More Egregious Action by Verizon: You want DSL - No! You must buy FiOS
May 13th, 2009 by Gordon Cook
David Lesher writes on Cybertelecom
Ge this one, folks. I have been told by Verizonal that they will NOT
provide DSL on a DSL-qualified assignment.
Why? Because I could instead get FIOS at twice the cost.
Fred Goldstein replies:
Alas, that is entirely legal nowadays. DSL is unregulated, not common carriage, so taking orders is strictly voluntary.
Of course when the FCC cravenly adopted those rules in 2005, they explained that the ILECs would never turn away business, wholesale or retail, so there was no need to require anything of them.
I suggest that you write this up to the FCC, both as an Ex Parte comment in docket (WC) 02-33, and as a Comment in the open National Broadband Plan docket (GN) 09-51. This is further proof that their deregulation is not working.
And you can still, I think, file a complaint for violating a non-rule. If the FCC could come down on Comcast for doing nothing wrong and violating no rule while selling an unregulated product, they certainly could come down on Verizon for not violating a rule while doing something they suggested in the past that they wouldn’t do when getting a service deregulated. Until the rule of law is firmly re-established in this country, such non-rule proceedings may be more practical anyway.
Separately Bruce Kushnick in his 25th Anniversary of Dereg Report adds:
• Tax Payments in 2008 — Verizon only paid 3% of the total revenue on
income taxes, while AT&T only 5%.