Altice Signs Pact With Local Governments to Resolve NJ Probe
Altice urged the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to quickly OK a settlement resolving the board’s service quality probe. The settlement has Altice pledging to spend $11 million on its network and making other broadband adoption, network resiliency and customer service commitments. “It’s an important settlement” for local governments, said Best Best attorney Gerard Lederer, who represented Piscataway, New Jersey, in the proceeding.
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Vote on the pact "at the earliest feasible agenda session,” Altice urged the BPU Thursday in docket CX21020139. Altice, New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, the attorney general’s office and many local governments signed a stipulation, which would resolve the New Jersey probe that opened in 2021 (see 2103160021). The BPU’s next meeting is Jan. 10, but it hasn’t released an agenda. At a Wednesday meeting, the board kicked off Altice’s systemwide cable franchise renewal process by releasing an ascertainment report (see 2312200064). The report found that Altice remedied customer service problems exposed by the board's 2021 service quality investigation.
Altice pledged to spend at least $11 million on its hybrid fiber optic-coaxial (HFC) network in calendar year 2023. It also made broadband adoption commitments, including participating in the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) or any successor effort in New Jersey for at least three years after the settlement's approval "or until the program ends, whichever is earlier,” it said. Altice said it would provide free 1 Gbps service for three years to one community anchor in each of the 14 communities identified by the board during the proceeding. Households and businesses across the HFC network will be able to get all available speed tiers, including the 1 Gbps product, it said.
The company promised to give service metric updates to the 14 identified communities twice a year. Altice would send the board a network maintenance plan and an emergency response plan describing what the company is doing "to address emergencies resulting from power outages, sudden and prolonged increases in network demand, fires, storms, natural disasters, attacks, supply chain interruptions, lack of reasonable access to personnel resources, severe economic disruption or similar contingencies." It would start maintaining a map showing service outages with estimated times to repair and restore them. In addition, it would provide open Wi-Fi service to all New Jersey residents and small businesses in its service area during declared states of emergency.
Altice will report to BPU staff and Rate Counsel on "the total amount of credits for service outages issued to New Jersey customers and the number of customers who received such credits in the most recent 12 months." It would be due one year after the settlement is approved. Not less than 90% of the time, under normal operating conditions, Altice committed to keeping telephone answer time by customer service representatives -- including wait time -- to fewer than 30 seconds. If a call needs to be transferred, it shouldn't take longer than 30 seconds, Altice added. Subscribers will receive busy signals not more than 3% of the time, it said.
The New Jersey BPU deserves praise for welcoming local government officials’ participation and taking their concerns seriously, said Lederer. “You don’t think of local governments as being able to enforce broadband service levels and customer standards, and yet … it appears that’s going to be a real possibility.” People in several New Jersey communities could not rely on the Altice network during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, but the record shows the company is improving. Lederer said Altice has started implementing some commitments, including the required 2023 investment.