Since the state opened an investigation into Consolidated Communications last year, after receiving reports that the internet and phone provider was taking days to restore downed service, the company’s performance has improved dramatically.
But state officials say they’re still not satisfied with Consolidated, and that the company — the largest landline provider in the state — is still failing to repair outages and other issues in a timely fashion.
Last September, Vermont’s Public Utility Commission opened the investigation after the Department of Public Service, which regulates telecom providers, said it received 143 complaints in three months about the utility’s delayed responses to service outages.
The number of complaints represented a 2,760% spike compared to the same period — July through September — in 2017.
The state expects the telecommunications companies it regulates to resolve 70% of their service problems within 24 hours. At the time, state officials said the company was only fixing 26% of issues within that window.
Recent service data show Consolidated’s response times have stabilized since last year.
In the first quarter of 2019, it was able to fix 46% of reported service problems within 24 hours, and in the second quarter its average shot up to 72%, according to testimony the company provided to the PUC this month.
In July, the company’s response time fell slightly to 65%, the company reported.
Clay Purvis, the director of telecommunications and connectivity at the Department of Public Service, said that while the company’s wait times are going down, they are still performing under regulators’ expectations.
“They are improving from their all-time low when we initiated the investigation,” Purvis said.
“I don’t think we’re happy with them yet. They are showing some improvement though.”
In many rural areas of the state without cellphone service, Consolidated is the only company that offers landline and internet to Vermonters.
The influx of complaints about service delays last year prompted concern from state officials that for periods of time consumers had no way to contact first responders in an emergency.
Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, chair of the Legislature’s Joint Information Technology Oversight Committee, said that she’s heard from two constituents in the past month who have had to wait days for their Consolidated landline service to be restored.
The constituents, who live in Whitingham and have no cellphone reception, told Sibilia they had to wait three and four days respectively, before the company repaired their phone connection.
“What if this is an elderly shut-in that needs assistance in a place with no service?” Sibilia said. “These times are long and it’s making me a little anxious considering that we’re in the middle of a service quality investigation that we’re still seeing these times going up.”
Consolidated has told the state that a flurry of technician retirements in 2017 and 2018 left the company short-staffed in Vermont last year, and that a series of severe weather events also spread its workers thin.
The company said it recently directed 15 additional full-time technicians and 28 third-party contractors to work in Vermont.
“Consolidated has made significant improvements over the past year and has achieved reduced repair intervals for traditional voice services, reduced complaints and increased cleared-in-24 service levels,” Michael Schultz, Consolidated’s vice president of regulatory and public policy said in a statement Monday.
“Consolidated understands the importance of traditional voice services and is committed to serving Vermonters,” he added.
In testimony before legislators, the company has also said that the state’s current 24 hour repair standard for 70% of customers is too strict.
Consolidated wants to extend the window to 48 hours, arguing that the market for telecoms services has seen major changes since standard was set in 1999.
In testimony filed with the PUC this month, Schultz said that the 24-hour standard is “inefficient and geographically challenging” for the company that serves customers across the state.
He said that a 48-hour window would allow the company “to manage repair and installation work in a meaningful and economically sustainable way that would also set a realistic completion expectation for customers.”
Purvis and Sibilia stood by the 24-hour threshold.
“Going from 24 to 48 seems definitely in the wrong direction for places that don’t have any other means of communication,” Sibilia said.
The PUC’s investigation into Consolidated’s service quality is ongoing, and the quasi-judicial panel is expected to make a ruling in the case, which could include regulatory changes or sanctions, in the coming months.
