Lumen, Ore. PUC Staff Urge Pricing Plan OK

The Oregon Public Utility Commission should approve without modification Lumen’s “fair” pact with PUC staff on a successor price plan, the settling parties said Friday in docket UM 1908. It’s "a meaningful compromise between the positions of formerly adverse parties,” they said. Intervenors Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board (CUB) and Lumen customer Priscilla Weaver don't oppose most of the agreement, including rates from a proposed price plan that "uniquely restricts CenturyLink’s ability to raise prices based upon the Company’s performance across a number of service quality measures,” said Lumen and PUC staff: Intervenors oppose removing previous protections only for Jacksonville, Oregon, customers. But the Jacksonville orders “are no longer necessary and apply only to a very small group of approximately 100 customers,” the settling parties said. Under the agreement, most protections “will continue to apply to the rural Jacksonville customers and … to 40 times more customers who are similarly situated." Oregon CUB agreed it objects only to deleting the Jacksonville orders. Lumen relies on broadband "as a solution even though it may not be available until" Dec. 31, 2024, and it hasn't "provided a plan to address near-term service quality issues," the consumer group said. Weaver urged the PUC not to accept the plan, which she said would "nullify without cause" the Jacksonville orders. The proposed plan’s protections "are almost non-existent, and nowhere close to the same as in the Jacksonville Orders,” she wrote.