March 25, 2010
 
GUEST EDITORIAL: Verizon Sale Too Risky for West Virginians
 
By Gary Zuckett
 
On Tuesday, March 16th members from several organizations gathered outside the WV Pubic Service Commission’s (PSC’s ) office to deliver a tall stack of petitions containing the signatures of over 5,000 West Virginians opposed to the sale of Verizon’s land-based phone lines to a company called Frontier Communications. I don’t know if you’ve heard about this proposed sale but, if you have a hard-wired phone in your house or business, this sale could have big impact on your service.
 
Verizon spends tons of money advertising and not nearly enough maintaining its land lines. I get a flyer from them in the mail two or three times a month and one can’t watch TV without viewing their wireless commercials. That’s the point – they’re promoting wireless while letting their land lines rot and they can’t wait to get shed of them like a snake shedding its old worthless skin.
 
Verizon has already dumped their wired service in New England and Hawaii by selling it to smaller companies in a complicated deal that left these smaller outfits holding $Millions in debt while Verizon walked away with tax-free Millions through an obscure tax loophole.
 
This is all well and good as corporations are in the business of making money. Except, in these other deals the smaller company had lots of problems integrating all their new customers and ultimately went bankrupt under the debt load while Verizon laughed all the way to the bank.
 
I know that Verizon has lots of problems with its land service and I think it’s not an accident. They believe wireless is the future and don’t want to put good money into old technology. But customers that clamor for the company to be sold to anybody else in hopes of getting better service - beware! If you think your phone service is bad now, what will it be like if Frontier buys it then and goes belly-up? It’s sort of like the old saying about getting “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
 
And what about your phone bill? When Frontier needs more cash (remember all that debt?) to service all the old neglected Verizon equipment they’ll go to the PSC hat in hand and get a big rate increase – you betcha!
 
Back to those petitions, the organizations represented at their delivery were Communications Workers of America - local 2001, AARP – the largest senior organization in the country, and WV Citizen Action – the state’s oldest consumer watchdog organization. These diverse groups came together to protect the workers, consumers and especially seniors that would be adversely affected by any disruption in their telephone service or spikes in its cost.
 
Much of our states rural population has no other access to telephone service besides that old wire connected to their home. It is more than a convenience; it’s a life line to the outside in case of fire, flood, health trauma or other disaster. The elderly are particularly at risk without a dependable communications outlet. We all depend on the timely help offered by dialing 911 when an emergency erupts, but even this essential service was disrupted for a time in New England after Verizon sold off its lines. For more information on the dangers of this sale see: www.wvcag.org
 
There are just too many risks involved in this proposed sale. Even the PSC’s own staff and their Consumer Advocate’s office have called for the sale to be rejected as proposed because of the financial uncertainty and the undue risks to the citizens of our state. The Commission is now going over the testimony from their public hearings and the filings from both sides. They will make a decision in April or May. Now is time for all West Virginians to weigh in and contact the Public Service Commission to let their opinion count. Give them a call (while your phone still works) at 1-800-344-5113.
 
Gary Zuckett is the Executive Director of West Virginia Citizen Action Group