CWA Releases Radio Ads Slamming Verizon For Failing to Deliver FiOS

CWA has released a series of seven radio ads slamming Verizon’s failure to build out universal FiOS broadband across the East Coast.  The 30-second ads began running Wednesday across NYC, New Jersey, Upstate New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

The ads come on the heels of an announcement that 86% of Verizon workers voted to authorize a strike if necessary after their contract expires on 12 midnight on Saturday, August 1.

“Verizon isn’t doing right by their customers or their workers. The company made $9.6 billion in profits in 2014, and reported $4.4 billion in profits just in the 2015 second quarter alone, yet refuses to build its high-speed FiOS network in numerous areas across Verizon’s footprint, especially in lower-income cities like Baltimore, Buffalo and Bethlehem, PA. .  At the bargaining table management has refused to budge off  harsh contract demands that unfairly penalize the hard-working men and women who make Verizon work,” said Bob Master, Legislative and Political Director for CWA District One. “We reject these demands and we’re fighting to ensure that Verizon’s workers and customers get the good jobs and good service they deserve.”
 
A damning audit of Verizon’s FiOS rollout in New York City found that Verizon has failed to meet its promise to deliver high-speed fiber optic internet and television to everyone in the city who wanted it.  During its negotiations for a city franchise, Verizon promised that the entire city would be wired with fiber optic cables by June 2014 and that after that date, everyone who wanted FiOS would get it within six months to a year.  The audit found that despite claiming that it had wired the whole city by November 2014, Verizon systematically continues to refuse orders for service.  The audit also found that Verizon stonewalled the audit process.  

And recently, a PSC Staff Report on Telecommunications in NYS found: “Aging copper plant is an issue in both urban areas of New York, where Verizon’s fiber technology may run parallel to copper, as well as in rural areas, where fiber deployment is less prevalent. In many areas of New York City, the legacy copper infrastructure is in such poor condition that copper failures due to weather conditions can cause long delays for service restoration and Commission service quality standards are missed.”

Listen to the ads here.