Verizon
District A-7 reports that when Verizon workers asked some jamoke what the hell he was doing in one of their bucket trucks at Crestway Road and Waldemar Avenue in East Boston Wednesday morning, he claimed he was doing work for Comcast. After they chased him off, the workers discovered he had stolen roughly $55,000 worth of copper cable.
He's described as white, about 35 and unshaven.
You really have to read the instructions a customer-service rep sent Jessica Lipnack for getting into her small-business account via the Verizon Web site.
So Verizon removed the telephone-history mural in its old Post Office Square building because the new owner is not a big fan of the working classes, or something. Jay Fitzgerald is outraged at the thought it might be sold to somebody in Rhode Island:
... It's a striking mural in the old WPA style. It depicts a major innovation developed in Boston. It should remain in Boston. ...
The Outraged Liberal details his problems with Verizon getting his busted landline fixed:
It's now been about 24 hours since Verizon called my out-of-service landline to tell me the problem we reported had been fixed the previous afternoon.
Of course, I only found out by calling my voice mail, since the phone didn't ring because the line was still dead. And there was a Verizon tech, the third in three days, in my basement trying to solve the problem two of his colleagues had failed to fix.
Even though they reported that they had. ...
Verizon reports subscribers to its RedZone football channel on FiOS can now get on-screen alerts whenever a particular team is within its opponent's 20-yard line - so they can continue to watch Lifetime movies or All About Jim reruns without worrying about missing some scoring action.
Of course, residents of New England's largest city can't rush to take advantage of this, since FiOS isn't offered here.
The Globe reports Verizon Wireless could start offering "4G" high-speed wireless Internet service in Boston by year end. Still no date for when it will start offering "FiOS" wired Internet service in Boston.
Of course, even if he wanted to, he couldn't, since he obviously doesn't live in Boston.
The other day, the Globe explained why Bostonians get to see roughly 72,000 commercials a day in which FiOS Guy triumphs over Cable Oaf even though they can't sign up for it. Verizon says it'll get around to wiring up New England's largest city one of these days and that dense cities are simply harder to wire than spread-out suburbs, but Tom Menino says it's a personal vendetta against him because he wants the company to pay taxes on its wires along public ways.
Ars Technica reports Boston isn't alone: New York and Washington have been slow to get FiOS as well.
There's a hearing this morning at the State House on a bill that would make it a lot easier for Verizon to get licenses in individual communities to build out its FiOS TV systems. Cambridge Community Television explains why it opposes the measure.
Fabulously Out There chronicles her bang-head-on-wall adventures in trying to get a working modem from Verizon:
... The dude in India puts me on hold just to come back to say "Ma'am, we don't have any record that this is a Verizon modem you have. Therefore, we can offer you to buy a new modem."
At which point, dear Verizon, my HEAD exploded. I asked him to put me through to Sales, because, CLEARLY, this is a Verizon modem. VERIZON is written on it, the VERIZON man BROUGHT it to my house when he fixed the phone line.....the customer service lady transferred me to the "appropriate office" which, OF COURSE, is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. ...
Amy had been a loyal Verizon phone and DSL customer - until she made the mistake of trying to upgrade her service.
Pahkcah02 details the story behind her assertion that, when it comes to high-speed broadband:
Comcast may be slow, dull, and expensive compared to Verizon, but at least they have never flat out lied to me in order to make up for incompetence. Buyer beware to anyone considering the switch.
Eight months ago, I wrote about how Verizon was purposefully avoiding Boston. Nothing has changed since, except a growing list of backwater mid-state towns getting FiOS ahead of Boston, at the rate of several per month. Interestingly enough, the page which I linked to with the Mayoral Mumblings has been replaced; I guess Verizon didn't like all the bad PR when major internet blogs picked up on the Metro's story.
Attention Verizon, Deval, and Menino: can you boys get together and figure out what it's going to take for Boston to get FiOS, aka, more than once choice in internet provider?(I don't count Verizon's 1.5Mbit/128kbit joke of a DSL offering.) If Millbury, pop 12,800 gets FiOS, why can't Boston?
Come on. You've had three years to deploy services in Boston, and clearly "urban areas" aren't a problem, given that you wired up Brooklyn a year and a half ago. Clearly franchises aren't a problem, given that you secured the regulatory approvals to wire ALL of New York City back in July.
What's it going to take, Verizon? Why do you hate Boston, the technology hub of the east coast? You're not supposed to cherry-pick, being a common carrier and all.
John Keith reports the phone company expects to finalize the sale of 185 Franklin St. in Post Office Square to Kennedy Associates/Commonwealth Ventures by the end of the month.
Communications Workers of America say enough progress has been made in contract talks to keep working, Rand Wilson reports.
Greg MacKay photographed Verizon workers in Post Office Square as they got ready for a rally this evening in front of Verizon's New England headquarters. At issue: Their contract, which expires this weekend.
Continuing the trend for ISPs to offer less service for more money, Verizon announced on their website that they're no longer going to be carrying Usenet groups beyond the "Big Eight" hierarchies. They didn't really explain why.
Apparently they're using Little CuCuomo's attempt to fight kiddie porn to justify their reduction of services. They're dropping the entire "alt" hierarchy and others such as the regional "ne" one. This represents something like 90% of Usenet. Couldn't they just filter the offending newsgroups?
I'm still on the fence about whether it was a good idea to drop Comcast and go to FiOS. Comcast had Usenet retention of several months. Verizon only gave you a week or so. With FiOS it takes over a minute to reconnect when my machine comes out of Hibernate mode; with Comcast it was instant. Comcast offers free McAfee protection; Verizon offers you a teaser trial download for a $5 monthy charge.
Boston Police report that on recent weekends, somebody's been breaking into the Verizon lot at 173 Boston St. in South Boston and stealing copper wiring.
Also click on the link to read about a teen beaten with a baseball bat by a group of other teens at the Burger King at W. Broadway and D Street Tuesday night.
Fabulously Out There decided to switch from Verizon to Comcast for broadband when the Verizon phone rep offered to send out a technician to diagnose her broken broadband "between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m." She reports her experience with Comcast hasn't been much better.
Yeah, it's a cool Art Deco light on the side of the old New England Telephone and Telegraph (now Verizon) building in Post Office Square, but so?
Well, if you stand on the sidewalk right outside the building and take pictures of it, security guards in black suits might come out and tell you you can't take photos of the building.
Take this, Verizon.
Oh, and here's another one:
The East Boston councilor wants to do something about the tons and tons of phone books that land with a thud in lobbies and on front steps: Ban unsolicited commercial deliveries weighing more than a pound. Hear that, Yellow Book and Verizon?
The kidlet struggles to keep holding up the telephone pole at Beech and June streets in Roslindale that the repair crew swore they'd be right back to remove.
Thanks to the cheap bastards who run our local phone and power monopolies, Roslindale and other neighborhoods are being overrun by "double poles." Rather than replace old utility poles, which would take actual work, Verizon and NStar just bolt or wire new poles to the old ones - sometimes in bizarre configurations in which parts of the old ones are cut away, leaving these weird stumpy things.
In 2004, Verizon actually agreed to a plan to ensure that by mid-2007, there would be no double poles older than 90 days anywhere in the entire state.
They lied.
At first, it was easy to hold up the old pole:
Earlier:
Optimistic homeowner thinks Verizon will transfer wires to new pole.
The triple poles of Dedham.
Yesterday's installment of Metro Moments with the Mayor has two juicy gems. First, Mumbles tackles Verizon FiOS, or more appropriately, The Internet Service You Can't Get in The Technology Center of The East Coast. Second: he wants $50-100k red light cameras. Ahh, Massachusetts, where the answer to everything is civil fines. Read more
Verizon yesterday followed up Yellow Book by carpet-bombing Jason's block with phone books:
... I will give Verizon credit for good timing. Curbside recycling goes out on Tuesday nights. ...
Verizon to spend $200M to expand networks:
... Cupelo said the company has experimented with FiOS deployments in parts of Dorchester, but it does not have any immediate plans to bring it to all of Boston. ...
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