NY mayors join CWA at bargaining table, tell Verizon stop stalling on FiOS

A group of New York mayors joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in contract negotiations with Verizon, calling on Verizon to expand FiOS to their cities. The mayors of Syracuse and Kingston joined CWA at the bargaining table in Rye, NY, while mayors from Albany, Utica, Rome and the Town Supervisor of Brookhaven sent letters of support, urging Verizon to stop ignoring their communities’ need for high-speed internet and video service.

AsFierce Telecom reports:

CWA and the mayors claim that the telco is refusing to build its FiOS network in lower-income areas, leaving hundreds of thousands of the state's residents with no other choice for service besides their local cable monopoly, while not performing necessary maintenance on its existing copper network.

In New York, a recent audit by the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications found Verizon has failed to meet its franchise commitment to build FiOS throughout the city by June 2014. According to the report “there are more than 40,000 requests for service pending, about 75% of which have remained outstanding for 12 months or longer.”

CWA is also rolling out radio ads criticizing Verizon for not building FiOS throughout its northeastern footprint. Bob Master, legislative and political director of CWA District One,explains how Verizon’s failure to deliver promised services, even as the company achieves billions in profits, negatively affects Verizon workers and lower-income communities:

Verizon isn’t doing right by their customers or their workers. The company made $9.6 billion in profits in 2014, and reported $4.4 billion in profits just in the 2015 second quarter alone, yet refuses to build its high-speed FiOS network in numerous areas across Verizon’s footprint, especially in lower-income cities like Baltimore, Buffalo and Bethlehem, Pa.

Verizon breaks promise to deliver FiOS to NYC (Speed Matters, June 19, 2015)

CWA: Verizon neglects copper lines (Speed Matters June 11, 2015)

You Can’t Trust Verizon Radio Ad (CWA, July 2015)