Frontier, Others Reject CPUC's Late Change to Reorg Pact
Frontier Communications expects to exit bankruptcy once it reaches an “acceptable resolution” with the California Public Utilities Commission on an eleventh-hour revision to the agency's conditional OK, a Frontier spokesperson said Friday: Commissioners Thursday “voted to approve Frontier’s emergence from…
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Chapter 11 but included a provision in the approval order that was recognized as problematic by all settling parties.” Frontier, Communications Workers of America, The Utility Reform Network and CPUC Public Advocates Office filed a joint notice of rejection hours after the CPUC voted 5-0 to adopt a revised order clearing the deal, as expected (see 2103180064). The CPUC should resolve the issue at this Thursday’s meeting, the parties said. “Time is of the essence to permit Frontier to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by March 30, 2020.” The parties object to revising the requirement that the company build fiber-to-the-premise to 150,000 locations to specify that those locations should be only in places where the telco is the only service provider, with at least 10% in rural areas: “Ordering Paragraph 4(o)(i) would add a material condition not contemplated by the Parties’ Settlement Agreement.” Revised terms aren’t “supported by the record, are not feasible, would add substantial incremental costs to Frontier’s $1.75 billion capital expenditure commitment ... and would upset the balance achieved by the Parties’ Settlement Agreement by limiting the buildout of fiber facilities to thousands of low income households, communities of color and rural households throughout Frontier’s diverse serving territory merely because they have access to one other broadband option that may or may not meet their needs,” they said. They would support a change saying at least 10% of the planned fiber buildout must be in locations where Frontier is the only fixed broadband internet access service provider. The agency didn’t comment Friday.