HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority voted to fine Frontier Communications nearly $2.5 million for what they say are lapses in service quality and performance.
Wednesday, the three PURA commissioners voted unanimously to issue a notice of violation and the $2,481,000 civil penalty against Frontier.
PURA claims Frontier repeatedly failed to meet two quality of service standards between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2023.
They say Frontier did not meet the minimum maintenance appointment met standard on 35 occasions and the minimum out-of-service repair standard on 51 occasions.
PURA also says Frontier failed to file 16 required exception reports for three-month periods.
This comes after the state Office of Consumer Counsel sent a petition to PURA earlier this year, to investigate the quality of service standards for Frontier.
The petition shows from Jan. 1, 2015 to June 30, 2023, Frontier failed to meet mandatory minimum standards of service for out-of-service repairs and maintenance appointments.
On average state-wide, Frontier was noncompliant for the maintenance standard 30 out of 96 months, or 31% of the time.
For the out-of-service repaired standard, they were noncompliant 44 out of 96 months, 46% of the time.
In the Capitol region, Frontier fell below the maintenance standard 37 out of 96 months, or 39%, more than one-third of the time.
Frontier also failed to meet their out-of-service repair standard 50% of the time in the Capitol region.
In May, Timothy Jensen, a lawyer for Frontier, issued a response, writing in part, “Frontier provides good quality service to its customers in the competitive Connecticut telecommunications market. There is no reason to continue to enforce decades-old legacy service quality regulations against just Frontier while other competing providers servicing the vast majority of Connecticut’s customers can operate freely in the market. There is no reason to penalize Frontier.”
PURA is ordering Frontier to pay almost all of their fine to Operation Fuel, to provide financial assistance to utility customers.
Frontier has 20 days from receipt of PURA’s notice to request a hearing with the authority.
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Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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