NJ Board Ups Pressure on Verizon to Address Copper Complaints
A state investigation of Verizon in New Jersey will drive progress in underserved South Jersey communities, a state senator and the New Jersey Rate Counsel Division director said in interviews Wednesday. Private negotiations continue, Verizon and the state officials said. Monday, the Board of Public Utilities named President Richard Mroz presiding commissioner and said he would soon set a schedule for the probe into Verizon service quality (see 1612120066).
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The carrier is also pursuing settlement in Pennsylvania regarding a similar complaint about copper quality, with the Public Utility Commission strongly encouraging private agreement between the company and petitioner Communications Workers of America (see 1611300062). Verizon and CWA didn’t comment. The New York Public Service Commission also is investigating Verizon copper, but last month delayed hearings until April 19. CWA sought a fourth probe in Maryland. While the Public Service Commission has sought comment on the request, it hasn't opened a formal investigation.
Talks between Verizon and the New Jersey communities haven’t led to a settlement, the board said Monday. The board assigned Mroz more than one year after Cumberland County and 16 southern New Jersey municipalities filed the complaint, and four months after the board held a field hearing at the request of Democratic state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (see 1608050043). A formal case will “keep the pressure up” on Verizon, Van Drew said Wednesday. “We probably can only gain more.” That the BPU assigned its president the presiding commissioner role shows it’s taking the matter as seriously as it should, he said. “Many people don’t understand how underserved a number of communities are in deep South Jersey. It really is a significant disadvantage to business, to education, to public safety.”
The BPU can play an important role as an independent arbiter setting enforceable deadlines and metrics for service quality improvements, Rate Counsel Division Director Stefanie Brand said. While Brand wouldn’t predict a time frame for the proceeding, she said the division plans to participate in the case while continuing separate talks with Verizon. “We would like to see specific measurable actions taken by Verizon that are enforceable that will improve” phone and DSL service and make it easier for rural unserved customers to request service, she said.
“We are working with the BPU and other parties involved to reach a resolution in this matter,” a Verizon spokesman emailed Tuesday. “Verizon continues to actively make upgrades to its South Jersey copper network to maintain and provide the reliable experience our customers expect and deserve. This includes making DSL service available to more than 2,000 customers who were previously unable to get it, and a DSL congestion relief plan that improved service for hundreds of existing customers. We have also begun deploying fiber broadband facilities in Lower Alloways Creek as part of the Bona Fide Retail Request process.”
The phone company has been cooperative and communicative, Brand and Van Drew agreed. Verizon has done some work addressing the most “horrific” problems, Van Drew said. “I’ve seen some improvement but we still need to see more, without question.” Brand also has seen upgrade work by Verizon in South Jersey, but said there’s no data yet showing measurable improvement in service. “They are doing some work, and we want to see that work continue,” she said. “We’re just trying to make it so that this is something that will be sustainable so we don’t continually have to petition and continually have disagreements over what’s required.”
Brand called for changes to the bona fide retail request process, which allows unserved communities in the most rural areas to request broadband if 35 or more people in the area agree upfront to sign contracts. Verizon agreed to the process in a settlement with the board after failing to meet a commitment to deploy broadband to 100 percent of the state. “There are some ways in which [the process] is proving to be difficult” for localities to meet, Brand said. “We want to see that process become something that people can actually use to request broadband.”
Brand said she would have liked to see a board order “yesterday,” given South Jersey localities “are really complaining about some significant problems.” The investigation has been a long time coming, but picking up speed, Van Drew said. “Would I like to see it faster? Yes, but in comparison to the way this issue has moved over the years in the past, we are moving -- not nearly fast enough -- but relatively fast compared to where we were and what was happening.”