CPUC Fines Frontier $2.5 Million for 2016 Verizon Transition Woes
Frontier Communications faces $2.5 million in California penalties for outages and disclosing customer information, California Public Utilities Commission Administrative Law Judge Zhen Zhang ruled Thursday in docket I.19-12-009. The ALJ approved with modifications a settlement agreement proposed Nov. 4 by…
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Frontier and the agency’s enforcement division. Commissioners in September last year rejected an earlier proposal that would have let Frontier invest $2.1 million of a proposed $2.5 million penalty, paying the state the remaining $400,000. Penalties in Thursday’s order include $1.45 million for 2016 outages and service interruptions during the cutover from Verizon and $1.05 million for releasing addresses of residential customers who had chosen to have that information suppressed from 411 and directory assistance. Frontier must give a $6 bill credit to all customers that didn’t get credits in 2016 but were possibly affected by the address disclosure, the decision said. Frontier must also give those customers the option of enrolling numbers in a non-publishing service or caller ID free for one year. The proposed settlement as modified will be "an effective deterrent to further offenses and is reasonable in light of the entire record, consistent with the law, and in the public interest,” it said. The ALJ’s decision will become final in 30 days if no party appeals and no commissioner requests review. Frontier declined to comment Friday.