Verizon: PSTN demise, VoIP embrace greatly exaggerated

Verizon is doing a lot of "correcting" these days, after an apparent erroneous Bloomberg interview conducted out at CES last week said the company would "do away with" traditional phone lines within seven years.

The remarks, attributed to Verizon CMO John Stratton, were officially de-blogged, er debunked, by Verizon's head PR guy Eric Rabe Tuesday afternoon.  In the blog post, Rabe states:

"... neither John nor anyone else here thinks that the traditional, circuit-switched phone network will be a thing of the past in seven years.  What's often called the public switched telephone network [1] (PSTN) is the world's most reliable, high quality, landline voice communications system. The Verizon traditional phone system will serve customers for a long time to come...John's point was, and there's not a lot of new news here, that we see that voice can and is becoming an application called VoIP on broadband networks."

Rabe goes on to say: "...the quality of VoIP voice calls and the reliability of VoIP networks are in no way superior to the quality and reliability provided by the Verizon PSTN network.  In short, there is no logical reason for a company like Verizon, with a terrific voice network already in place, to dismantle that network and replace it with VoIP... But don't expect the landline circuit-switched network to magically blink out in seven years. For many customers, the traditional phone network may be the best solution for years to come."

Bottom line: Verizon is not phasing out its copper network in seven years and has no plans to move everyone currently on the PSTN to VoIP. However, Verizon will begin moving its FiOS voice customers to a VoIP offering "very soon," according to Carol Wilson at Telephony. Moving to VoIP on FiOS will enable Verizon to deliver some additional services.

For more:
- Verizon head PR guy blogs [2] a rebuttal.
- Telephony and Carol Wilson gets clarity from Verizon. Blog [3].

Related articles
Verizon embraces VoIP future [4]
Verizon FiOS getting VoIP in early 2009 - FierceVoIP [5]