The New York Times reports on Verizon's broken promises

TheNew York Timesreported on the consequences of Verizon’s failure to keep its 2008 promise to bring FiOS service to all of New York City by 2014. Not only did the story report the company’s broken promise, it questioned whether Verizon has chosen to bypass less affluent neighborhoods.

From the article:

When New York City was preparing to let Verizon offer its high-speed FiOS Internet service in 2008, a city councilwoman, Gale A. Brewer, warned that “New Yorkers need to know whether they are going to wait three years or six years.”

For many frustrated residents, like Stephanie Brooks, it has already been seven years and there is still no FiOS in sight. Ms. Brooks, who owns a brownstone in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, says she doubts that she and her neighbors will ever have the kind of speedy Internet options available in other parts of the city.

“Why aren’t we getting the opportunity to get service and have a choice?” said Ms. Brooks, who pointed to more affluent neighborhoods that Verizon wired years ago. “They built around us.”

The Times’ reporting comes as political and community pressures build against Verizon’s inadequate service. A recentaudit by New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Communications described Verizon’s NYC FiOS rollout as “a litany of corporate incompetence.” Mayors and elected officials from across New York Statespoke out for their communities against Verizon’s failure to building FiOS in their cities while at the same time neglecting its traditional landline network. And Attorney General Eric Schneidermancalled for an investigation of Verizon’s inadequate copper network maintenance and the impact of deregulation on consumers and businesses.

Links:

As Service Gaps Remain, City Says Verizon Broke Promise on FiOS (New York Times, Aug. 26, 2015)

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

NYC’s Verizon audit: “a litany of corporate incompetence” (Speed Matters, July 25, 2015)

Elected officials, communities blast Verizon for failing FiOS buildout (Speed Matters, Aug. 17, 2015)

New York Attorney General, consumer groups call for investigation of Verizon, NY telecom industry (Speed Matters, Aug. 21, 2015)