ABQjournal: Only Phone Company Can Fix Busy Signal:
Qwest rolled out a new investment plan this month that promises to advance the state of telecommunications in New Mexico. The company and the state executive branch officials who negotiated the plan would like to see the Public Regulation Commission expedite its consideration.
But— somebody get a hold of the telephone company— there's an interminable busy signal.
The new proposal is supposed to follow through on Qwest's 2001 agreement with the PRC to invest $788 million in infrastructure. When it became apparent more than a year ago that Qwest would fall short of that obligation by about $220 million, the commission ordered the company to get back on track or make up the shortfall with rebates to ratepayers.
Qwest challenged the PRC's authority to make such an order right up to the New Mexico Supreme Court, which essentially ruled that regulators have the authority to regulate.
Case closed? Not quite, because Qwest has asked the court to rehear the case, a procedural tactic which, though it is unlikely to change the outcome, ties the PRC's hands on the new proposal, according to commissioners.
"If Qwest is serious about moving forward, ... I would ask that Qwest ask the Supreme Court to drop its motion," Commission Chairman Ben Lujan said Thursday— a reasonable request.
Unless Qwest's new investment plan is just a second-choice alternative, it should hang up on the blatant delaying tactic in the Supreme Court.
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