MD Office of People’s Counsel urges PSC to investigate Verizon service

The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel (OPC), an independent representative of the state’s utility consumers, is requesting an investigation into Verizon’s local phone service. In a petition to the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC), the OPC highlighted significant customer complaints from across the state and requested an investigation into:

1) Verizon’s copper voice service quality in fiber and non-fiber areas of the state;

2) how Verizon is transitioning customers from its copper to fiber network

3) Verizon's aggressive upselling of and/or unauthorized migration from regulated copper to unregulated fiber voice service.

An analysis of 1,200 customer complaints from 2011 through the present shows a pattern of neglect, including de facto copper retirement and failure to fix its copper network. The analyst concluded that “there is a pattern to the complaints warranting regulatory oversight,” and strongly recommend that the PSC conduct an evidentiary proceeding to get a more complete understanding of Verizon’s practices and to develop remedies to protect consumers.

The OPC Petition comes on the heels of Communications Workers of America’s requests to the MD PSC for an investigation into Verizon’s systemic neglect of its infrastructure that lead to inadequate service quality and dangerous conditions in the state.

Links:

MD OPC Petition for an Investigation into Verizon Maryland’s Basic Local Phone Service (MD OPC, Jan. 13, 2017)

CWA Petitions Maryland Public Service Commission to Investigate Verizon Service Quality (CWA, Nov. 13, 2015)