West Virginia Regulator Reviews Frontier Service Quality Fund Request
The West Virginia Public Service Commission is reviewing Frontier’s request to release a $13.8 million reimbursement from a service quality escrow account. Commission staff and consumer advocates questioned the request, saying the telco hasn’t improved service quality since taking over Verizon’s landlines in the state last year.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The Consumer Advocates Division expects to file with the commission Friday (11-0370), urging the agency to look at issues such as whether the money that’s requested would lead to service quality improvement, Director Byron Harris said in an interview. There hasn’t been any significant improvement in service quality, he said. His division will also ask what the normal level of investment on service quality is, in its Friday filing, Harris said. The commission is expected to rule on the case sooner rather than later, since the proceeding has lasted longer than expected, he said.
Frontier’s network issues in Q1 declined 18 percent from the year-ago period, said Jennifer Schneider, Frontier vice president of legislative affairs. This is the first year of a four-year service quality improvement plan, a Frontier spokeswoman said. The company has added hundreds of new employees among other investments to improve and expand its infrastructure, she said.
The commission staff said it’s unable to discern significant improvements in Frontier’s service quality. Staff recommended approval of the request for reimbursement except for employee tools, vehicle lease and vehicle purchases. Staff said Frontier didn’t adequately demonstrate that these expenditures are solely for service quality improvements. Frontier petitioned to tap $13.8 million of funds from the service quality escrow account, which totals $72.4 million. The PSC ordered Verizon to create the escrow account in the wake of an investigation into widespread service quality problems (08-0761). Frontier will file with the commission justifying reimbursement for the trucks and tools, the spokeswoman said. The equipment falls under the guidelines to be reimbursed by the escrow, she said.
The reimbursement review is about expenditures on service quality, which would influence a potential commission ruling on the still-pending Verizon proceeding that Frontier inherited after it bought Verizon’s lines in the state (08-0761), Harris said. The commission might leave the Verizon proceeding open as a mechanism to monitor service quality, he said. The Verizon proceeding is technically still open, but there hasn’t been any action, Schneider said.