Minn. PUC Advances Probe Into CenturyLink Service Quality
Lumen’s CenturyLink won't avoid public hearings in a Minnesota service quality probe. At a partially virtual meeting Thursday, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to refer the matter to an administrative law judge for a contested case proceeding on whether the telco is meeting requirements of Minnesota Statutes Chapter 237 and Minnesota Rules Chapter 7810. Lumen Assistant General Counsel Jason Topp said he didn’t think hearings were needed in the more than 2-year-old proceeding. “It's time to bring this to a head, move forward and develop a record.”
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Lumen opposed hearings in August after settlement talks stalled (see 2208250052). The Minnesota Commerce Department said last month its investigation exposed serious problems at CenturyLink, including deteriorating facilities (see 2212230013).
Commissioners should open a contested case without hearings so Lumen can present evidence, learn exact allegations against the company and have an opportunity to respond, said Topp: The commission already received enough public input. But Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Joe Meyer said it's premature to move to a contested proceeding: “Public input is going to be really essential to this process.” Assistant Attorney General Richard Dornfeld, representing the Minnesota Commerce Department, agreed the PUC should hold hearings. While the record contains some anecdotal evidence, hearings would bring “greater context for a contested case,” he said.
“Let’s get on with this,” said Commissioner John Tuma, agreeing with Topp that the matter is ripe to move to a contested case. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be hearings, the commissioner said. Tuma proposed a compromise that would direct the ALJ in the contested case to hold “one or more hearings” in the carrier’s service territory. The other four commissioners agreed with the plan, which also got support from the assistant AGs and Communications Workers of America District 7 organizer Jeff Lacher.
Lumen doesn't adequately invest in or maintain equipment, resulting in longer and more frequent outages, said Dornfeld: Complaints about repair and installation are up more than 30% since 2019, he said. The PUC should immediately require Lumen to develop “proactive plant maintenance and service restoration plans,” he said. CWA hasn’t seen any evidence the company made improvements since the union filed the complaint that opened the investigation in 2020, said Lacher.
A Minnesota CLEC raised concerns about the incumbent in a Tuesday filing in docket C-20-432. “Having received complaint from our customer, and determining the trouble was with the facility, we opened a ticket with CenturyLink regarding this service in August of 2022,” wrote 702 Communications. “The ticket was, according to what we have been told, dispatched, mishandled, escalated and then mishandled/forgotten.” After a complaint was filed with the PUC, with service out for months, CenturyLink told the CLEC it was no longer to its “financial advantage to repair the problem, and that another provider should be found.” The ILEC should “be held responsible for maintaining service to the addresses they have historically served and continue to bill,” the CLEC said.
CenturyLink technicians admit equipment is obsolete, consumer Tom Tousignant wrote to the PUC Monday. He reported a five-day outage in September and a three-day outage in December at his 95-year-old mother’s home, which “caused considerable stress to her and the family.” Tousignant had to involve the PUC in both cases to get service restored, he said. “Taking time off work to have someone on site is bad enough but when there is a no show … or no notification this is unacceptable,” said Tousignant. The carrier responding with a $14.10 bill credit “is a joke.”
Another person’s mother had a health emergency while her CenturyLink phone service was down, said another comment Wednesday: “Luckily, our neighbor was able to call 911.”