Fire Island -- Cherished Retreat of Well-Heeled Manhattanites -- Finds Itself On The Wrong Side Of The Digital Divide

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, this summer Fire Island (NY) will become one of the first places in the United States to turn off the pesky, old public switched telephone network.

Early this month, residents got a letter from Verizon, which is the sole landline provider on the island, letting them know it would be replacing the storm-ravaged, copper-based network on the western part of the island with a wireless service called Voice Link. In places where the network was not damaged, customers could continue receiving wireline service as long as the copper worked. If the copper stopped working, however, it would not be repaired. Verizon says it is making the best of a disastrous situation. Long-time consumer advocates warn that the downgrading of communications on Fire Island and other beach communities is a harbinger of what could be in store for consumers as carriers like Verizon and AT&T abandon traditional copper networks and lobby for relief from the regulations that governed them. Advocates caution that quality of service standards and requirements to provide phone service to everyone in a particular territory are falling by the wayside.