Amid ongoing clash, Verizon and N.J. officials meet [telecom]

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by Spencer Kent

BRIDGETON - For the first time, representatives from Verizon and a group of South Jersey towns angry over copper phone service issues met Friday to discuss the company's infrastructure upkeep.

The group - made up of 16 municipalities in Atlantic, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties - filed a joint petition with the state in December claiming Verizon wasn't adequately maintaining its copper landlines and demanded that if the company wasn't going to install fiber-optic broadband (Fios), it should at least maintain the municipalities' copper networks.