In our office building, Verizon pretty much "red flagged" all of the copper coming in, as in marking the outdoor terminal with a red X. I know that they don't do this to mark if for a formal removal. I think it is more to mark it so that their installers won't try to use it. The predominant tenant in our building got FiOS for their voice and data, and I guess that they assumed that nobody else would be moving into the building.
We came in and arranged to have our existing PRI from a CLEC moved to the building. We had to get a few POTS lines as a temporary measure until Verizon could get our T1 installed. They were able to give us those over the existing ONT almost immediately. I asked their installer how they were going to get our T1 in and he had no clue what I was talking about.
Lo and behold, they ended up bringing our circuit in over that dreaded copper that they so wish to abandon. I have to laugh when they think that FiOS is so advanced, while it provides such a narrow range of services. POTS, CATV and Internet. I guess they figure that anything else just isn't needed anymore. They can run as hard as they want, but they aren't going to escape their responsibilities in being a regulated utility.
