Verizon workers can now be fired if they fix copper phone lines - Galt's Gulch

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Verizon workers can now be fired if they fix copper phone lines

Posted by nickursis 7 years, 6 months ago to Business

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I love it when a company loves you so much, they will only let you have the best...even if it hurts you.

SOURCE URL: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/10/verizon-workers-can-now-be-fired-if-they-fix-copper-phone-lines/

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Posted by mminnick 7 years, 6 months ago

Would verizon be liable if damages occur when the alarm can't get through or the medical alert cant be sent?
Just asking.

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  Posted by nickursis 7 years, 6 months ago
  
  Excellent question, which indicates their ethical lapse in pushing something for money that may not do what is needed. Not being a lawyer, I can't say, but I would think they could be. Their defense would be that they didn't make the customer change, so then the customer would have the burden of proving they did.
  
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Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 6 months ago

It seems weird, but maintaining wired plain old telephone service (POTS) is only viable if about half the population subscribes. It's falling below that and is no longer economically viable. Phone companies see any investment in it as a dead end.

POTS was set up as a monopoly and with these rules about five nines (99.999%) reliability for all subscribes, whether it's teenagers chatting or the police station. I've also heard horror stories from older non-partisan techies about the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union totally milking monopoly in the 80s.

The idea of a phone number associated with a physical place is almost gone and the idea of a phone number being associated with person or device is going away too. POTS is moribund.

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  Posted by nickursis 7 years, 6 months ago
  
  That is true, in that there is a wide varietry of devices that can do digital voice. Even cars can act as phones now, so I think we will see a move to voice as a service, and be device independent. The issue is that a lot of people do have landlines only, and while probaly a lot more costly to maintain, the government rips you off seven ways from Sunday on your bill for this surcharge and that. That money was to go to provide service in rural areas and offset the costs, just to keep it up. Wonder what they are looting it for.
  
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