[V]ermont Telephone Co. is asking Vermont’s Public Utility Commission to block efforts by FirstLight to cut business ties in response to a VTDigger investigation into FirstLight’s use of Huawei equipment, which state contractors are banned from using due to security concerns.
In a filing Tuesday with the PUC, VTel says it received a letter from FirstLight’s chief legal officer, Jill Sandford, last week saying “as soon as possible” the company would “be disconnecting all services and infrastructure provided by FirstLight to [VTel].”
That letter was sent on July 3, two days after VTDigger published an article that included photographs of Huawei equipment plugged into FirstLight’s network at “co-location” offices in Montpelier and Stowe.
FirstLight accused VTel of “taking of unauthorized photos of FirstLight’s equipment in a secure facility and sharing those photographs with the media …,” according to the filing. They say VTel broke a confidentiality clause in a contract in which VTel leases “dark fiber” from FirstLight for a redundant line from Lebanon, New Hampshire, to Boston.
VTel President Michel Guite contests that accusation in the filing, explaining that a VTDigger reporter took the photos after being let into the secure facility by VTel.
“The reporter did not ask VTel’s permission to take photographs, and VTel did not request or encourage the reporter to take any photographs of FirstLight’s network equipment,” the company wrote.
VTDigger quoted Guite in its initial report on FirstLight’s network, but did not reveal how the reporter entered the secure facilities.
It is standard practice for journalists to keep confidential the source of documents or recordings. FirstLight has accused VTDigger of pursuing the Huawei story on behalf of VTel. The Springfield company had been a dispute with FirstLight over use of the Chinese-made gear since last year.
“Rather than thoroughly investigating a story and thoroughly vetting your sources, we suspect that you were working an agenda which was to create an unwarranted sense of fear among the citizens of Vermont and to act as the instrument of a disgruntled competitor,” Maura Mahoney, FirstLight’s vice president of marketing and product management, said in an email on July 5.
VTDigger spoke with industry experts and the heads of the two state agencies involved with relevant telecommunication contracts for the initial story. Guite was named in the article making specific accusations against FirstLight, and FirstLight declined the opportunity to respond to those claims in a point-by-point email.
FirstLight has also raised the specter of legal action against VTDigger since the article was published. The company, which is owned by a European hedge fund, also informed VTDigger last week that it was cancelling a $15,000 underwriting contract with the news organization.
Mahoney did not respond to an email and calls Tuesday afternoon seeking comment for this article. FirstLight’s use of Huawei equipment has become potentially problematic because of a state directive handed down in March that bans state agencies and contractors from using the Chinese-made technology.
Vermont was the first state in the country to take such a drastic measure in response to fears from President Donald Trump’s administration that the widespread use of Huawei equipment to build out 5G network infrastructure could expose telecommunications networks and power grids to Chinese surveillance, cyber attacks and espionage.
Huawei has said it has no connection with Chinese security agencies and claimed the U.S. fears are driven more by the company’s rising market share than any actual security concerns.
Vermont’s ban on Huawei equipment and a handful of other Chinese and Russian manufacturers may be waived on a case-by-case basis, however FirstLight has not requested any such waiver, according to the Agency of Digital Services.
FirstLight has denied that it is actively using Huawei in its network, despite photographs to the contrary, saying the equipment in question is decommissioned and will be removed. VTDigger observed incoming and outgoing data channels plugged into the Huawei equipment with green lights indicating that the power was on and data was being transported.
John Quinn, the Agency of Digital Services secretary who issued the Huawei ban, asked FirstLight this week to explain a previous document it submitted certifying that it was not using the Chinese equipment in service of state contracts.
“In particular, FirstLight is invited to please clarify how the information asserted in the article is not relevant to the products and services provided to the State,” Quinn wrote on July 8, setting a deadline of July 15 for a response.
VTel asks the PUC in its filing to issue an injunction against FirstLight, preventing it from taking any action against VTel until a hearing can be held on the matter.
Guite and Arianna Robinson, VTel’s chief technology officer, say the injunction is necessary for the company maintain reliable services to its customers. They dispute FirstLight’s claim that the terms of the contract between the companies have been broken in any way.
FirstLight’s use of Huawei equipment cannot be considered confidential because it is public knowledge, Guite says. Sovernet — a Vermont company acquired by FirstLight in March 2017 — publicized its agreement in 2005 to bolster its network using Huawei, he says.
“FirstLight’s real complaint is not with VTel but rather the potential compliance problem that public scrutiny of its reliance upon Huawei equipment poses under Vermont’s February 19, 2019 cybersecurity standard,” VTel writes. “As a result, FirstLight seeks to obscure or obfuscate such use.”
“And,” VTel continues, “it simultaneously is intent on causing harm to VTel and its customers by unlawfully disconnecting dark fibers and related collocation services that are essential to VTel’s ability to provide voice and data services to its customers.”
VTel’s only contract with FirstLight is the Lebanon-Boston fiber. That contract was inherited as part of FirstLight’s buying spree of telecommunication companies across the Northeast. In 2017 FirstLight acquired 186 Communications, which had a fiber network in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont.
VTel signed a deal with 186 in April 2014 to lease two “dark fibers” — unused fiber optic strands that are then “lit” by VTel’s equipment, according to the filing. Robinson, the company’s technology chief, notes that FirstLight did not explicitly mention this contract in its threat to disconnect services, but says it is the only agreement between the companies that could be cancelled.
Robinson writes that the fibers “provide necessary capacity and network redundancy for VTel’s customers in Vermont,” ensuring that they are able to connect to network outside of Vermont through a “peering point” in Boston, a site in which various ISPs are able to exchange traffic.
“These services include long distance voice calls, E911 location positioning services, cable television video, business-to-business communications, and consumer Internet traffic,” she writes.
VTel asks the PUC to respond to its request by scheduling a hearing on the merits of the petition and then deciding on an injunction as quickly as possible.
The PUC released an order on Wednesday telling FirstLight to respond to VTel’s petition by July 15 and setting an initial hearing on July 22.
