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. These complaints have been particularly loud in Florida, West Virginia and in New York. A report this week out of New York puts some numbers behind these complaints:Verizon of course has promised to wire all of New York City with FiOS by 2014, but that diverted attention neglects the girl Verizon brought to the prom so to speak -- and "limits the amount it can devote to its 'legacy' copper plant," according to the NY PSC. Verizon, who has consistently denied that they're neglecting less profitable customers for more profitable ones, blames the spike in repair delays on rain...and...cellphones?The rain excuse doesn't appear to hold, uh, water. Looking at the actual PSC report (pdf), Verizon suffered its worst quarter in seven years of rain and non-rainy seasons alike when it comes to timely repairs. Meanwhile, Verizon fixed problems in New York State within 24 hours just 15.5% of the time -- down from 50% one year earlier (cellphones existed in 2008, right?). Verizon serves 5.7 million access lines from 539 central offices, and according to the PSC, did far worse in upstate NY than in NYC, though Brooklyn and The Bronx also fared badly.

Like AT&T, Verizon generally doesn't think that 24 hour turnaround repair requirements are particularly fair, and some states are tougher than others. Connecticut gives a carrier 24 hours to resolve a complaint on a shot clock that doesn't stop for nights and weekends. New York's does (last we checked), though Verizon's been trying to change the metric for years, going so far as to try and get the shot clock to officially start at the date and time of the scheduled appointment.

Of course the PSC has been pushing Verizon to improve performance for just as long, and keep in mind that all the while, Verizon has continually raised rates on most copper-based services despite largely fixed costs. So what's with the recent drop in repair rates? If you listen to Verizon employees, customers and regulators, Verizon's simply hanging up on less profitable, mostly rural regions. Markets who find themselves ignored when they call for repairs (like upstate New York) aren't part of Verizon's new equation.

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. Verizon also continues to face competition from Cablevision, who has publicly stated they think metered billing confuses customers and they "think broadband is a pretty powerful drug and we want people to consume more of it." But Verizon continues to dream, telling Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM they still dream of a metered future:Again though, the kind of metered billing models carriers propose have nothing to do with fairness.

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. The new campaign is a "test" according to the source, and doesn't include references to account termination: story continues..