Verizon Might Settle Tracfone Migration Kerfuffle in Calif.

Verizon and California consumer advocates might settle a dispute at the California Public Utilities Commission on the carrier’s challenges migrating Tracfone customers still using non-Verizon networks. The Utility Reform Network (TURN), Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) and Verizon “have been actively pursuing a potential global settlement of issues” in CforAT’s Oct. 6 petition for modification and “request the stay so that we may continue those discussions,” CforAT Legal Counsel Paul Goodman wrote to CPUC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola in an email distributed Thursday to the service list in docket A.20-11-001. The parties ask the CPUC to stay the Nov. 5 deadline for responses to CforAT’s petition, said Goodman. “While Verizon is prepared to file a Response on November 5 if necessary, we believe that we will be able to reach an agreement.” CforAT’s Oct. 6 petition asked the CPUC to modify its 2021 decision approving the Verizon-Tracfone deal to require Verizon to provide free Verizon-network compatible devices to any Tracfone customer that bought service after Nov. 19, 2021, with devices that worked on AT&T or T-Mobile networks. Last week’s stay request wouldn’t affect Verizon's July 27 petition to modify the 2021 decision to remove a Nov. 22 migration deadline and eliminate penalties, a request that consumer groups opposed (see 2308280070).