W.Va. PSC Fines Altice's Suddenlink $2.2M
Altice must pay about $2.2 million as penalty for service quality failures found by a West Virginia Public Service Commission probe, the PSC said Wednesday. The company, known in the state as Suddenlink, must also open a West Virginia call…
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center, hire more technicians and staff for the West Virginia market and do more reporting, including on outages, service appointments and network upgrades, the commission ordered in case 21-0515-CTV-SC-GI. The PSC calculated the fine by assessing $1,000 per day since Altice took over Suddenlink operations, said the order: The $2.24 million will be split equally among existing subscribers and applied as a one-time credit on each customer’s next bill. Suddenlink failed to provide safe, adequate and reliable service, “intentionally reducing its maintenance work and maintenance budget, reducing full-time employees, changing its methods of communicating with its subscribers and ignoring the thousands of customer complaints that resulted,” the PSC said. Chairman Charlotte Lane said the company’s “conduct and performance with respect to its operations in West Virginia have been nothing short of egregious,” with “no excuse … except to increase its bottom line.” PSC staff, localities and the state consumer advocate sought stiff penalties last November after public hearings (see 2111040012). Suddenlink cooperated with the PSC and is reviewing the order, an Altice spokesperson emailed. "We have made and continue to make substantial investments in our network and customer support that are resulting in significant improvements in performance."