Montana Consumer Counsel Seeks Northwest/Frontier Broadband Condition
Montana should condition Northwest Fiber’s buy of Frontier Communications' northwest region properties on Northwest's upgrading the network to match the FCC’s broadband standard, the Montana Consumer Counsel testified Thursday at the Montana Public Service Commission in docket 2019.06.039. Northwest is…
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buying Frontier wireline, video and long-distance operations in Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state, and competitors and consumer advocates hope the deal leads to better rural broadband (see 1910040023). Within five years of closing, Northwest should upgrade core network links to at least 1 Gbps, and in 10 years, the company should provide at least 90 percent of locations with minimum 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds, the Montana Consumer Counsel said. The counsel sought several other conditions, including that the acquirer continue to provide stand-alone voice service and meet state service quality standards, it said.