Local officials call out CenturyLink over extended outages
A local state representative and two state senators are asking the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to convene an investigation into the recent weeklong extended telephone service outage and ongoing maintenance issues experienced by customers of CenturyLink.
Rep. Perry Stambaugh, R-Perry/Cumberland, as well as Sen. Judy Ward and Sen. John DiSanto, who represent parts of Cumberland or Perry counties, asked the PUC in a letter last week to look into CenturyLink, which blamed the extended outage of services on Hurricane Ida’s flooding in Philadelphia.
The three officials said they received many complaints from their constituents about the outages.
The letter requests that the PUC look into whether CenturyLink is complying with Pennsylvania codes related to customer trouble reports and service without unreasonable interruptions.
“CenturyLink has a responsibility to its customers, who pay for a service to be reliable. Extended disruptions are unacceptable and could be dangerous if a household is encountering an emergency in which someone needs to call for help,” Stambaugh said in a news release.
The lawmakers also recommended that PUC deny or delay any pending acquisition or sale of CenturyLink facilities until a corrective action plan is implemented. Stambaugh said CenturyLink, rebranded as Lumen, is reportedly selling incumbent carrier operations in 20 states to funds managed by Apollo Global Management.
The three lawmakers also wondered why operations are being handled in Philadelphia when the service territory is primarily in south-central Pennsylvania.
“The excuses and stonewalling have to stop,” Stambaugh said. “We have too many reports of CenturyLink facilities laying on ground for more than a year without repair, fire and rescue vehicles waiting hours at the site of an accident for CenturyLink crews to arrive and fix downed lines, and customer complaints about deficient ‘high-speed’ internet service.
“The collapse of the CenturyLink system after Hurricane Ida is the final straw,” he said. ”Local phone companies need to stop being part of the problem and decide to become part of the solution in delivering world-class telecommunications, especially voice and broadband, to customers in their service areas. Throwing money at them to ‘do their job’ and make needed investments is not the answer until they demonstrate marked progress.”
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