and in excess of the specifically quoted bundled service” package he ordered.

As Below Your Means points out, renting a cable modem may be harmful to your wallet.

The plaintiff sought class certification to force Comcast to refund some or all the modem fees charged customers from 2007 to the present. His first effort failed in January 2012 on grounds of insufficient evidence. His amended complaint was rejected May 3 on similar grounds.

United States District Judge Saundra Armstrong ruled Diacakis failed on two separate occasions to produce convincing proof Comcast was actively deceiving customers with undisclosed modem fees.

Judge Armstrong wrote that Diacakis should have come to court with evidence beyond the spoken promises of a handful of Comcast salespeople the plaintiff identified only by their first names. She was swayed by Comcast’s arguments:

As Comcast correctly points out, the only evidence offered by Plaintiff regarding Comcast’s alleged practices consists of his limited personal experience in speaking with “Heather,” “Steve” and another unidentified Comcast representative in August 2010. There is no evidence that Comcast has employed any policy, custom or practice of intentionally failing to inform potential Triple Play subscribers that they will be subject to separate modem fees. To the contrary, the record presented thus far shows that Comcast trains and instructs its employees to inform customers and potential customers about all applicable charges, including those for leased equipment.

[…] As noted, he has made no showing that the representations or omissions during those calls were made pursuant to a standardized script or marketing practice. Indeed, there is no evidence that anyone other than Plaintiff was allegedly misinformed about the modem fees.

Armstrong also faulted Diacakis for not independently locating, scrutinizing, and verifying Comcast’s print or television advertising before he filed a lawsuit seeking to represent every customer paying them:

Comcast argues that Plaintiff is not an adequate representative because there is no evidence that he or anyone else was misled by its marketing and advertisements for the Triple Play package. Plaintiff does not dispute that he lacks such evidence. In addition, Plaintiff admitted during his deposition that he did not review any advertisements before contacting Comcast in August 2010 about bundling his services. Since Plaintiff could not have been harmed by any allegedly misleading advertising, he cannot adequately represent a class member who claims to have been harmed by Comcast’s alleged marketing program.