Verizon Quietly Stops Doing Broadband Installs, Repairs During COVID-19
from the damned-if-you-do... dept
So far the broadband industry has done a notably good job keeping their networks running during the COVID-19 quarantine. That said, some ISPs have been monumentally terrible when it comes to protecting the safety of their employees and the communities they serve.
Charter Spectrum, for example, spent precious weeks refusing to let non-essential employees work at home, even in cases where positive tests had been discovered at the company’s offices. And instead of giving its field technicians the necessary safety gear and hazard pay, Charter execs somehow decided it would be a good idea to give these frightened employees $25 gift certificates to closed restaurants.
Other companies like Comcast have handled the problem far better, providing hazard pay and work-at-home opportunities where possible. As has Verizon, which this week took things one step further by quietly ceasing most new broadband installs and repairs. Users who had tech visits scheduled say they’ve been cancelled as the company reins in operations:
So I literally purchase internet yesterday. The technician is scheduled to come tomorrow, I wake up today with a message that they can?t come out anymore. So I?m fooled into signing up and then don?t get my internet that I need for school. Great Verizon, can?t wait to cancel!
— Brian Fuentes (@Romafankid) April 6, 2020
On the one hand, this is terrible for folks whose access to an essential utility has been disrupted during the pandemic. The broadband industry has long fought tooth and nail against broadband being classified as a utility in a bid to eliminate regulations and avoid price controls. That broadband is an essential utility and there’s very real dangers in monopolizing it is a conversation big ISPs (and their countless policy and think tank advocates) don’t really want to have.
At the same time, it’s hard to fault Verizon for being cautious about its employees’ lives. I’ve spent countless hours talking with field techs who already often risk their health stumbling through hoarding situations and other risks, and that’s during more normal times. Given the 6′ CDC distancing requirements may be a bit of a joke (some data suggests 20 feet outdoors and 27 feet indoors), it’s hard to fault anybody (especially in NYC right now) not eager to spend an hour in confined spaces with a stranger.
That said, based on this Verge report, it’s pretty clear Verizon could do a better job making its policies clearer. You apparently can still sometimes get a self-install, and sometimes get “future appointment priority? if you reschedule a tech visit, but who qualifies for what and how long you’ll wait to get your broadband line installed or repaired isn’t entirely clear. That said, it’s an historic situation with no obvious path forward and no easy answers, especially for employees not keen on putting their lives at risk so the local telecom monopoly can make a buck.
Filed Under: covid-19, health, installs, self-installs, technicians
Companies: verizon
Comments on “Verizon Quietly Stops Doing Broadband Installs, Repairs During COVID-19”
"On the one hand, this is terrible for folks whose access to an essential utility has been disrupted during the pandemic… At the same time, it’s hard to fault Verizon for being cautious about its employees’ lives."
While both true, there aren’t a great deal of broadband issues that absolutely require contact with other people, many can be fixed outside the end home. Also, if supermarket employees are expected to turn up for work because they’re essential, I’d argue that people dealing with the only contact method some people have with their family within their home should be as well.
On the flipside, I know for a fact that at least one company has been doing new installs near where I am.
Here in AZ, Cox stopped doing repairs inside customer premises a couple of weeks ago. At that time they would repair connections to the exterior of a house, but were not allowed to go inside. Not sure if that policy has changed much in the last week or so, but IMO it was a reasonable policy at the time.
ANY FUCKING EXCUSE!
Dear Brian,
Please stop being an entitled idiot. Why is your installation more important than the health or our staff and everyone they come into contact with? We are operating at a time of a global pandemic and situations change on a day-to-day basis.
You need it for school? Well, a lack of forward planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on ours. Did you miss the news for the last 2 months?
Love and hugs,
verizon xx
p.s.Boomshanka (only Brits of a certain age will get this bit)
Re: Re:
Well, that’s a damn disingenuous framing of the situation, isn’t it?
How about the entitled corporation doesn’t sell service and schedule installs when the situation is hardly fresh, only to cancel it the next day? Verizon knows very well what they are doing. Forward planning, my ass.
Only time will tell
This may be overly pessimistic, or maybe not, and we may have to wait a month or more, but it will be interesting to see if Verizon charges their regular monthly fees for postponed new installations, or postponed repairs where service was interrupted. The orders were placed, after all.
We are continuing to do installs and trouble, but only to the outside of the home. We’ve been handing wires to customers through windows, doors, or anything to get service established, knowing we’ll have to go back to get it corrected.
Safe employees is job 1.
Signed, rural ISP
Tech Visits
I work in Network Operations for a Telcom in California. Out technicians are still doing repairs and installs for businesses as normal. For residential services, the techs are only doing outside work. Anything that the tech would need to go inside for is either left for the customer to install or needs to wait until after this ends.
Bode lies! Drink! Driiiiiiink!
Eh, no big deal
Barely worth noticing. AT&T stopped doing repairs and installs around here many years ago — my neighborhood copper is vintage 1959. Calls about wires down and lying across the road get routed to the Philippines or India, get put on hold for an hour, and then are ignored. No kidding, in my neighborhood there are wires down from a falling tree in December.
info
Thanks for sharing this wonderful information.
sue the bastards
being required to stay home, teach kids from home, communicate over the net, etc made internet a critical industry. by stopping, they are breaking the spirit, if not the intent, of the lockdowns. get em back to work, or take em over.