Tech News Vermont

In a radio report, VPR’s John Dilon reported about a comment made by the PSB about revoking Fairpoint’s license in Vermont.  A posting over at the Gerson Lehrman Group suggests that this is an idle threat and that the PSB really can’t revoke Fairpoint’s license without enacting a state-run telco.

It’s the PSB’s job to review these things BEFORE they happen and ensure that deals like the Verizon to Fairpoint switch don’t put the public in jeopardy.  The PSB is hearing from Vermonters all around the state who are having trouble with their phone and Internet service.  They have to do something, but what can they do?

They made an idle threat about licence revocation to a company that’s already struggling.  This reminds me of those parents I see in the supermarket who threaten a crying child with a spanking if they don’t hush up.

If Fairpoint loses its license to operate in Vermont a few things happen:

• All the Fairpoint phones go dead.
• Most the Internet connectivity goes dark.
• Vermont’s unemployment rate goes up (all those Vermonters working for Fairpoint get fired.)
• Lawyer come out of the wood work to sue everyone.

If the PSB really wanted to put pressure on Fairpoint, they wouldn’t talk about revoking licenses at all.  They would talk about granting licenses to other telco companies.  The PSB should start working with other telecommunications companies to bring more competition to Vermont.  That would motivate Fairpoint to improve much faster than some pie-in-the-sky threat about revoking their license.

After the threat, what’s happened?  Fairpoint says that they will continue to work on the initiatives already underway to fix the troubles in Vermont.  They’ve announced a executive restructuring (i.e. someone got moved/fired) and a renewed focus on their New England business unit.  They know there are problems and they are working to fix them.  It doesn’t help Fairpoint any that the Time Argus runs a front page above the fold story on the July holiday weekend about how one Fairpoint customer is having troubles.  Sure there are a number of Fairpoint customers having troubles.  I’m one of them; my DSL never works in the rain and it’s been raining a lot; and Fairpoint has yet to send the promised tech out to my house.

But I’m one customer, the lady in the Times Argus story is one customer, each news story focuses on one Fairpoint customer having troubles.  How many Fairpoint customers are there in Vermont?  Out of all the Fairpoint customers, what percentage are having problems,  that’s the number I’d like to see.

The site is just about finished.  I’ve tinkered around with themes and settings and colors and plug-ins and I’m fairly happy with what I’ve put together.  I was planning on recording the first episode tonight, but I’ve run out of time.  So that will have to wait until tomorrow.  

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