Website: www.puc.idaho.gov
Verizon must report monthly on northern Idaho outages
After receiving three separate complaints, the Idaho
Public Utilities Commission is ordering Verizon Northwest, Inc. to provide
monthly reports on local service outages in the company’s Orofino, Peck, Pierce
and Weippe exchanges. Further, Verizon is ordered to credit customer bills
whose repairs were not made within time limits established in the commission’s
customer relations rules.
The first complaint came last June from Clearwater Valley
Hospital and Clinics in Orofino, which alleged phone service was “either
intermittent or non-existent” from June 12-14, 2007. The hospital claimed it
was unable to perform critical functions during that time, including calling
air ambulance for a critically ill patient, sending radiology images and
providing electronic medical record information to physicians. The hospital
said it had to rely on a backup radio system that routes calls through Boise
and then to Lewiston.
In a report filed with the commission in September,
Verizon said a failure of a component in the company’s microwave system
impacted radio transmissions, causing half the service capacity to be
interrupted in the four exchanges. Verizon made repairs, but said the long-term
plan for addressing the microwave problem is to add additional high-capacity
circuits, with construction beginning in the second quarter of this year.
Since the repairs, Verizon maintained the microwave radio
systems have been running error-free. However, while the hospital’s complaint
was pending, commission staff received two more complaints from within the same
Verizon exchanges.
One complaint was lodged Sept. 1 by an assistant fire
chief for the Upper Fords Creek Rural Fire Department in Clearwater County who
said that emergency 911 service was disabled and not repaired until Sept. 4,
after the Labor Day weekend. A second complaint came on Nov. 9 from customers
in the Konkolville and Grangemont areas of the Orofino exchange. The customers
said local service was disrupted to about 250 to 300 customers. Verizon
restored service 25 hours later.
Beginning Feb. 11, Verizon must file monthly service
outage reports for the four exchanges and continue doing so until the high
capacity circuits are added, the commission said.
The commission criticized the company for waiting through
the Labor Day weekend to restore service to the Fire Department. “We find that
waiting to restore telephone service until of the conclusion of the three-day
Labor Day weekend is unreasonable in light of the minimum repair standards set
out,” in the commission’s customer relations rules, the commission said.
Commission rules require service restoration within 24 hours during the week
and within 48 hours when the outage is reported between noon on Saturday and 6
p.m. on Sunday.
The commission also expressed concern that Verizon is not
crediting customers the full amount required when service is not restored
within the time limit rules. Verizon said it credited customers, but was not
specific as to whether it credited customers the full amount as specified in the
commission’s customer service rules. The rules require customers be
“automatically credited” with at least one month of local exchange service if
service is not restored in a timely manner. Part of the report due the
commission must include the total number of customer credits provided.
In 2005, the Idaho Legislature removed much of the
commission’s regulatory authority over wireline telephone companies such as
Verizon and Qwest, maintaining that because of increased competition, price
regulation is no longer required. However, the commission did retain limited
regulatory authority over such matters as service quality standards, customer
relation rules and billing practices and procedures.
Verizon serves more than 118,000 wireline customers in 34
exchanges in northern Idaho.
Copies of the commission’s order and other documents
related to this case are available on the commission’s Web site at www.puc.idaho.gov. Click on “File Room,”
and then on “Telecommunications Cases,” and scroll down to Case No.
VZN-T-07-03.