The Albany telecommunications company FirstLight Fiber has withdrawn a petition to connect with the network of Vermont Telephone Co., or VTEL.
FirstLight, the company that acquired Vermont’s Sovernet in 2017, did not give any reasons for the change in plan. The company filed a letter with the Public Utility Commission on Friday saying it planned to withdraw its petition requesting arbitration in the matter, said Department of Public Service attorney Dan Burke. Burke said FirstLight’s lawyer, Greg Kennan of Fagelbaum and Heller in Massachusetts, left him a voicemail message Friday night to inform him of the decision. Kennan didn’t return a call Monday.
FirstLight sought to connect with VTEL, a private Springfield-based company that provides landline service to 14 Vermont villages and 4G LTE wireless internet to many areas of the state.
Under the federal Telecommunications Act, carriers like VTel are required to let competitors interconnect in order to share traffic. FirstLight was seeking portability for phone numbers for customers in VTel’s territory. But VTEL’s president, Michel Guité, refused, saying he wanted assurance that FirstLight didn’t have any equipment in its network made by the Chinese company Huawei Technologies.
Huawei is under scrutiny from federal regulators, and Guité cited security as one of his reasons for refusing the bid to connect. He also said he was worried that having Huawei equipment in his network might jeopardize federal funding from agencies like the Federal Communications Commission in the future.
Federal officials have raised concerns about global technology makers and security. The $716 billion federal defense policy bill signed into law in August includes some controls on U.S. government contracts with ZTE Corp. and Huawei, according to Reuters. Australia and New Zealand won’t allow Huawei to build its 5G networks there because of security concerns.
And this month, Vermont officials issued a directive prohibiting state offices from using equipment from Huawei and other firms, citing a security risk. Vermont’s Agency of Digital Services asked agencies to stop using products or services from Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky and Chinese companies Huawei, ZTE Corp., Hytera, Hangzhou Hikvision and Dahua. The agencies were asked to set in motion a plan to stop using that technology within 90 days.
FirstLight sought arbitration on the VTEL case from the Public Utility Commission. But before the case could get underway, FirstLight sought permission to withdraw its petition.
Guité cited the state’s decision as the reason for FirstLight’s change of heart.
“It is no coincidence that just days before FirstLight Fiber withdrew its arbitration request, the State of Vermont Agency of Digital Services issued a Cybersecurity Directive underscoring the cyber threats posed by equipment manufactured by Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies,” Guité said in a prepared statement on Friday.
Huawei is the second-largest smartphone maker in the world, according to Fast Company. Officials from the CIA, NSA, FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency have testified in Congress that Huawei and the Chinese company ZTE pose a security threat. Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei CFO and the daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested in Canada over claims a company she is connected with has ignored sanctions against Iran. The U.S. is seeking her extradition.
Burke said FirstLight does not need a ruling from a judge for the petition to be dismissed. Instead, only an order from the Public Utility Commission or its hearing officer is necessary.
“These disputes in general are unusual, but having something dismissed without further explanation isn’t particularly unusual,” he said.
