May
11
Verizon to pay $72.4 million to improve West Va.’s PSTN service
Verizon’s impending $8.6 billion rural line sale to Frontier has one more hurdle to clear: a mandate by West Virginia’s Public Service Commission (PSC) to dedicate $72.4 million to improve the state’s wireline voice service. Along with the FCC, West Va. is the last state approval Verizon needs to wrap up the deal. The West Va. PSC wants Verizon to put these funds in an escrow account to make repairs to existing copper-based network, hire more technicians and maintain existing rights of way. Although Verizon agreed in December 2008 to update its wireline network, the PSC said that “Verizon’s efforts have been neither sufficient nor consistent.” Verizon, however, maintains it has stuck to its end of the deal. Since December ’08, Verizon said it hired more technicians and dedicated $11.9 million to improve the state’s service quality. West Virginia has been one of the most vocal opponents of the Frontier-Verizon deal. Unions and consumer advocate groups have argued that the $8.6 billion deal would not only take jobs out of the state, but Frontier would not be able to properly maintain service levels because it would be taking on more debt than it could handle. For more: Related articles:
- Charleston Gazette has this article
Give Frontier a chance
West Virginia continues to protest Verizon-Frontier deal
Frontier-Verizon deal faces regulatory showdown in W. Va.
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Frontier to buy Verizon rural lines for $5.25B
Related posts:
- Frontier gets West Virginia approval for Verizon rural line purchase
- Verizon Ordered To Improve West Virginia Lines – Must put $72.4 million into escrow account…
- Frontier commits $310 million to West Va. network
- West Virginia Approves Verizon/Frontier deal – Only the FCC remains….
- Frontier shuts down “extended service difficulty” in West Va. territory
Original story here.