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N.J. AARP lobbies to stop Verizon's wireless shift

Michael Symons
Asbury Park (N.J.) Press
Evelyn Liebman, AARP New Jersey’s associate state director for advocacy, discusses legislation that would put a moratorium on the replacement of copper landline telephone networks with wireless on June 16, 2014 at the Statehouse Annex in Trenton, N.J. Liebman is joined by AARP volunteers, Assemblyman Daniel Benson and AARP’s chief utilities advocate Ken Lindhorst.

TRENTON, N.J. -- AARP New Jersey members, decked out in matching red shirts, gathered Monday at the Statehouse to press lawmakers to block Verizon New Jersey from shifting customers from landline networks to wireless until state regulators study the issue.

The issue emerged in the wake of superstorm Sandy. Verizon says it's too costly to rebuild the traditional copper network in Mantoloking and will instead provide a new service called Voice Link, through which wired and cordless phones make calls through the Verizon Wireless network.

AARP New Jersey has been seeking to block the change, arguing that the wireless phone option doesn't work with many medical monitoring devices, security devices or sometimes even 911. It supports a bill that would impose a one-year moratorium on the replacement of copper networks and require the Board of Public Utilities to study the issue.

Its chief utilities advocate, Ken Lindhorst, said the company must provide basic telephone service because it inherited the phone infrastructure originally built in the state in the 1930s and can't make a switch to Voice Link without approval from the Board of Public Utilities.

"The question before our public officials is: Are we going to operate in New Jersey under the rule of law or under Verizon's rules?" Lindhorst said.

"Some call it landlines. We call it lifelines," said Evelyn Liebman, AARP New Jersey's associate state director for advocacy.

Assemblyman Daniel Benson, D-Mercer, said he is hopeful the bill will be considered by the full Assembly before the end of June. Companion bills first introduced last September in the Senate haven't been considered by the economic growth committee, which is not scheduled to meet again until after the summer recess.

"Unfortunately what we're seeing here is that Verizon has used superstorm Sandy as an excuse not to rebuild infrastructure down the Shore, and there is the threat that this may occur all throughout the state, pretty much anywhere that has not upgraded to FiOS or to fiber optic," Benson said.

Earlier this month, Verizon was joined by 19 organizations, including chambers of commerce and the Laborers' International Union, in a letter to Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Hudson, that said the bill would actually harm consumers by preventing them from using new services and could chill future investment in new technologies.

"These bills would distort the competitive marketplace by singling out Verizon while at the same time giving all our competitors who sell similar wireless voice products an unfair competitive advantage to the detriment of consumers," said Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski, who said other wireless home products include Consumer Cellular, which AARP promotes to its members.

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