Consumer, civil rights, labor organizations urge FCC to protect customers in IP Transition

Twenty-nine consumer organizations signed a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler urging the Commission to establish clear rules to protect customers as communications companies phase out their traditional copper wire service. The letter cites “de facto” line retirement, where companies like Verizon stop maintaining lines. The copper lines don’t work properly, the company doesn’t fix them, and the consumer is left with complaints, a bill, and no service.

The letter notes that a combination of state deregulation, increasingly strong hurricanes, and “growing provider abandonment of copper lines have increasingly left consumers without the means to maintain even basic communications with 9-1-1 and other health and safety services in times of crisis.”

“Only by adopting rules that provide consumers with clear, enforceable rights,” the letter argues, “can the Commission adequately protect the American people’s access to critical communications services.”

Consumer organizations’ letter to the FCC (FCC, June 25, 2015)