Verizon to Discontinue Copper in Heavily Populated Areas of the Northeast

Verizon has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to retire copper in numerous areas of New York, New England and Pennsylvania, as it continues moving customers to fiber-based technology.

The carrier said it plans to retire copper facilities and replace them with fiber facilities to provide services over its fiber-to-the-premises network infrastructure. It plans to do so on or after June 28.

The changes will take place in more than 50 wire centers in New York, such as Flushing, JFK Airport, North Staten Island and West Staten Island. In addition, the changes in New England will take place at four wire centers in Massachusetts.

And the change in Pennsylvania will take place at the Pottstown wire center.

Verizon said updating its network from copper to fiber “benefits our customers because of fiber’s resiliency and reliability, especially in inclement weather.” Fiber also provides customers with “expanded capabilities to grow with current bandwidth demands for their home or business,” it said.

After the retirement, Verizon will no longer offer services via copper facilities and cease maintaining them.

If no objections are filed, a notice of copper retirement usually will be deemed final on the 90th day after the release of the commission’s public notice of the filing; however, if a retirement doesn’t involve any customers, those will be deemed final on the 15th day after the release of the public notice.