Calling on the telco giant to show us the maps, Abigail Caplovitz Field of NJPIRG critiques Verizon's unfairly secret plan to roll out video services, in Friday's Asbury Park-Press. Last year, the powerful firm steamrolled its statewide franchise legislation through Trenton, claiming that "We're the white knights to protect you from the evil cable companies." Now, Verizon doesn't want to tell either NJ regulators (BPU) or consumers whether it will serve all communities, or redline some and gouge others. Excerpt:

Failing to provide the maps isn't a trivial issue when it comes to preventing Verizon from redlining low-income consumers. Without the maps, the BPU cannot assess who Verizon intends to serve. Verizon wants the BPU simply to trust them, but not even the Legislature trusted Verizon on this point. The Legislature was very concerned that Verizon would redline, and so forbade it.