The County of Cumberland has agreed to act as the lead
agency on behalf of 16 communities to pursue a petition before the Board of
Public Utilities (BPU) against Verizon New Jersey in an effort to compel
Verizon to continue to maintain copper landline facilities. Many of the
rural communities do not have fiberoptic service and Verizon is not intending
to provide that service throughout the State of New Jersey even though it
previously agreed to pursuant to a program known as Opportunity New Jersey. Now, they are intending to discontinue landline maintenance which means that
none of these communities would receive fiberoptic and their landline service
would ultimately deteriorate to the point of ineffectiveness. We are
asking any interested consumer who is experiencing problems with their
telephone service, voice over internet (VOIP), DSL service, or internet service
over landlines to notify us by completing this form. We will need to
present real examples of service deficiencies to the BPU and are, therefore,
asking any customer who experiences these problems to let us know so that we
can present this information to the Board of Public Utilities. If anyone
has specific questions or concerns and wants to speak with someone, the matter
is being handled on behalf of the County and all of the municipalities by
Cumberland County Counsel, Theodore E. Baker, Esquire, 856-453-2165.
Are you willing to have your response to this questionnaire released to Verizon?