[A] state legislator says she is alarmed by comments from a telephone company chief executive who suggested that a disabled constituent move to get better service.
In a letter submitted to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Feb. 9, Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, said she told Consolidated Communications CEO Bob Udell at a meeting in November that her constituent, Helyn Strom-Henriksen, who lives in rural Readsboro, had lost landline service and the company had told her she would have to wait up to 10 days before her landline could be restored.
Strom-Henriksen, who has a disability, does not have cellphone service, either, and lives 30 minutes from a hospital. Her landline went down after a lightning strike in June.
Consolidated took only two days to restore Stom-Henriksen’s phone connection. But the state began investigating the phone company’s service quality in September after officials saw a spike of complaints and the company told customers it would take days or weeks to restore phone connection.
“In an appeal for help and also to help Mr. Udell understand the nature of the problem I am compelled to solve for my constituents – I shared Helen’s (sic) story,” Sibilia wrote and submitted as a public comment for the state’s investigation.
“At the conclusion of the story, and much to my shock, Mr. Udell asked me “Why doesn’t she move?” Sibilia continued.
The lawmaker said Udell’s response was “alarming.”
“I took away from it that I should not expect that Consolidated is actually going to be prioritizing copper lines in rural Vermont,” Sibilia said Monday, referring to the infrastructure used by the company to deliver landline service.
“These are working people living in rural Vermont,” Sibilia said. “Why doesn’t she leave? Perhaps she’s not able to sell her home because there’s no internet or reliable phone.”
In a statement, Michael Shultz, Consolidated’s vice president of regulatory and public policy sought to clarify Udell’s comment.
“Specifically, Mr. Udell’s comment was referring to the customer’s proximity to medical services and his recent experience moving a family member closer to emergency services,” Shultz wrote.
He said it was the company’s “highest priority” to improve service levels in Vermont and that it has already made strides in doing so: reducing the number of “trouble tickets” related to customer service issues by 89 percent since August.
“We have added significant, additional resources in Vermont which has resulted in reduced and improved repair intervals for customers,” Shultz wrote.
“At this time, we are experiencing and processing normal levels of trouble tickets and are responding to repair requests in a timely manner across the state.”
Consolidated, which purchased Fairpoint Communications in 2017, falls under the purview of state regulators.
For some rural regions, the company, which is also the largest provider of landline service in Vermont, is the only source of phone and internet connectivity.
In August, a state official told VTDigger the Department of Public Service was considering opening its investigation into Consolidated after it had documented that the company had been taking longer than usual to address customer issues.
The state expects the telecommunications companies it regulates to resolve 70 percent of their service problems within 24 hours.
Over the summer, Clay Purvis, the Department of Public Service’s director of telecommunications and connectivity, said the company was only fixing 26 percent of problems within the expected time frame.
In September, the PUC approved the department’s request to open its investigation, which is ongoing.
