Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the H898 topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Broadband company tells Senate Finance extra state notices for copper-to-fiber swaps would be duplicative
Summary
Pinyon Fiber told the committee H.898 — requiring additional customer notices and battery-pack availability as phone networks transition from copper to fiber — would duplicate FCC rules and create state reporting burdens, and said the company already provides long notification cadences and an MOU with the department.
The committee heard testimony on H.898, a proposal to require additional consumer notices and certain consumer protections when telephone service providers transition customers from copper-based voice service to fiber-based networks.
Sarah Davis, representing Pinyon Fiber, opposed the bill and told senators her company already follows a long notification cadence (four months of progressively frequent outreach) and that the Federal Communications Commission's rules require providers to make battery backups available and to inform customers how to obtain them. "We are at Pinyon Fiber against this bill," Davis said, arguing the state requirement would add redundant notices and reporting obligations that impose additional operational work without improving customer outcomes.
Davis said Pinyon offers professional installations (free at the point of sale for many customers) and had transitioned nearly all its Vermont customers with no significant problems. She described a departmental memorandum of understanding (MOU) between providers and the department that supplements FCC guidance on battery backups and customer education.
The committee indicated it would invite the house reporter and other witnesses to discuss operational impacts and whether the state's rules should differ from or supplement federal obligations before advancing the bill.
