It’s FCC Call on Dark Fiber, Maine Commission Says
Access to dark fiber is a matter for the FCC to decide, members of the Maine Public Utility Commission voted Monday. The commission was ruling in a dispute between FairPoint Communications and Biddeford-based Great Works Internet. Last month the FCC asked for comments and replies on a petition by the Maine commission for a declaratory ruling on access to dark fiber and other elements that arose from the fight between FairPoint and Great Works (CD Feb 1 p3).
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“We cannot take sides in this case. The issue of who has access to dark fiber and at what cost is firmly in the hands of the FCC,” said commission Chair Sharon Reishus. “We have pursued this issue through the courts; they have made it clear.” Federal courts have rebuffed the Maine commission and counterparts in other states on efforts to claim jurisdiction under Section 271 of the Communications Act to set policy and rates on dark fiber loops and other elements.
Maine commissioners unanimously rejected Great Works Internet’s request that the regulator investigate FairPoint billing practices and, pending that inquiry’s outcome, impose a moratorium on wholesale service disconnections by the company. FairPoint has given Great Works until Feb. 12 to pay more than $3 million that the carrier estimates the competitive local exchange carrier owes as a result of years of paying below-market rates for access to 17 dark fiber loops. Commissioners scored FairPoint for lagging at correcting flaws in its billing practices.
“We strongly encourage all parties in this case to file comments with the FCC,” Reishus said. “Although we decline this petition from Great Works Internet because it is beyond our jurisdiction, we will not hesitate to intervene in the future to enforce FairPoint’s interconnection obligations which do fall within our jurisdiction.”
The commission directed GWI and FairPoint to come to a settlement to avoid disrupting service to Maine residents and businesses. The companies’ efforts at arbitration so far have failed. “Great Works Internet is to warn its commercial customers that, if the issues between the two parties are not resolved, there may be disconnections of commercial phone service starting February 12th,” the commission said. A commission spokeswoman said the regulator had no comment beyond its Monday statement.
“We are pleased that the Maine Public Utilities Commission agrees with the Maine Public Advocate Office and Great Works Internet that FairPoint Communications has made ’shamefully slow progress’ in correcting ‘blatant’ errors in its service and billing practices,” Great Works CEO Fletcher Kittredge said Monday in a written statement. “The Commissioners are including language in their final order that makes it clear they are willing to open an investigation into FairPoint’s service and billing practices if the two teams of consultants already working on the issue do not get satisfactory results and FairPoint’s performance does not improve. That is a positive message.”
GWI’s concern is “the same one expressed by the Commissioners” -- namely, that FairPoint’s “sloppy billing practices” put businesses and institutions dependent on FairPoint’s network “at risk,” Kittredge said. If FairPoint follows through on its threat to cut off Great Works, those affected would include Bowdoin and Colby colleges, the University of Southern Maine and many others, “at a time when so many Maine people are fighting for their economic survival,” he said.
FairPoint is pleased at the ruling, company spokesman Jeffrey Nevins said. Great Works “has had more than enough time to rectify the situation,” he told us by e-mail. “FairPoint has a fiduciary responsibility to collect all monies owed the company for services purchased, delivered and billed,” he said. “It is our intent to continue to take appropriate, progressive actions to collect payments in default from Great Works Internet.”