Verizon Steps In It: Leaked Memos Threaten Terminating Workers For Repairing Copper Lines

[Misanthrope]

Just now, Dan Castellaneta said:

Honestly I feel kinda lucky that I have Wide Open West. They haven't fucked us over and it seems like our internet has gotten surprisingly faster recently for what is no charge on our part. We usually got around 5 MB/s (at least downloading from Atlanta Steam servers, closest to me) but now I get ~7.5MB/s downloading from there.

I get 20/5 fiber for less than 15 USD per month but because I'm on their bare minimum rate it goes up to 200/50 for 40 or so USD. And we're supposed to be the technologically backwards 3rd world country.

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, Misanthrope said:

I get 20/5 fiber for less than 15 USD per month but because I'm on their bare minimum rate it goes up to 200/50 for 40 or so USD. And we're supposed to be the technologically backwards 3rd world country.

Damn. I'd kill for 20/5 for $15 a month any day.

[Zodiark1593]

41 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I get 20/5 fiber for less than 15 USD per month but because I'm on their bare minimum rate it goes up to 200/50 for 40 or so USD. And we're supposed to be the technologically backwards 3rd world country.

And Comcast wants to charge me $50/month for half that speed. Go take a hike you dumb monopolistic Isp. 

 

*laments that now I'm stuck on 5GB/month cellular plan for internet as Comcast was the only other choice*

[Centurius]

56 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I get 20/5 fiber for less than 15 USD per month but because I'm on their bare minimum rate it goes up to 200/50 for 40 or so USD. And we're supposed to be the technologically backwards 3rd world country.

To be fair in developing countries it usually makes more sense, in a lot of cases there isn't an existing network like in most developed countries so when something gets installed it might as well be the newest kid on the block whereas the companies in those other countries will want to maximize what they get from prior investments. 

[Masada02]

Ya I see no problem with this. It says very clearly that if the customer does not want the VoiceLink service for the technician to repair the hard lines. The whole point of this document is telling the technicians to push a different service before fixing the original problem. All companies do this kind of thing. It's called being a salesman.

[Centurius]

29 minutes ago, Masada02 said:

Ya I see no problem with this. It says very clearly that if the customer does not want the VoiceLink service for the technician to repair the hard lines. The whole point of this document is telling the technicians to push a different service before fixing the original problem. All companies do this kind of thing. It's called being a salesman.

No, the document says not to proceed if the customer isn't qualified for the transfer, nowhere does it mention consent.

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, Centurius said:

To be fair in developing countries it usually makes more sense, in a lot of cases there isn't an existing network like in most developed countries so when something gets installed it might as well be the newest kid on the block whereas the companies in those other countries will want to maximize what they get from prior investments. 

So you're saying progress is holding back progress? I just don't think it computes.

[Centurius]

4 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

So you're saying progress is holding back progress? I just don't think it computes.

No, just that prior progress deters future progress when it is still workable. 

[Masada02]

22 minutes ago, Centurius said:

No, the document says not to proceed if the customer isn't qualified for the transfer, nowhere does it mention consent.

Good point, not sure where I got that from. Although since there is no copy of the qualification checklist we don't know what goes into deciding what would merit the transfer. 

 

Regardless, if there is no change in service quality then why does it matter how the service is performed? And if people really do object to the change, cancel your service with them.

[JAKEBAB]

5 hours ago, Prysin said:

Vodafone was never a network owner

The fact he mentioned Telstra makes me think he's talking about Vodafone Australia which indeed do own their own network and we're recently bought by TPG arguably solely for that network.

[Trik'Stari]

What pisses me off, is that we, as tax payers, have been paying them subsidies for almost TWO DECADES NOW, to upgrade their copper infrastructure to fiber optics.

 

And they've done nothing but pocket that money.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

What pisses me off, is that we, as tax payers, have been paying them subsidies for almost TWO DECADES NOW, to upgrade their copper infrastructure to fiber optics.

 

And they've done nothing but pocket that money.

Come live here...

[Trik'Stari]

6 minutes ago, coolkingler1 said:

Come live here...

I might be looking for a new country, come November.

 

Sadly most countries don't allow people to just immigrate (to my knowledge) for any old reason. AFAIK you have to have a good reason.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Trik'Stari said:

I might be looking for a new country, come November.

 

Sadly most countries don't allow people to just immigrate (to my knowledge) for any old reason. AFAIK you have to have a good reason.

Good. I don't know what sort of reason you could have but I am sure it will work out.

[Trik'Stari]

11 minutes ago, coolkingler1 said:

Good. I don't know what sort of reason you could have but I am sure it will work out.

One would hope that:

"Trump is now president" 

or

"Hillary is now president"

 

Would be enough of a reason.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

One would hope that:

"Trump is now president" 

or

"Hillary is now president"

 

Would be enough of a reason.

*Entirety of America emmigrates*

[normpearii]

11 hours ago, Lays said:

In the grand scheme of things though, I feel like they just won't care

Only thing that can stop this is if Google (Youtube), Amazon (Twitch), Facebook, Netflix, etc.; Realizing this could cut their profits from power users no longer having the data to view their content (and ads), plus the stuff the really need to save data for (Work, school, etc.); feel they need to fight against the caps.
 

In the current system, only money talks. Without some of the big internet companies fighting this, this will become the norm for more than just comcast, this will spread to the other major cable companies and other ISPs.

[dalekphalm]

6 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Has no one yet noticed that the memo looks faked?

Apparently, not.

 

That was the first thing I noticed. @patrickjp93 Have you noticed this? Look under the 2nd line in the main body of text. "... best possible network ..." - the bottom of the text is cut off. The page is also curved slightly, yet right around where that odd "cutoff" is, text seems to be perfectly straight.

 

This document looks like it's been tampered with.

 

Also, lol, extremetech apparently has no idea what a Memo is. This is not a memo, it's a record of a "meeting" that this tech had with his supervisor - he's essentially getting a "warning". A Memo is an internal document sent to multiple people. You don't send a memo to one person

[Trik'Stari]

56 minutes ago, coolkingler1 said:

*Entirety of America emmigrates*

Pretty much. Most of us will leave and all that will be left is congress, trump/hillary, and their little cults of self delusion.

[patrickjp93]

5 hours ago, Masada02 said:

Ya I see no problem with this. It says very clearly that if the customer does not want the VoiceLink service for the technician to repair the hard lines. The whole point of this document is telling the technicians to push a different service before fixing the original problem. All companies do this kind of thing. It's called being a salesman.

No, it's only if the customer CAN'T upgrade that the technician is allowed to repair the copper.

 

2 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Apparently, not.

 

That was the first thing I noticed. @patrickjp93 Have you noticed this? Look under the 2nd line in the main body of text. "... best possible network ..." - the bottom of the text is cut off. The page is also curved slightly, yet right around where that odd "cutoff" is, text seems to be perfectly straight.

 

This document looks like it's been tampered with.

 

Also, lol, extremetech apparently has no idea what a Memo is. This is not a memo, it's a record of a "meeting" that this tech had with his supervisor - he's essentially getting a "warning". A Memo is an internal document sent to multiple people. You don't send a memo to one person

No it doesn't. It's obviously a fish-eye lens and someone is holding the document at the middle causing the sides to bend upward. No tampering required to make that happen. As per the marginally cut off text, it could be a bad printer, or someone messed up with PDF layouts or Word style items.

[patrickjp93]

4 hours ago, JAKEBAB said:

The fact he mentioned Telstra makes me think he's talking about Vodafone Australia which indeed do own their own network and we're recently bought by TPG arguably solely for that network.

I meant to say Telia. I'd remembered the tel and a, but that was it.

[patrickjp93]

4 hours ago, Masada02 said:

Good point, not sure where I got that from. Although since there is no copy of the qualification checklist we don't know what goes into deciding what would merit the transfer. 

 

Regardless, if there is no change in service quality then why does it matter how the service is performed? And if people really do object to the change, cancel your service with them.

It's in the page I posted. If there is a particular button/switch color available in their wire set, they qualify. Otherwise, they don't.

[Energycore]

14 hours ago, patrickjp93 said:

1+1+1+1+1+1+...+1 starts getting pretty big as long as enough people do it.

I guess 1+..(repeat 20 million times)..+1 adds up to two million and two.

 

Whodda thunk?