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HomeNewsArchivesPSC Needs Answers on Variety of Vitelco Matters, Chairwoman Says

PSC Needs Answers on Variety of Vitelco Matters, Chairwoman Says

Sept. 7, 2006 — When the Public Services Commission meets next Tuesday it will hear a Vitelco-related matter for the first time in months – the telephone company's application for millions of dollars in Universal Service Fund money, which must be approved by the commission.
Meanwhile, several other matters — including another communications company's request for access to Vitelco's broadband DS-3 connection and the Source's request for the phone company's financial reports — have seemingly been put on hold indefinitely.
Another item that did not show up on the PSC docket is the rural exemption remand issued by District Judge Stanley Brotman in April telling the PSC they had 60 days to respond to a request by Choice Communications that Vitelco's rural exemption be lifted, even though oral arguments on the matter had been scheduled for the Sept. 12 meeting. (See "Competitive Phone Service Again Before the PSC").
On Thursday, the PSC faxed a document to the Source dated Aug. 31 stating the commission won't proceed on the remand until it receives further formal instructions from the District Court.
In other matters, in the time since the commission last heard from the phone company, Vitelco's owner Jeffrey Prosser and one of its related corporations have filed for bankruptcy protection, and a few more lawsuits have been filed against the territory's only phone company. ( See "ICC, Prosser File for Bankruptcy"). >
The regulatory body has until now taken a "hands-off" approach to Vitelco's various money woes.
In a letter to the phone company and the Rural Telephone Financial Corp. (RTFC) — Vitelco's prime lender, which sued Vitelco, and were in turn countersued by Vitelco — PSC Chairwoman Alecia Wells wrote that the PSC was not going to get involved in the legal and financial matters between the two warring parties.
On Thursday, Wells said the commission had been waiting to see what was going to happen in the various lawsuits between RTFC and Vitelco, also known as Innovative Telephone.
However, she said the PSC was planning on getting to these matters and others very soon, including looking into two other suits filed recently by the phone company's preferred stockholders. (See "New Suit Against Prosser's ICC Calls Company's Conduct 'Evil'").
She said, in fact, some of the pending matters might be brought up and acted upon at a three-day training workshop (planned for Sept. 21, 22, and 23 at the Westin Resort on St. John) for three new commissioners, in order to bring them up to speed on issues facing the commission. She said the PSC attorney was looking into whether formal hearings could be held at the same time as the workshops.
The PSC has suffered from having only four commissioners on a seven-member board for months, thus making it difficult to raise a quorum. Three new commissioners have been approved by the Legislature and are ready to go to work.
Wells said that will allow the commission to get back to dealing with the many issues pending relative to the phone company.
She said some of the meetings will have to be held at night.
As for the bankruptcy and recent legal actions, Wells said all she knew about those matters was what she had read in the Source and the V.I. Daily News (which is also owned by Prosser). She said nothing had been sent to the PSC from Vitelco about any of the lawsuits or bankruptcy filings.
Either way, she said, "These matters have been outstanding for too long and we have to have answers."
Also included on the PSC's Tuesday agenda are matters concerning the ferry boats between Cruz Bay and downtown Charlotte Amalie, and a petition for reconsideration of a disallowance of line-loss charges by the Water and Power Authority. The meeting gets under way at 6 p.m. at the PSC offices in Barbel Plaza on St. Thomas.
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