However, Richard Spieler, executive board agent for Southern Unit 5 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 827, said, "The reason for this lack of service is clear to those of us who work in this industry: Verizon has failed to maintain its copper land line service and stopped building out its fiber-optic FiOS network because the company has decided to become only a wireless service provider, not the provider of basic telephone service that used to be its core mission."