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.