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<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>PRC
likely to review Qwest’s treatment of ISPs<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h3><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><font size=4
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>New Mexico</span></font></b></st1:place></st1:State>
Business Weekly - by <a
href="http://www.bizjournals.com/search/results.html?Ntt=%22Kevin%20Robinson-Avila%22&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial"
id=byline>Kevin Robinson-Avila</a> NMBW Staff<o:p></o:p></h3>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:windowtext'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:windowtext;font-style:italic'> </span></font>Friday,
January 16, 2009<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Jane
Hill, president of <a
href="http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/related_content.html?topic=Cyber%20Mesa%20Telecom">Cyber
Mesa Telecom</a>, said that every month her staff gets a bill from <a
href="http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/gen/Qwest_Communications_International_342CE7822A42443C8030C2DBC9D77CD5.html"><strong><b><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>Qwest Communications
International</span></font></b></strong></a> that is thousands of pages long.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“I
have one full-time person who pretty much spends her time just dealing with
Qwest bills,” Hill said. “She has to review it carefully for
errors, and when she finds problems, it often takes months to get them
straightened out.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Like
many small phone and Internet companies, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Santa
Fe</st1:place></st1:City>’s Cyber Mesa buys wholesale access to
Qwest’s telecommunications infrastructure to sell retail services, such
as DSL. But Cyber Mesa and others say the Baby Bell has used its monopoly
control over fiber and wireline systems to make business costly and difficult.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Common
problems cited by the companies in a New Mexico Attorney General’s report
include lengthy phone bills (often with extensive errors and no easy way to
address them), as well as extensive delays and problems when competitors ask
Qwest to provide wholesale services.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>In
addition, Hill and executives from other companies said Qwest regularly
“slams” customers by unilaterally cutting off Internet service to
their patrons without reason. Then, before hooking them back up, these
executives add, Qwest tries to convince customers to switch to Qwest.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>The
state attorney general documented these complaints by Cyber Mesa and five other
companies in a report it filed with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission
last May.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>The
AG is now pressing the PRC to hold hearings on the issues raised, said
Assistant Attorney General Brian Harris.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“The
report aimed to supply probable cause to encourage the PRC to open an
investigation,” Harris said. “That still needs to happen.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Qwest
spokesman Mark Molzen, however, said the AG report lacks specific case examples
and is largely based on “anonymous hearsay.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“The
commission has never made a finding that Qwest has violated any law, contract,
tariff or rule in connection with any of our ISP [Internet service provider]
customers,” Molzen said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Nevertheless,
PRC Chairman Sandy Jones said the commission will look at the issues very soon.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“I
hope to get it on the agenda as a general discussion item in the next couple of
weeks,” Jones said. “We must decide if we need a hearing to examine
this further, or if it should just go straight into an investigation by
commission staff.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>PRC
Vice Chairman David King said he wants the attorney general to provide more
information.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“The
report contains general charges that are not very specific,” King said.
“If we get enough specifics, that might open it up to a more general
hearing about the issues.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>For
their part, Hill and executives from two other companies — CNSP Internet
in Santa Fe and <a
href="http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/related_content.html?topic=Southwest%20Communications%20Systems">Southwest
Communications Systems</a> in Gallup — said specific case documentation
would be easy to compile.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>All
three companies complain of Qwest’s “slamming” [FCC
definition: When your preferred telephone company is switched without your
permission.] of customers, and they all described extensive billing problems in
detail.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“The
slamming just goes on and on,” Hill said. “Last week, we had two
people slammed in one day, and another one over the weekend. Qwest uses any
excuse when talking with customers to pull them off Cyber Mesa and put them on
to Qwest service.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Wendy
Heinz, CFO and co-owner of Southwest Communications, said slamming is hurting
her company.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“It’s
the biggest problem we face,” Heinz said. “We constantly lose DSL
customers because of it.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Heinz
also said Qwest frequently bills her company for services not provided, and it
has locked her firm into long-term contracts that prevent her from getting
price reductions and discounts that Qwest retail customers receive.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>CNSP
Vice President Albert Catanach said his company has faced chronic billing
problems with Qwest.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>For
example, CNSP requested a DS-3 circuit from Qwest in 2003 to offer faster DSL
service to its business customers. The upgrade was not performed until 2005,
and then, Catanach says, Qwest ended up offering a much more expensive OC-3
line that CNSP refused to pay for.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“We’ve
never had or used the OC-3, but Qwest has been billing us for it right up to
today,” Catanach said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>In
addition, CNSP says Qwest double-bills it for T-1 cables every time CNSP
switches a current T-1 line to a new customer.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Qwest
now says CNSP has $460,000 in outstanding bills, pushing CNSP to seek PRC
intervention, Catanach said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Harris
said the attorney general wants these issues examined collectively by the PRC
as part of a broad hearing to better regulate Qwest’s treatment of ISPs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>“I
don’t believe these problems can be resolved on a case-by-case basis,”
Harris said. “The PRC needs to create the appropriate conditions for
competition to thrive.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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