State orders CenturyLink to improve service after Rapp o cials urged action
The Virginia State Corporation Commission ordered that CenturyLink’s parent company work to improve internet and phone service in Rappahannock and other countries as a precondition for the transfer of its assets to a ber-optics company.
The order was issued in late April following a February hearing before the commission where Rappahannock County’s Wake eld Supervisor and Chair Debbie Donehey testi ed alongside of cials from Albemarle, Nelson, Warren and Buckingham counties in a bid to regulate the behavior
of Lumen Technologies, CenturyLink’s parent company, as it seeks to transfer its assets to Connect Holding, LLC. as part of its sale of CenturyLink.
Flint Hill resident Randall Bartlett, a former information technology and telecommunications consultant, also testi ed before the body about his frustration with CenturyLink’s service. Donehey and the other officials hoped to ensure better service for residents who suffer from frequent and lengthy phone outages that can pose potentially dire health and public safety concerns.
The company’s faltering copper wire internet and phone service, according to county officials and Rappahannock residents, can be disrupted for weeks by even the tamest of weather events, including mild rain or wind.
“The Commission is cognizant of and troubled by the numerous complaints regarding the definices in the level of service quality, in terms of poor quality, related loss of service, and lengthy delays in repairs and restoration of service,” the commission wrote in the order.
The order marked the culmination of months of work on behalf of Hampton Supervisor Keir Whitson and Donehey, who both have numerous vulnerable constituents whose CenturyLink service is frequently interrupted.
The two had attempted negotiating with company representatives to little avail, so at a recent Virginia Association of Counties conference Donehey rallied a group of county offcials also experiencing difficulties with CenturyLink in an effort to shore up support behind her cause.
“I think we got what we wanted. Now the proof is in the pudding,” Donehey said in an interview in hopes that the company follows through on the order.
O cials with CenturyLink have indicated in documents led with the state that the company will cooperate with terms outlined in the order. Once the transfer is complete, CenturyLink is required to provide reports that outline “measurable and veri able commitments” to ongoing maintenance, repair and replacement of its copper wire network.
Anecdotally, in recent weeks there have been CenturyLink crews making rounds to work on repairs in all corners of the county where the company provides service, according to Donehey and other accounts. “We really have to be diligent about this because I don’t want to be forgotten,” Donehey said. “Right now, we’ve obviously got the hornet’s nest lit. But once the trucks come through and do what they think resolves a majority of our issues, how hard is it going to be to get them back out here?”
Following the hearing, the commission ordered that CenturyLink continue work to address service outages in the ve counties before and a er the completion of the asset transfer, expected to take place in July.
The company will be required to submit reports to the state until it is able to demonstrate compliance with a set of issued guidelines for three consecutive months, according to the commission’s order. If terms are not met, the commission may take additional action against the company, the document said.
CenturyLink must restore at least 80% of outages within 48 hours of them being reported and no less than 95% of outages within 96 hours. Exceptions will be made only in the event of severe disruptions like weather or natural disasters. Customers who have medical forms on file with the company will be given priority, having their service restored within 24 hours, the documents said.
The company was also ordered to continue working to identify copper cables that o en create problems — which includes ve cables and 257 lines in Rappahannock County — and work to rehabilitate or replace them.
CenturyLink, which is the only telecommunications option for many residents in the Flint Hill and Washington areas, utilizes DSL internet, which feeds connection through copper wires — now a dying medium of service that is di cult and costly for companies to repair.
In many well-served parts of America, copper is a thing of the past, having been replaced by fiber for high-speed internet and phone service. But in parts of Rappahannock, one of the least densely populated counties in Virginia, copper wires will presumably remain the only universal carrier supported phone service until fiber can be installed.