Minn. PUC Advances Probe on Frontier Investment Plans
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will investigate how Frontier Communications investment plans could affect service quality, decided commissioners at a partially virtual Thursday meeting. The PUC voted 5-0 to proceed with a broad inquiry into the meaning of the company’s “virtual separation.” Commissioners resisted Frontier officials' efforts to narrow the probe’s scope.
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When the Minnesota PUC approved Frontier’s reorganization last year, Commissioner John Tuma promised the commission would watch what virtual separation meant for Minnesota (see 2009240045 and 2102180031). The Communications Workers of America (CWA) raised concerns nationally during the reorganization review about virtual separation, saying it could mean separating fiber deployment from copper operations, possibly to some areas’ detriment.
The PUC order adopted Thursday will include a clarification by Tuma that virtual separation includes “any subsequent investment plans” that will affect Minnesota service quality. “I don’t want the company to play some sort of trump card saying, ‘Well, we no longer do virtual separation, so we’re not going to talk about anything anymore,” said Tuma.
Frontier officials sought to limit the probe’s scope, including by asserting that broadband is outside the state’s purview. Frontier is “willing to provide information related to virtual separation and what the impact is on Minnesota, but beyond that ... getting into workforce levels [or] plans for future broadband deployment -- all these things are just beyond the commission’s jurisdiction,” said Frontier General Counsel Kevin Saville.
Commission Chair Katie Sieben pushed back, asking if the company was arguing that its workforce has no impact on service quality: “You’re objecting a little bit too much.” Saville replied that he meant Frontier objects to investigating its workforce in other states. Workforce comparisons with other states could be useful, Sieben said later.
Investigation must be broad to get a full picture of what virtual separation means and how it affects customers, said Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Richard Dornfeld, representing the state Commerce Department. States may be preempted from regulating information services, but they aren’t precluded from investigating and asking questions, he said. The PUC may not be able to act on all information gathered through the probe, but at least customers will be informed, he said.
“The question of whether Minnesota will receive the investment and resources it needs to be part of Frontier’s fiber future is a top concern” for union members, said CWA Local 7270 President Mark Doffing. “If we want to make sure that Minnesota customers have good quality service ... a more complete understanding of Frontier’s investment in the state is necessary.”
The Utah Public Service Commission's Frontier service-quality probe hasn’t budged since June 25 last year, showed docket 19-041-01. “None of the parties to that docket have taken any action to move the investigation forward since the PSC ruled on some discovery disputes,” a PSC spokesperson emailed Wednesday.
“We were not able to obtain the information we needed for a robust investigation through discovery or motions to compel,” said a spokesperson for the Utah Office of Consumer Services, which requested the probe. Then, another provider, E Fiber, got approval to operate in two Frontier territories as a second carrier of last resort, the official said. “Now that customers appear likely to soon have another viable option for service, the OCS is evaluating whether to take additional action in the investigation docket.”