Lumen Denied Utah COLR Relief; May Have to Rehab Minn. Network

Lumen’s CenturyLink faced regulatory setbacks at multiple state commissions last week. On Friday, the Utah Public Service Commission denied a CenturyLink petition seeking statewide exemption from carrier of last resort (COLR) requirements for new customers. Earlier in the week, a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge recommended that the commission find the carrier failed to provide adequate service. In addition, the Montana PSC denied a CenturyLink petition and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission recommended a penalty.

CenturyLink is "disappointed" and is "reviewing next steps" in Utah and Minnesota, a Lumen spokesperson said Monday. Both states have outdated landline regulations that don't reflect increased competition or technological change, the company rep added. The Utah PSC's decision to keep COLR rules doesn't "follow the legislature’s policy to reduce regulation as competition develops," the spokesperson said. Lumen raised similar concerns with a Montana PSC decision last week to deny the carrier a six-year waiver of a service quality rule (see 2403130030).

“CenturyLink has lost market share within a shrinking market for landline telephone services,” many Utah residents cut the cord, and several providers sell voice and data services in the state, the Utah PSC agreed in Friday’s 2-0 order (docket 23-049-01). “However, the evidence as applied to other relevant factors does not support granting the Petition.” The parties earlier tried to reach a resolution through private talks, while clashing on a definition of the terms “captive customers” and “functionally equivalent” in prehearing briefs and testimony (see 2401290062 and 2401260059).

Effective competition doesn’t exist everywhere, the Utah commission found. Nor does submitted evidence support granting COLR relief in a portion of CenturyLink territory, it said. “The evidence also does not adequately support the availability of competing telecommunications services in Utah at comparable prices, terms, quality, and conditions," the PSC said. “CenturyLink claims that satellite and broadband service are equivalent to stand-alone voice service,” but voice services are typically add-ons -- at additional cost -- for satellite and broadband services, it said. “Moreover, CenturyLink’s own data also shows that many Utah customers currently still rely solely on basic landline telephone service.”

CenturyLink didn’t adequately support its claims that COLR relief is in the public interest, the PSC said. “There is no evidence supporting that if the Petition was granted CenturyLink would modernize. CenturyLink’s reliance on the [federal broadband equity, access and deployment] program is also unavailing because it is premature since the evidence shows it will not be fully deployed until 2029 and that voice service offerings are not currently required.” Besides, the state agency said, “there appears to be no real benefit to exempting CenturyLink from its COLR obligations when its federal ETC obligations will remain unchanged regardless of its COLR status in Utah.”

Meanwhile, at the Minnesota PUC, ALJ Kimberly Middendorf recommended that commissioners find CenturyLink “failed to provide adequate service … when customers experienced multiple service outages or disruptions caused by deficient outside plant or equipment over an approximately four-and-a-half-year period.” The PUC should order that CenturyLink “review and rehab certain plant and equipment identified as causing or contributing to repeated service outages or disruptions, to make periodic progress reports, and to reduce repair appointment windows from eight hours to four hours,” Middendorf wrote Wednesday in docket C-20-432. “These modest requirements are tailored to address the needs of customers most affected by the failure to comply with the telephone service quality rules.”

“While CenturyLink’s overall statewide network performs satisfactorily, certain customers -- most commonly located in the rural periphery -- are not receiving adequate service,” said Middendorf, estimating that the group represents about 2% of the carrier’s Minnesota landline customers. The Minnesota Commerce Department and Office of Attorney General (OAG) showed that “CenturyLink devotes few resources to proactive rehabilitation work and lacks procedures for systematically or comprehensively evaluating the performance of its [plain old telephone service] network.” Also, the carrier hasn’t “come reasonably close” to meeting a minimum standard of clearing 95% of out-of-service troubles within 24 hours, the ALJ said.

Minnesota commissioners now must decide whether to accept, modify or reject the ALJ's recommendations. Before then, the parties may file exceptions to the ALJ ruling and the commission could hold an oral argument. Minnesota Commerce and OAG last January pressed the PUC to hold the carrier accountable, prompting the commission to refer the matter to the ALJ (see 2401180030).

Lumen could additionally face a $252,000 fine at the Washington UTC. The company violated state rules with excessive wait times for reaching live customer service representatives and failures to provide required documents to the commission, the UTC said Thursday. Staff found that the carrier failed to connect customers within 60 seconds nine times from March through November 2022. In addition, it failed to provide all requested documentation within 10 business days to the agency on 234 occasions from March 2023 through February 2024, the UTC said. The commission scheduled an April 8 prehearing conference to set a schedule for the case (docket UT-240078).

"CenturyLink is evaluating these new allegations and will fully engage with the [Washington] commission and staff to work toward a reasonable resolution," the Lumen spokesperson said.