Fresh news from Dan Barlow from the Vermont Press Bureau, offered without comment. Because what more need be said?
Vermont officials asked state regulators Tuesday to revoke FairPoint Communication’s authority to operate, saying they have lost faith in the company’s ability to do its job.
The Vermont Public Service Department asked state regulators to investigate the troubled telecommunications company, specifically why its certificate of public good – essentially its authority to operate in the state – should not be taken away.
Last straw ?A couple weeks back the DPS hired a private law firm to advise the state on how to handle a possible FairPoint bankruptcy .This move seems like it could make it harder for FairPoint to renegotiate it’s bond payments before bankruptcy,could it put the state in a better position if bankruptcy is declared ?
I have a lot of concerns about how this administration would handle any collapse of Fairpoint.
My suspicion is that the phone system would revert to Verizon, but with plenty of stranded costs (guess who gets to cover those?) and the administration/Verizon colluding to loosen the service standards and regulatory constraints – all in the name of “incentives” needed to bring Verizon back in. And of course, voiding any union contracts.
Fairpoint is still heavily entangled with Verizon. Verizon never really left the scene – which makes me wonder if failure wasn’t the plan all along.
This is consistent with the general policy of deliberately putting the state over a barrel in negotiations with special interests. Everything from closing instate prisons (got to hire CCA) to impeding alternative energy development (got to relicense ENVY) fits into the same pattern.