The complaints about Verizon Communications’ failure to deliver on promises to build out its FiOS networks continue to grow; this time Pittsburgh is calling foul.
The city is making similar claims to those made by New York City back in June. Both cities accuse the U.S.’ No. 1 carrier of abandoning landline customers in favor of expanding its wireless infrastructure.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto joined with 14 other mayors to write a letter to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam asking him to deliver on his company’s promise to provide landline service to residents in their cities.
“Our cities lie within the core footprint of Verizon Communications and have long valued the quality jobs and fiber upgrades that Verizon promised to bring to our communities. … But consistently and increasingly, our consumers have complained that FiOS service is not available to them. These are not isolated complaints – there are millions of residents in communities throughout the Northeast who have been left without service, and with no plan or promise for future resolution,” the letter said.
Peduto is even considering legal action. “We have an agreement with Verizon that, over the course of several years, the entire city would be provided with FiOS, and it was the agreement that allowed them to start putting their lines in the public right of way. They have now broken that agreement,” he said. “They do not have the city finished, so now we need to seek the damages that were agreed to through the contract. At this point, I’d have to talk with our law department.”
For its part, Verizon said it has lived up to the terms of the agreement as language in many of the deals, such as the one with New York City, allows for them to “pass” many homes.
Verizon said it will be meeting with the city of Pittsburgh “in the near future to explain its accomplishments.”
New York City went as far as to conduct an audit of Verizon Communications’ work. The audit found Verizon was “not in compliance with its agreement since it has not truly ‘passed’ all residential households in New York City.” The report goes on to explain, “Verizon’s working definition of ‘passing’ a household with fiber optic cable is inconsistent with industry practice and is inconsistent with Section 5.4 of the franchise agreement.”
Verizon said it has indeed fulfilled its end of the agreement: “Our $3.5 billion investment and the 15,000 miles of fiber we have built have given New Yorkers added choices and a robust set of advanced, reliable and resilient services.”
This gets even more complicated when you take into account the ongoing negotiations Verizon Communications has been having with labor unions representing those who make their living building out the FiOS infrastructure. They have accused Verizon of being less than honest as well.
They recently released this commercial blasting Verizon for not delivering on its FiOS promises.
The unions threatened to strike after negotiations failed in June, but never delivered on the threat. The negotiations are still ongoing.
