Doug Mohney tweeted this morning that Verizon has a 7-day repair window which may be why they are losing landlines. I would suggest that the RBOC have been lobbying since 282 Relief for Forbearance relief as well - at both the state and federal level. For the most part they have won. 

Gone is the regulation for most telecom services in most states, which means the state PUC cannot deem that POTS lines be fixed in 24 hours (the old standard), especially when Digital Voice (VOIP) is dependent on broadband that does not have an SLA or mean-time-to-repair.

After VZ's 6-city forbearance petition was struck down in 2007, VZ legal took it to the court system and won a review by the FCC.

By letting landlines go, the majority of the existing POTS type service will go to cable or other providers, which would almost insure that VZ would get forbearance on a new review. Slick and devious.