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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20120524Comments.pdfJean Jewell From: maneeshpangasa@gmail.com Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 5:31 PM To: Jean Jewell; Beverly Barker; Gene Fadness Subject: PUC Comment Form A Comment from Maneesh Pangasa follows: Case Number: NF-t2--e1 Af -r-/2-O3 Name: Maneesh Pangasa Address: 3562 South 18th Avenue City: Yuma State: AZ Zip: 85365 Daytime Telephone: 9284468999 Contact E-Mail: maneeshpangasa(majl.com Name of Utility Company: CenturyLink Acknowledge: acknowledge Please describe your comment briefly: Deregulation of telecommunications and cable companies have failed to serve the public interest. The wire-line broadband market is a duopoly headed for a cable monopoly if Verizon Wireless gets its sweetheart deals with Big Cable companies approved. Competition mandates are a must and a wireless divestiture of AT&T and Verizon should occur. That being said I understand CenturyLink wants a law in Idaho that Qwest/US West had to comply with and did for the past 22 years overturned requiring it to repair service when service is down in 24 hours or provide one month of service free of charge. Giant telecoms are threatening universal service for basic telephone users and even universal broadband service for basic DSL etc. By the way it may be time for a cable broadband divestiture considering the way Comcast's unequal data caps exempt their video traffic but not competing online services. I urge the State of Idaho's Public Utilites Commission (and would urge Arizona's as well where I live) to not give in to these lobbying efforts and demands for more deregulation. We need competition mandates for public utilities and to protect universal service. It is time to breakup the monopolies. The form submitted on http://www.Duc.idaho.gov/forms/jpuc1/ipuc.hml IP address is 98.145.115.163 Jean Jewell From: maneeshpangasa@me.com Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 6:05 PM To: Jean Jewell; Beverly Barker; Gene Fadness Subject: PUC Comment Form A Comment from Maneesh Pangasa follows: Case Number: tt1 -=127—01 G A/9 4~-/9€03 Name: Maneesh Pangasa Address: 3562 South 18th Avenue City: Yuma State: AZ Zip: 85365 Daytime Telephone: 9284468999 Contact E-Mail: maneeshpangasame.com Name of Utility Company: CenturyLink Acknowledge: acknowledge Please describe your comment briefly: To the Idaho Public Utilites Commission: I just filed comments critical of CenturyL1nks proposal being scrutinized in this proceeding. I'd like to add that while CenturyLink is lobbying to get a law requiring them to repair service when down within 24-48 hours or to provide a month of free service to subscribers. Despite the apparent contradiction that delivering reduced service is better for consumers, the PUC has been negotiating a compromise, offering to eliminate the service credit requirement and extend the window for repairs to 48 hours. Before they do, they might want to review CenturyLink's performance in Arizona, where the company has been caught installing repaired phone lines in pavement cracks and atop public roadways. The PUC staff questioned claims made by both CenturyLink and Frontier Communications, another phone company that supports the repeal of the repair rules. "CenturyLink argues that a large percentage of customers now have access to wireless and broadband voice services," the staff report says. "For CenturyLink's legacy Qwest customers located in urban areas, this may be true. It may not be true for customers in the very rual parts of CenturyLink's service territory. When wireline service fails, few, if any, alternative communication services are available in some rural areas." The PUC staff also argued the impact on small business in Idaho could be significant. Small businesses still rely overwhelmingly on traditional landline services to conduct business and process credit card payments. Prolonged outages could create significant economic harm for affected customers. The form submitted on http://www.puc.idaho.gov/forms/ipucl/ipuc.html IP address is 98.145.115.163 1