I spoke to someone from Verizon this morning who said that their plan is to start removing copper and transition everyone over to fiber. Thus ensuring that in the event of a disaster nobody has phone service after a few hours.. I asked about a bigger battery and was told that the charger they use isn't powerful enough for it.

They call this progress.

By the way, when they install fios they take away the copper wire so you can never go back to it.