Consolidated Tweaks Proposed Vt. Regulation Plan

Consolidated Communications revised a three-year incentive regulation plan (IRP) proposed for Vermont in response to a change requested by the state's Department of Public Service. The plan to replace an IRP that expires this year would give Consolidated more pricing flexibility in the state. Consolidated filed a revised proposal Tuesday at the Vermont Public Utility Commission after conferring with the department about a change sought in reply comments Monday, Consolidated said in docket 21-4060-PET. The revised draft IRP replaces a sentence that said, “To the extent the customer orders Broadband or a long distance package, they no longer have [basic local exchange service (BLES)].” The new version says, “BLES subscribers are entitled to purchase any other stand-alone service offerings offered by the Company for which they are eligible.” Last week, the department sought PUC conditions on remediating host-remote isolation issues, providing bill credits, adding an emergency household service-quality metric and requiring 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for 98% of a municipality before the company could qualify for rate and service-quality deregulation (see 2210240058).