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Verizon has asked federal regulators for permission to end traditional copper landline phone service in parts of West Virginia and nine other jurisdictions, as early as November 30.
The company filed its application September 9 with the Federal Communications Commission. It covers home and business phone lines carried over copper wire in parts of nine states and the District of Columbia.
In West Virginia, the request is made in the names of two Verizon companies: Frontier West Virginia Inc. and Citizens Telecommunications Company of West Virginia, which does business as Frontier Communications of West Virginia.
The Public Service Commission of West Virginia said in an October 7 news release that it is filing comments with the FCC “to ensure that customers using traditional copper landlines telephone services in the state will not be adversely affected.”
Service would not end everywhere copper lines run. Verizon is asking to drop it only at locations where a customer can get a replacement: Verizon’s own mobile wireless, fiber or fixed wireless home phone service, or fiber, cable or mobile wireless phone service from one of 10 other companies, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Comcast and Charter.
For West Virginia, the filing lists Armstrong, Breezeline, Optimum and Shentel among the cable and fiber companies that offer internet-based phone service in parts of the affected area.
The application does not name the West Virginia counties, towns or telephone exchanges where service would end, and it gives no count of West Virginia customers who still have a copper line. A map filed with it shows Frontier’s service areas covering most of the state, without marking which locations qualify.
Across all 10 jurisdictions, Verizon said, its network could provide the service to more than 28 million locations, and about 750,000 homes and businesses, or 2.7%, still subscribe.
“Copper infrastructure is too slow to meet modern needs, many decades old, costly to maintain, and vulnerable to damage and theft,” the company wrote.
Verizon told the FCC it mailed notices September 8 to customers in the affected areas. A sample Frontier letter included in the filing tells customers it “is informational only, and requires no customer action at this time.”
“If your service will be discontinued, you will receive advance notice by letter with your specific disconnection date,” the letter states.
In a second release October 14, the PSC said the letters do not mean customers’ phone service is about to be disconnected. “This is an initial step in the federal process,” PSC Chairman Charlotte R. Lane said. “Customers do not need to take any action as a result of receiving this notice, and their existing service will continue.”
Verizon told commission staff that customers who were told the company would no longer repair copper lines because of the FCC filing had been given incorrect information, according to the release. The company said it will keep servicing and repairing copper lines under PSC rules for as long as those rules apply. Customers who cannot resolve a landline problem with Frontier may contact the PSC for help, the commission said.
Customers whose service ends will have “at least one fiber, cable, or mobile wireless voice option available,” according to the letter. It says the options will include service that keeps the customer’s current phone number and supports “essential services like 911, many legacy alarm systems, faxes, and many medical devices.”
The letter sends customers with questions to frontier.com/copper and to the FCC’s national broadband map to see what is offered at their address. Frontier’s fiber services are not affected, it says.
Pages attached to the letter caution that the replacements depend on electricity or batteries. Phone service delivered over fiber or cable “does not supply power through the phone line,” the notice states. “If the device has no electrical power or battery power, it will not function, including for 911 emergency calls.”
The equipment for home phone service over the wireless network and for Frontier’s fiber-based phone service includes battery backup that lasts up to 24 hours in an outage under typical conditions, according to the notice.
Verizon told the FCC its comparable copper service costs $20 to $30 a month before taxes and fees. Its fixed wireless replacement is available for as little as $20 a month and a postpaid mobile plan for $30, the filing says. Phone service over Verizon fiber costs $30 a month on top of the price of fiber internet. Cable and fiber phone service from other providers runs $10 to $40 a month.
The PSC said that when it approved Verizon’s acquisition of Frontier last year, it directed Verizon to set aside $60 million in a special fund to serve copper landlines for West Virginia customers. The fund was established in March in the name of Verizon Financial Services LLC, according to the October 7 release.
The money may be spent to upgrade the copper network or, using other equipment, to provide adequate service to new and existing customers, the commission said. That service may be delivered over fiber, internet-based calling, cellular or any other technology, but “Verizon must agree that the service will continue to be treated and regulated as current POTS is treated and regulated,” the release states. POTS is the industry’s term for plain old telephone service.
The FCC invited comments on the application in a proceeding created September 14, WC Docket 26-252, which showed 100 filings as of October 8. The PSC said customers can file comments through the FCC’s electronic comment filing system under that docket number.
The notice mailed to customers says the FCC “will normally authorize this proposed discontinuance of service” unless it is shown that customers “would be unable to receive service or a reasonable substitute from another carrier or that the public convenience and necessity is otherwise adversely affected.”
Customers who object should file “as soon as possible, but no later than 15 days after the Commission releases public notice of the proposed discontinuance,” the notice states, and should describe how losing the service would affect them, including any inability to get a substitute.
As of October 15, the FCC’s list of public notices on discontinuance applications did not include one for this application. The docket was already accepting comments.
Verizon said in the application that it will satisfy any additional state requirements before it ends service. The PSC’s records on the matter are on its website, psc.state.wv.us, under Case No. 24-0853-T-PC.
