New York officials protest Verizon's Voice Link

134 New York municipal officials sent a letter to the New York Public Service Commission, saying it is "premature to embrace Voice Link as an adequate substitute for Verizon's wireline service." The New York regulators have given Verizon temporary authority to deploy Voice Link on parts of Fire Island, but has put a hold on deployments elsewhere in the state, pending a more thorough review.
 
Voice Link is a fixed wireless service that provides voice telephony, but does not support other critical services including Internet access, health and alarm monitoring, faxes, and back-up power during power outages.

The 134 municipal officials include county executives, legislators, mayors, supervisors and councilors. They noted that if Verizon is allowed to use substitute Voice Link for landline service this  "would hamper municipalities' ability to fulfill their public safety and economic development responsibilities."

In addition to public safety threats, the local officials cited concerns that Voice Link does not support LifeAlert and raises serious questions about network unreliability. "Our telecommunications infrastructure should not diminish municipalities' ability to protect their citizens," the document says.

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