By Bill Sanderson
A large portion of the Rockaways will be the first neighborhood
in the city to lose the copper-wire phone system that has served
New York since the late 1800s, according to documents filed with
the federal government.
The copper wire system--the legacy of Alexander Graham Bell, who
invented the telephone and in 1876 became a founder of the Bell
Telephone Company--will be replaced with fiber-optic cables, said
officials at Verizon, Bell's local corporate successor.
Verizon has been replacing the copper lines for 15,000
households in the western portion of the Rockaway peninsula--which
includes the Belle Harbor neighborhood--after superstorm Sandy
washed out most of the system.
Only about 40 homes remain on the copper lines, a Verizon
spokesman said. In filings with the Federal Communications
Commission in May, Verizon said that area's copper wire service
will be shut down by Nov. 1.
The company has converted landline service for some city
buildings and streets to fiber, especially in Manhattan's Financial
District, which was also ravaged by Sandy. But the Rockaways'
western end will be the first in the area to fully lose the
system.
Verizon said fiber-optic cable is more reliable than copper,
won't corrode in the oceanside neighborhood's salt air and will
better withstand future storms. "It's pretty tried and true," a
company official said.
Telephone technology evolved in the decades after Mr. Bell
summoned his assistant, Thomas Watson, over the first phone line.
Today, much communication nationwide runs on fiber-optic cable or
over wireless systems. But even as those technologies evolved, the
land-line system run by Verizon and its corporate predecessors in
the Rockaways and other city neighborhoods were still based on Mr.
Bell's copper connections.
Today the copper system is a money loser. Verizon said in state
regulatory filings that it lost $1.5 billion operating phone
service in the state in 2012.
Fiber forms the backbone of systems run by cable companies in
the area. One of those companies, Time Warner, still uses some
copper cables to link individual customers to its fiber optic
system.
The Public Service Commission, a state regulator, said it would
watch to make sure Verizon's customers aren't hurt by the
changeover. Verizon is obliged to maintain its service and prices
in the area, the commission said.
New Networks, a consumer advocacy group, says Verizon hasn't
provided city, state and federal government agencies enough
information about how the switch to fiber would affect services
such as burglar alarms and medical alert devices that are hooked
into the copper system.
But a Verizon spokesman said the switch will have no impact on
such devices, and that its Rockaways customers shouldn't have
noticed the changeover to fiber. The spokesman said that where it
offers a choice between fiber service and traditional copper, seven
out of eight customers prefer fiber.
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