I’ve heard about the idea of regular cell phones making calls via Wireless-Internet(WiFi) signals for many years, but this is the first mainstream product I’ve seen that actually does it. This thing is neat, check out the video!
This has allowed Verizon to sell off their copper plant in New England, leaving thousands of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) members facing the possibility of the termination of collective bargaining when their contract runs out.
What’s more, the fiber system is projected to need only a fraction of the maintenance of the existing copper wiring.
Better performance and lower labor costs… that sounds horrible.
Other union threats include adjusting the health care plan, which Verizon pays 100 percent of, freezing pension plans, and a new “acclerated discipline plan” against no-show workers “which led to firings in the first year it was in place.”
Meanwhile, Verizon’s unionized work force “has plummeted to 30 percent[.]” All-the-while Verizon Business Workers (the non-unionized ones) don’t even perceive themselves as “scabs.” Unions are desperately turning recruiting over to their legal department. “Union lawyers are preparing for hearings this summer to decide if the 30,000 former MCI employees should automatically be part of the bargaining unit by virtue of the type of work that they do, as they fit in existing job categories and do identical work.” Union assimilation by job description… it’s an interesting concept.
Without any substantiation, the article accuses Verizon public relations of a “throw-shit-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks-approach.”
Finally, aside from the combat analogies, the Socialist Worker finds Verizon guilty of refusing to honor the “card check” scheme(I had to google this one…), monitoring employees out on disability, and firing those that abuse the system.
These complaints can only mean one thing, Verizon is trying to run a business.
These cell phone signal boosters, “femtocells,” designed for home use are one more reason to ditch your landline. The Associate Press explains:
Not only do femtocells improve coverage indoors, where the carrier has a hard time reaching, they reduce traffic on regular, outdoor cellular towers. Perhaps best of all, the carrier doesn’t have to pay to carry the traffic from the femtocell to its network, because the device plugs into a home broadband connection. The so-called “backhaul” traffic, which carries calls from a cellular tower to the wired network, is a major part of the cost of operating a wireless network.
While these gadgets threaten already suffering landline business of Verizon and AT&T, market forces may force them to embrace it anyway. Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin comments, “‘They’re afraid that by deploying these femtocells, at least where they have a landline footprint, they might be putting their landline business at risk’… But that business is at risk anyway – a lack of femtocells may make cellular subscribers keep their landlines for another year or so, but not for long[.]”
Right now Sprint has a competitive lead, already offering them for $49.99 plus $15 a month for unlimited home calling.
While neglecting landline maintenance isn’t ideal, I can understand why. DSL is slow, and landlines are secondary to cell phones; and an expensive alternative at that.
Business wise, those old copper wires are going nowhere…
