Pa. PUC Grants Telecom Exits With New Chair, Commissioner

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission granted multiple petitions to discontinue and abandon telecom services in the state at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. Commissioners voted 5-0 for petitions by Mitel Cloud Services, RCLEC and Mosaic Networx. Also, the PUC unanimously supported applications filed by Plenary Broadband Infrastructure and PBI PA AssetCo to provide telecom service as a competitive access provider. And the PUC voted 5-0 to approve an Entouch Wireless petition to partly relinquish its eligible telecom carrier designation in the area previously served by underlying carrier Verizon Wireless, and to remove AT&T as the company’s underlying carrier. Thursday was Commissioner Stephen DeFrank’s first meeting as PUC chairman, but he participated virtually because he said he had COVID-19. It was also Kimberly Barrow’s first meeting as commissioner. Commissioners elected her vice chair before the meeting. The Pennsylvania Senate confirmed Barrow last month (see 2308300037).