CHARLESTON, W.Va. –There is now a settlement agreement in place over the plan by Verizon to buy out Frontier Communications service in West Virginia and it now heads the Public Service Commission for a vote.
Verizon’s Senior Director of Regulatory and Government Affairs Paul Vasington presented a highlight of some of the issues that the PSC had.
He highlighted that they will continue working on getting Broadband deployment to customers, he made sure to mention that they will make sure that pole attachment requests are processed appropriately, also that they will make sure that they prioritize 911 outages and will notify the PSC of any outages they experience, and they will provide a headcount of employees every year on March 31st.
He also said that they agreed to have a filing with the PSC that includes operational plans with an operations and maintaince budget within 12 months of the closure of the agreement.
He said that the full agreement should satisfy the questions that the PSC had.
“Which we believe should satisfy the commission that this transaction is in the public’s interest and will provide benefits to customers,” Vasington said.
Prior to a presentation of the two companies appeared before the state Public Service Commission Thursday morning to begin two days of evidentiary proceedings in the case. However, just as the event was getting started the parties asked for a recess because they believed they had reached a tentative settlement.
Just over an hour later, the representatives of the two companies returned and said an agreement on the settlement had been reached, but needed to be finalized. The final plan is expected to be presented to the PSC Friday at 9:30 a.m.
“I am hoping the settlement is going to address what Verizon plans to do with land line service and how much money you’re going to put into the current problems we all known land line customers face,” said PSC Chair Charlotte Lane.
Frontier acquired Verizon’s land-line service in West Virginia in 2010. Since then the company has struggled to maintain the system and the Public Service Commission has fielded numerous complaints about poor service, especially in rural areas. The struggles have also created concerns over impact to 911 systems in West Virginia.
Verizon Vice President of Consumer Sales and Service Tom Nugent did testify Thursday before the proposed settlement was announced. Nugent said Verizon will provide better service than Frontier.
“There will be disruption in service that they currently experience. From a customer experience, we take tens of thousands of calls a day on the consumer side and we got the breadth, the skills and tools in order to support them in any calls they may have,” Nugent said.
Nugent also said Verizon will stay with its commitment to answer calls for service quickly.
“We do that during operating hours for billing and basic questions, 24/7 for repair issues that are out there,” Nugent said.
Nugent said Verizon is going offer all of its streaming services to West Virginia customers including its residential internet service called myHome.
“We have a carousal of perks that are unlimited for customers to purchase,” Nugent said. “It’s wildly popular with consumers and we will bring that to West Virginia.
Nugent was asked Thursday about the company’s broadband fiber extension plans.
“To the extent that we can build fiber out to a cost point that is effective, absolutely,” Nugent said.
Reporter Jeff Jenkins contributed to this story.