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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday June 07 2017, @10:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the that-seems-blatantly-unsafe dept.

Verizon and a union representing its workers have reached a settlement requiring the company to fix thousands of problems in areas of Pennsylvania where it hasn't upgraded its copper network to fiber.

The settlement of the union's complaint "will require the company to repair and replace bad cable, defective equipment, faulty back-up batteries, and to take down 15,000 double telephone poles," the Communications Workers of America (CWA) said Friday.

Double poles occur when "Verizon has failed to move its equipment from an old pole that was replaced with a new one by another utility (e.g., the electric company)," the CWA said. "In many cases, these are dangerous conditions—poles are falling, leaning, rotting, partially cut off, etc."

How many double poles are in the state is not clear. The settlement requires Verizon to fix "at least" 15,000 within three years. There are also "dangling pieces of old poles" resulting from Verizon doing "everything it can to avoid the expense of moving its facilities to a new pole," as shown in the pictures above and detailed in the union's complaint against Verizon.

"When VZPA does nothing, and the electric utility must remove the pole from the base, it may leave the portion of the old pole containing VZPA facilities just dangling over the right of way, tied to the new pole by a single cable or a make-shift wooden support," the union complaint said.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/verizon-grudgingly-agrees-to-fix-thousands-of-copper-network-problems/

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday June 07 2017, @02:41PM (1 child)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @02:41PM (#521920) Journal

    We have the same problem in NYC: http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2017/10/all-utility-pole-legislation-2017-03-03-bk.html [brooklyndaily.com]

    Plenty in my neighborhood and there is one right on my block cut at the base and tied to the new pole with rope. That pole supports the secondary lines (line voltage your home uses, e.g 120/240V), cable and phone lines. They only appear to be focusing on upgrading the primary distribution (medium voltage lines) with all new wire and hardware, smart reclosers/disconnects, transformers, and monitoring equipment. Everything else is chopped liver.

    People want it all buried but good luck getting them to spend the money to bury thousands of miles of wire and equipment while also getting the cable and telcos to follow suit.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @03:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @03:07PM (#521945)

    Sorry, should have mentioned that I'm in Western NY State. NY City is often very different than the rest of the state, on many different fronts.