"The work is no more complicated, so benchmarking is needed. "
Benchmarking has been in place for well over a decade. Where have you been? As for work complexity, your statement speaks volumes of how ignorant you are in differences between the two industries.
"a situation where the force level exceeds the work load. "
Right. Which is exactly why most of us have seen a ton of forced overtime over the past two years.
"The old copper guys need to be the first ones to take a hike."
LOL. There's no such thing as "old copper guys" anymore. Everyone has been FiOS trained. Once again, where have you been?