New Mexico Commission in Qwest’s Pocket, SkyWi CEO Says
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission has gone “hook, line and sinker” for Qwest in the carrier’s ongoing battle with SkyWi, the VoIP provider’s CEO, Alan Witters, said in a Feb. 19 letter replying to communications from the regulator (CD Feb 18 p12). The commission has “swallowed” Qwest claims that SkyWi is in arrears, ignoring SkyWi allegations of monopolistic behavior by the larger company, Witters said.
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The anticompetitive practices that SkyWi alleges “are at the heart of this dispute, but you have no interest in knowing SkyWi’s side of the story,” Witters added. “That is what happens when the little guy dares to actually try to and does compete with the big guy -- scorched earth, take no prisoners. Unfortunately, the Commission’s action and inaction only further Qwest’s objectives.”
The commission wrote Tuesday to SkyWi after the company sent no representatives to a Feb. 16 workshop the commission convened. The workshop sought to help SkyWi customers avoid losing all service when Qwest starts ending SkyWi services Feb. 26, as announced earlier under a commission order to give advance word of cutoffs. Witters said the notice about the workshop referred to “all ILECs,” which he took to exclude his company. “SkyWi was neither ordered nor invited to ‘appear’ or attend,” he said. “Yet, your ‘interview’ and what appeared to be staged media coverage showing empty seats while talking about SkyWi led viewers to believe that SkyWi did not show up.”
SkyWi supplied the regulator with customer lists, as requested, despite a belief that the body lacks jurisdiction over SkyWi, Witters said. SkyWi did withhold “the configuration of the equipment that was installed to serve” customers that the commission sought, Witters said, calling it “proprietary to SkyWi.” The material was to be under seal, but the commission never issued a protective order for that purpose, he said. “SkyWi could not afford to allow the commission to disclose the configuration of SkyWi’s equipment and network to Qwest and its other competitors,” he said.
Witters assailed the commission for issuing what he characterized as a legally shaky Feb. 13 subpoena to CityLink Fiber Holdings for the withheld system information. “SkyWi’s experience before the Commission may not be unique among competitive companies in New Mexico, but it certainly demonstrates and underscores why SkyWi chose not to bring its dispute with Qwest to the Commission,” he said.
The New Mexico commission plans to answer the SkyWi CEO’s allegations within days, Commissioner Jerome Block told us Friday. He termed the regulator’s Feb. 19 letter to the VoIP provider “a last plea to please cooperate.” The commission doesn’t intend to get involved in SkyWi’s court case against Qwest, he said. “Our biggest concern is that SkyWi comply with its federal obligations to deliver those reports so that its customers’ numbers can be ported in a seamless process,” Block said. “SkyWi has to give us that information. They need to give us that information. We are here to protect consumers.”