BYE-BYE VERIZON?

Verizon is once again trying to sell off its telephone service in Maine. That could be bad news for all telephone users, for Maine’s economy and for the company’s 3,000 employees here.

Details are skimpy. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the big New York-based company was offering to sell its traditional telephone lines in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire as part of a plan to concentrate on wireless and broadband areas and get out of the traditional phone business in areas not slated for fiber upgrades. Verizon officials say only that they are evaluating various possibilities and that no decisions have been made.

For Maine, a sale could mean poorer service, higher rates, an uncertain future for employees’ well paying jobs, and an indefinite postponement of broadband Internet service in Maine’s broad rural areas.

Leading a mounting protest is the telephone division of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 2327. Business Manager Peter J. McLaughlin claims wide bipartisan support for his demand for an economic impact inquiry and a public hearing before a sale is approved. He has met with Gov. John Baldacci and other Democratic officials and plans meetings with Maine’s Republican senators. He has asked union members to write to the Public Utility Commission and members of the Legislature.

While Verizon has recently improved its installation and repair service, it has made no move to provide fiber optic service and universal broadband service in Maine. In fact, says Mr. McLaughlin, the company has been using as many as 50 of its Maine technicians to install fiber optic and broadband service in Manchester and Portsmouth, N.H.

Before deregulation, phone service had to be universal, even in rural areas where installations were costly. Verizon now can “cherry pick” – improve service by substituting fiber for copper lines only where denser population makes it profitable. That leaves rural areas of Maine out in the cold.

Maine could be even worse off if its phone service is sold to a small company that lacked resources for good service and expansion and would be most interested in cutting costs and improving cash flow.

But blocking a sale is difficult since the burden of proof is on the objectors. The PUC can stop a sale only if protesters can prove in advance that it would harm consumers.

What’s needed to protect Maine’s interest in maintaining and improving phone service is careful scrutiny of any proposed sale by Verizon and a thorough study of its likely impact on Maine’s economy, quality of telephone service, employment level of telephone workers, their prospects for good pay and benefits, and prospects for statewide broadband service.

Verizon, of course, has a right to take steps to maximize its profits. But, despite deregulation, its role in Maine remains, in effect, a regulated public utility. It should be regulated in the public interest to the full extent of the law.