CenturyLink responds to Washington state fines

Published 9:23 am Tuesday, September 2, 2014

In August, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission recommended that CenturyLink be penalized to the tune of $170,000 for the 10-day outage last November in the San Juans. County Council chairman Rick Hughes said he is glad that UTC, the state agency responsible for regulating the telecom industry, has taken this step, but he wonders if it’s enough.

“I want to know if they have made any changes; is there better customer service or proof of redundancy?” asked Hughes. “If not, I don’t think they have been fined enough.”

Here is CenturyLink’s response to questions asked by the Sounder:

Sounder: What improvements to the infrastructure serving the San Juan Islands are planned?

CL: We have installed new radios and electronic equipment along with fiber to establish a redundant path from Friday Harbor to Orcas (via Mt. Constitution). We completed the fiber work and installation of the radios and equipment in July 2014. Monitoring and testing of the new back-up route is in progress and anticipated to be completed by mid-September. We are awaiting approval from the FCC to establish a radio connection between Mt Constitution and Bellingham.

Sounder: What does CenturyLink think about the $170,000 fine?

CL: While CenturyLink did not cause the undersea fiber cable outage, our crews worked around the clock and dedicated more than 1,000 hours to repair San Juan Islands’ service. During the outage, we provided the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission  and other affected state agencies with daily reports, and we kept residents informed through town hall meetings, door-to-door visits as well as through social media updates. We also credited customers’ bills above and beyond the required guidelines. We fully cooperated with the state, using our own resources to help determine the cause and to reduce the likelihood of future outages.