Last month we noted how Verizon has increasingly been under fire from regulators in West Virginia, Florida and New York for slacking when it comes to maintenance and customer service for their aging DSL networks. With so much money to be made on getting into the TV business via FiOS TV, workers, customers and regulators say the telco is cutting corners in markets it's less interested in (when they're not busy just selling these markets outright). The result is poor customer service and long repair times for DSL and landline customers in a significant portion of the company's footprint.

Delaware is the latest to confirm something is seriously afoot when it comes to Verizon copper, an independent consultant finding that Verizon's coming up short in that state as well in terms of keeping its landline and DSL customers happy. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the consultant's report has been redacted upon request by Verizon. But the PSC's concerns are made pretty clear in comments to the News Journal concerning a Verizon settlement with the state:Every time we've asked the carrier, Verizon has vehemently denied that they're neglecting their copper-based markets, but it's becoming rather clear that those markets (and the employees who work in them) believe otherwise. In what's an additional trend we're noticing, Verizon's battling harder with each state PSC to weaken the determination of what constitutes a speedy repair, as the Charlston Gazette examines:Of course Verizon's thinking that if they weaken the standards it will look like they're doing a better job -- without actually having to do a better job -- a tactic most cable and phone companies have employed for years. Combined with Verizon's efforts to sell unwanted markets to companies using fancy financial tactics that wind up crushing the buyer underfoot, the company's decision to hang up on a significant portion of their customer base seems like a story overshadowed by the company's investment in FiOS.

While consumers love that Verizon invested $23 billion on fiber to the home instead of nursing copper for the next decade, that investment has come at a cost for the company's DSL and landline customers. Rural Verizon DSL customers find themselves unwanted and sold off, while others say Verizon neglects copper infrastructure upkeep and repairs in order to spend time on more profitable customers.

Back in September we noted how it seems like only a matter of time before Verizon engaged in metered broadband billing. After Time Warner Cable's PR implosion, most ISPs are in a holding pattern on the idea until they can sell consumers on it, something they haven't done a good job of so far.

Consumer advocates, unions and state regulators are worried that Verizon's plan to sell a massive chunk of their DSL and landline networks to Frontier Communications won't go very well. The $8.5 billion deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees.

Verizon suffered from quite a bloody third quarter when it came to DSL numbers, the company losing 135,000 DSL customers -- and only a portion of those having upgraded to the company's FiOS service. To help counter these DSL losses Verizon keeps tinkering with their DSL promotions, and yesterday rolled out a new one. According to a Verizon press release, new Verizon 1 Mbps, 3 Mbps or 7 Mbps DSL customers can get service free for six months if they're willing to sign a one year contract with the company. FiOS customers should note the company has also slightly tweaked their FiOS promotions depending on where you live.

Last week we noted how Verizon had started working with the RIAA to send letters to Verizon users who traded copyrighted files, though the company still doesn't plan to divulge user identities to the entertainment industry. Verizon also doesn't appear willing to engage in the industry's dream scenario of booting repeat offenders off of their network. In a follow up piece, CNET notes that Verizon has also struck a new letter notification agreement with the major film studios and the MPAA. Contrary to what CNET seems to believe, Verizon has sent DMCA infringement notifications to their users on behalf of Fox and other companies in the past, so it's not clear just how expanded this new effort will be (Verizon isn't commenting).

Verizon already forwards copyright notices to customers who are tagged by the entertainment industry's intelligence-gathering organizations, but they don't disclose the customer who was actually using the IP address at the time the infringement occurred. In a move that signals a ramp-up in their cooperation with the entertainment industry, CNET cites inside sources at Verizon who say the company is about to launch a new letter notification campaign in cooperation with the RIAA.

You might remember how during the summer, Teresa Dixon Murray at the Cleveland Plain Dealer did a great job highlighting a phantom $1.99 fee Verizon was hitting consumers with -- even if they didn't use any data. The phantom charges were being incurred when phones were off, phone batteries were dead, Internet access was blocked, or the phones didn't have the necessary software to go online.

While Verizon gets a lot of warranted attention for investing heavily in fiber to the home, the last few years have seen a growing number of allegations that this investment came at the cost of neglected DSL and landline networks. Union workers have told us they aren't getting the tools and resources they need to support DSL & landline customers effectively, and in some states the resulting service issues have been obvious.

Consumer Group Free Press takes a few shots at Verizon's inconsistent positions on rural broadband, noting that while the baby bell continually claims to support getting broadband into the nation's rural nooks and crannies, their actions of late say the complete opposite. Forget FiOS -- the new Verizon is uninterested in delivering even DSL or phone service to most rural markets, which is why they're continually selling off these markets in tricky tax loophole leaping deals that usually wind up badly for the consumer and the sold markets:Verizon's justification of course is that rural America is costly to wire.

In California, Verizon has been slowing their deployment of FiOS to new neighborhoods in Orange County. While they apparently told the county this was due to a slow economy, they're telling the local press that they're taking a break from new deployments in order to better market the service in existing neighborhoods.

Verizon unveiled their third quarter earnings this morning, and as suspected, wireless service continued to be the company's biggest growth engine. Verizon Wireless added 1.2 million net new customers, bringing their wireless subscriber total to 89 million.

With the problems faced by Fairpoint and Hawaii Telcom after integrating Verizon's unwanted DSL networks, Verizon's even more ambitious plan to offload an even bigger chunk of rural customers to Fairpoint is getting added scrutiny. The $8.5 billion deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier (which currently has 2.3 million customers) with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees.

Last summer Verizon hinted that they were gearing up to offer discounts for bundling wireless service with TV, DSL or FiOS (they currently only offer wireless users one bill). Today Verizon announced that those bundles had arrived -- at least for consumers in their Northeast and Mid-Atlantic markets.

There's not a broadband provider out there who wouldn't instantly begin billing you by the byte if they thought you (the consumer) would sign off on it. Unfortunately for them, Time Warner Cable's recent PR disaster illustrated that consumers aren't sold on low caps and high overages when broadband delivery costs continue to drop.

West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw has come out against Verizon's plan to offload millions of rural DSL and landline customers to Frontier Communications. The $8.5 billion deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier (which currently has 2.3 million customers) with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees."We have serious problems with this," Deputy Attorney Fran Hughes said last week. "We don't think Frontier has the ability financially to live up to the commitments it has made to the PSC." Obviously the concerns mirror those we heard before Verizon offloaded its New England markets to Fairpoint, and we of course know how that turned out.

As phone companies move into the fourth quarter, they're unveiling their new bundle promotions in their fight against cable operators. Verizon this week offered up several new promotions that include a $150 gift card rebate and free installation for FiOS customers, or three months of free DSL for new customers.

Verizon's gotten to the point where they're modifying their DSL and FiOS bundle promotions on a fairly regular basis, as they continue to battle cable, and try to balance marketing dollars between the DSL and FiOS networks. Starting September 1, FiOS customers get a $150 visa gift card (not to be confused with cash) and free installation if they sign up for qualifying bundles. Meanwhile, in a second promotion the company is offering 3 or 7 Mbps DSL, the DIRECTV PLUS DVR package and Freedom Essentials (unlimited local and long-distance calling) for $75 for three months. The company is also offering new DSL customers three months of free service if they sign a one-year contract.

Saul Hansell over at the New York Times has picked up that paper's telecom beat, and offers an interesting piece from a recent Goldman Sachs investors conference. While AT&T Boss Randall Stephenson and Qwest boss Ed Mueller are keeping their heads buried in the sand telling investors that the landline defections will eventually stop, Verizon boss Ivan Seidenberg has basically admitted the obvious: the landline, as we know it, is dead.

PC Magazine has released their annual ISP Service & Reliability Survey (see story and actual results). The survey ranks broadband carriers on a scale of 1-10 in categories such as service setup, service speed, added fees, connection reliability, customer support and technical service, and repair frequency and quality.. According to PC Magazine readers, Verizon FiOS took top honors, with an overall score of 8.7 (luckily for Verizon, PC Magazine didn't rank carriers based on billing accuracy). The next closest competitors were Cablevision and Cox, who scored 7.8 and 7.8 respectively. As is usually the case with consumer surveys, Comcast and Charter Communications brought up the rear with respective scores of 6.9 and 6.5.