Three-hundred sixty-five degrees...

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

August 25, 2008

2 Min Read
Burning Questions About FiOS

4:00 PM -- Verizon finds itself at the center of an interesting FiOS controversy these days. The New York Public Service Commission, weeks ago, apparently became convinced that the carrier's FiOS installations weren't grounded properly.

So Verizon crafted a Network Review Plan Verizon and submitted the plan to the NYPSC on July 15. Here's a link to that document.

The document states that a special team of folks called the Optical Network Quality Assurance Team (ONQAT), will "prepare monthly reports identifying the number of New Installations that it inspected during the month and the number of those installations that deviated in any material respect from the Grounding M&Ps [Methods & Procedures]."

The ONQAT will then, according to the Verizon proposal, include "specific locations visited and the nature and location of any material non-conformities that were discovered" in the special reports that will be filed with the NYPSC.

As I await a conversation with Verizon's top PR ninja on this very subject, I have some observations and questions:

  • Has the ONQAT been formed yet? If not, how long before it is formed and how long will it take to present its first report? Will its findings be available for public inspection?

  • It's reasonable to assume that if some FiOS installations were improperly grounded in New York, then we'll likely hear of similar grounding issues in other states as well. How much of each installation comes down to the installer's ability to follow procedures versus his ability to think on his feet? How does Verizon measure the quality of its installers versus the wildebeests that the cable companies use? Is there any advantage in hiring non-union installers for services like FiOS, outside of the obvious payroll costs?

  • What's the estimated annual cost of implementing Verizon's Network Review Plan as written? Is the cost of inspecting FiOS installations considered opex or capex?

  • A news story that hit most papers Friday offhandedly mentions that Verizon FiOS installations caused fires in homes in Pennsylvania and Virginia. What were the circumstances surrounding those fires? Would those incidents have been prevented if a ONQAT team were also working in Verizon's non-New York territories?



That should get the ball rolling. Does anyone have something I'm missing?

— Phil Harvey, Editor, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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