All Networks Face Capacity Constraints, Verizon Says in Defending Voice Link
Wireline networks can get congested too. That’s one Verizon response to an FCC request seeking information on the suitability of its fixed wireless product, Voice Link, as a substitute for wireline. The FCC is considering Verizon’s Section 214 application to discontinue copper wireline services on the New Jersey Barrier Islands. Verizon amended that filing Friday to reflect its recent announcement that it would install fiber on Fire Island in New York (CD Sept 11 p3). Verizon intends to complete its fiber deployment by summer, it said.
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"Although localized capacity constraints resulting from a high volume of calls can, under some circumstances, affect the ability of Voice Link or any other customers on the wireless network to complete calls via the cell sites serving the Affected Areas, congestion can occur on wireline networks during high volume calling events as well,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/19cDnzd). The next several lines of Verizon’s filing were redacted as either “confidential” or “highly confidential.” Wireline networks get congested, a Verizon spokesman told us. “It’s like in the old days when you used to try to call your mom on Mother’s Day."
"No network is designed for 100 percent use at any given moment by all of its customers,” said Brian Fontes, CEO of the National Emergency Number Association. Wireline tends to be more dependable, but it does get congested, he told us. Those are the rapid busy signals a caller sometimes hears when the call won’t go through. Sheer volume of calls, or damage to the infrastructure itself -- such as during flooding, or when lines have fallen -- can cause capacity constraints, Fontes said. “Now would it occur as frequently as it does in the wireless services? I'm not sure."
Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge, was more sure. “It is somewhat disingenuous,” he said. Yes, on Mother’s Day, or in the wake of a disaster like April’s Boston Marathon event, networks of all types can get overwhelmed. But on the copper line network, “this happens very rarely” -- in large part because it was regulated as a public utility for so long, with such an emphasis on reliability, he said. That’s “radically different” from a wireless service like Voice Link, where residents of Fire Island were complaining about “routinely dropped” calls when the population swelled from 500 to 5,000 in the summer, Feld said.
Verizon’s Section 214 proceeding is “now limited to small portions of two wire centers in the New Jersey Barrier Islands” where Verizon will no longer offer interstate wireline telecom services, the company said in a separate letter amending its petition (http://bit.ly/16ZHfO0). Unlike Fire Island, affected households in the Barrier Islands “already have the choice of wireline voice service from the local cable operator,” and many customers have already switched to alternative providers, Verizon said.
Before Superstorm Sandy, Verizon had more than 600 customers in the affected areas of the New Jersey Barrier Islands. Today just over 100 subscribe to Verizon voice service. “It is therefore evident that customers subject to the application are able ’to receive service or a reasonable substitute from another carrier,'” Verizon said, quoting the applicable standard for granting a Section 214 application.
"While the situation is much less dire for the residents of the New Jersey Barrier Islands because they have Comcast as a potential alternative, this does not mean that all the important questions for which this would set a precedent go away,” Feld said. “We would rather avoid using this as a proxy for the IP transition generally by having the FCC open a proceeding of general applicability to look at the 214(a) process and limit the decision here to its facts."
Verizon Wireless, which provides the wireless connectivity for Voice Link, “has assessed its capacity needs for its cell sites” serving the relevant areas in New Jersey, and considered existing and projected demand. “Generally, Verizon expects Voice Link to provide customers with service quality consistent with the quality of service experienced by other voice telephony users, including subscribers to Verizon Wireless,” the telco said. Verizon Wireless’s cell sites are “built to withstand a variety of threats from natural and man-made sources, including coastal weather events,” Verizon said.
"A call placed through Voice Link is carried on the Verizon Wireless network and handled like any other call that originates on Verizon Wireless’ network,” Verizon said. “Calls from Voice Link users are not preempted by Verizon Wireless’ standard mobile wireless voice traffic, nor is standard mobile wireless traffic afforded any prioritization over Voice Link."
The Fire Island situation was borne from unique circumstances, and as such is not a microcosm of the broader IP transition, said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, now a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute. “But it is proving to be a catalyst for this broader discussion whether folks like it or not,” he said.
Verizon’s decision to deploy fiber in Fire Island “does not solve this problem at all,” said Regina Costa, chair of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates telecom committee. “It solves part of the problem for Fire Island, but certainly not the broader scope of Verizon’s efforts to kill its copper.”