NJ Rate Counsel Asks Court for Reversal of BPU, Verizon Deregulation Agreement
The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel filed comments Wednesday asking the New Jersey Superior Court's Appellate Division to reverse the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) May order that allowed Verizon to reclassify/deregulate basic residential and small business phone…
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service and the eventual elimination of quality-of-service reporting/standards requirements. The BPU order puts a cap on rates for five years and then Verizon is free to raise rates and not follow any quality of service rules, since it would essentially be deregulated. The court should send the case back to BPU for further proceedings because the order is "arbitrary, capricious and violates rate counsel’s due process rights," a rate counsel spokeswoman said. The original agreement with Verizon didn't include the rate counsel, the spokeswoman said. Verizon hasn't increased any rates since the decision, emailed a spokesman. The BPU order -- which was four years in the making -- reclassifies the company's four remaining services as competitive, he said. The BPU didn't deregulate the services, it just chose to recognize that the services are competitive, the spokesman said.