Verizon leaves NY seniors without service

Verizon left senior citizens in Queens, New York without service or options. According to a News 7report, hundreds of seniors complained that Verizon left them without phone service since early February.

“We were promised that the phone would be fixed by March 3rd, and it wasn’t,” said Kitty Thornton, a Queens resident.

When asked by News 7 what he feared about lacking a landline connection, Martin Towey, who has Parkinson’s disease and lives alone, responded: “That I’m on the floor and can’t get up, I can’t call a doctor. It’s ridiculous.”

“They don’t care whether we live or die,” one 96-year-old Queens resident said of Verizon.

"This is a matter of life and death," said Queens councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D). For customers that rely on landline phone service for health services and basic safety, a service disruption can be dangerous and weeks of delay restoring that service is unacceptable.

Service outages were caused by a copper cable that Verizon needed to replace.

The Communications Workers of America documented Verizon’s systemic copper network neglect in New York and elsewhere. Mayors and members of the public from across the state spoke at New York Public Service Commission hearings, explaining that Verizon is abandoning its traditional landline network while refusing to build FiOS in their cities. And New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman singled out Verizon when hecalled for formal proceedings “to fully understand the impact of deregulation on consumers and businesses.”

Verizon has neglected its copper network and abandoned its responsibility to provide quality service to consumers. AG Schneiderman is right – there should be a public, on-the-record proceeding in New York to hear these customers’ stories and hold Verizon accountable.

Seniors Vent Against Verizon After Phone Service Outage (ABC News 7, Mar. 9, 2016)

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

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