The wind does not seem to be blowing in favor of Verizon Wireless. The company is already facing strong competition from its rivals in the field of wireless residential phone service, and it’s not turning out to be easy for the company to seek enough room for new growth in said stream. Now the company seems to be in legal trouble with landline phone service users in South Jersey because of connectivity problems with the company’s cooper-line service.
Consumer Advocates Have Called on BPU:
Because of the reasons mentioned above, many consumers may convince the state to investigate the company’s residential phone service provided to the users in South Jersey. Considering the appearance of over 200 people in the court for a hearing conducted last month on the issue, consumer advocates are once again forced to call on state regulators with the objective of conducting in-depth investigation into the company’s landline phone service provided to consumers of more than a dozen municipalities falling in the region.
Similar kinds of letters had been written to the BPU (The Board of Public Utilities) in this regard. Therefore, SDRC (The State Division of Rate Counsel) and AARP renewed calls to help the agency investigate the way the telecommunication giant takes care of its residential phone service infrastructure in South Jersey.
Stefanie Brand, State Division Rate Counsel, declared the issues as persuasive and can’t be resolved through piecemeal attempts for the purpose of repairing individual copper service lines a case-by-case basis in her letter written to the BPU on 7th September 2016.
Her arguments were supported by AARP officials. They have repeated their call for a full-blown investigation into the quality of service provided in the region, first made in the year 2013.
The Dispute Has Been Going on for Several Years:
All of the landline phone service users hailing from 16 communities and Cumberland County have been experiencing this problem for a number of years. On problem suggests that services on the line contain static and are of very poor quality, especially during bad weather. Most importantly, students are not able to study or complete their homework because of the lack of superfast internet at home.
This does not seem to be the end of the problem. This issue of poor quality residential phone service has also drawn critical attention from state lawmakers.
This Is What the Company Has to Say in Reply:
The company does not provide its superfast connectivity services in the communities. However, the company claims to have invested over $100 billion in order to ameliorate its dial-up connectivity and residential home telephone services for the last two years. Most importantly, the company professionals have been working hard in order to solve specific issues identified by the customers at the hearing conducted during the month of August 2016 in tiny Estelle Manor. The company also claimed that they are working on developing additional initiatives for dealing successfully with the concerns of its valuable customers.
Now the company is hoping that there will not be any requirement of legal proceedings in this case. Since most of the issues are being taken care of by the company, the actions taken in this regard will confirm it.
Summary;
As for users, they don’t seem satisfied with the company’s residential phone services and its promises. They have approached professional legal consumer advocates who requested BPU to look into the matter. In addition to that, this problem has also been raised to SDRC and AARP officials. They have echoed the voice of users facing connectivity problems. On the other hand, the company does not seem to be getting on the back-foot at all. Instead, the company has clarified that they are looking into the problem deeply to improve the consumer experience with their services. In simple words, this legal battle between the users and the company seems to be getting bigger. As for the result, only time will tell.