Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is still having trouble making sure all of its FiOS installations in New York are properly grounded, as spelled out in the National Electrical Code, Light Reading has learned.
Improperly grounded optical network terminals (ONTs) aren't exactly the lead-based paint of broadband networks. And they're certainly not as harmful or menacing as AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)'s battery blow-ups from the past few years. (See AT&T Begins Massive Battery Replacement.) But New York officials have said, in public documents, that they believe "FiOS may form an electrically conductive path both to the outside world as well as other electrically powered devices inside the building."
So, with a lot of urging from its cable competitors, New York state officials have been all over Verizon to do something about its FiOS-connected homes that have failed inspection. The solution, a Network Review Plan that Verizon proposed in July, is taking place now. Verizon has said it will inspect its new and old installations and report those findings to the state, as a first step toward cleaning up whatever harmful specter -- actual or perceived -- lurks outside consumer homes.
According to data filed with the New York Public Service Commission this afternoon, Verizon, in the month of August, inspected more than 15 percent of its installed base of FiOS-connected homes in New York.
The result: a 59 percent failure rate.
Some context: Apparently more than one third of the homes inspected were listed as having "no access," which could mean those homes may have failed by default, since the inspector couldn't reach or access the ONT. Calls to Verizon went unreturned on Friday afternoon.
In its new installations, Verizon fared better, but was far from perfect as the data in the table provided shows:
Table 1: Verizon's New Installation, Grounding Compliance Audit, August 2008
Location
Percentage of New FiOS-installed Homes in Compliance with the National Electrical Code
Staten Island
78
Brooklyn
63
Queens
59
Bronx
79
Manhattan
98
North Suffolk
90
South Suffolk
95
North Nassau
89
South Nassau
93
Western
99
Central
85
Capitol North
82
Capitol South
84
S. Westchester
68
N. Westchester
94
Rockland
89
All of New York State
83
Source: Verizon
For a more complete overview on the FiOS grounding fiasco, with pictures, see Verizon Foes Ground & Pound in New York.
The New York Public Service Commission is set to consider "whether to approve, modify, or reject, in whole or in part" Verizon's Network Review Plan on Monday.
Until then, don't put your tongue on anything hanging from a FiOS ONT.
What is silly here is Verizon you woukld have expected to be a stickler for "compliant' avoid grounding ONTS to save themselves some money. This would require more work by the OSP technicians and they would not want that.
That would be 1 ONT installed every 2 days by a technician from now on.
Actually, your land line is not directly grounded but floats and shunts lightning to ground via protectors like Gas Tubes and MOVs. If your land line was directly grounded, that would be a problem.
From what I understand, the regional collective bargaining agreements with the IBEW govern how much work can be contracted out under what circumstances. Northeast region is apparently pretty exclusive, mid-Atlantic and Western less so. This is always a big point in negotiations, if you read the rhetoric that comes out of the IBEW at contract time.
In the Maryland suburbs around DC, almost all of the work in done by people with Verizon contractor signs pasted up over their companies signs on their work vechicles. I see very little Verizon activity. The folks that tore up my yard were not from Verizon.
Lightning hits your house. Your phone lines are now charged with electricity. It wants to go somewhere and it is safer to ground the system so that energy goes to ground and not run around your house.
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