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Qwest Violates Regulatory Orders and Knowingly Dismantles SkyWi's NM Network Causing Internet and Telephone Services to Cease Without Warning

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 14:40 CST

SANTA FE, N.M., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at 8:00 AM MST, Qwest disconnected SkyWi's telecommunication services to the major communities of Artesia, Santa Fe and Las Cruces, appearing to directly violate two New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) orders. Qwest was first ordered by the PRC to restore service and stop disconnections on December 31, 2008, until a federal judge could rule on a Preliminary Injunction scheduled for February 11, 2009. Secondly, Qwest was ordered and agreed to give SkyWi a 10-day notice prior to any further disconnections.

"At 8:00 AM this morning, the PRC orders were violated. Qwest is a regulated entity and is required to honor PRC orders. This is just one example of their monopolistic powers and predatory practices which SkyWi hopes to remedy in our Federal lawsuit against Qwest," stated Allen Witters, CEO of SkyWi.

SkyWi stated that hundreds of customers are affected with this recent outage. There was absolutely no notice from Qwest and since this cutoff affects the primary communication methods of Internet and phone service, SkyWi's Customer Service team cannot reach its customers.

On Monday, January 26, 2009, a federal judge denied Qwest's request to move up the Preliminary Injunction hearing. "This outage appears to be additional retaliation toward SkyWi. This is just like December 30, 2008 when Qwest first retaliated against us. Qwest takes away our communication capabilities to make us look bad to our customers and to the public," stated Witters.

SkyWi says it will announce later this week its plans to make sure SkyWi's customers are Qwest-Proofed, thereby ensuring that any major disputes between Qwest and SkyWi will never cause an interruption to SkyWi's end users. "This most recent action by Qwest has caused major service outages for customers across New Mexico, affecting Santa Fe, Las Cruces and surrounding areas, and Artesia," stated SkyWi Customer Service Manager, Brandi Gobrowski. "Our hearts go out to those schools, hospitals, and other public safety organizations that we had spoken with during the first outage, who are without communication services yet again. These people are without telephones! It is mind boggling that Qwest did this again!"

About SkyWi, Inc.

SkyWi is a leading provider of lightning-fast wireless Internet services to residential, business and institutional customers. We leverage proprietary, next-generation wireless communications technology to provide reliable, best-in-class service offerings to our clients. SkyWi, Inc. was founded and is led by a team of highly experienced telecommunications professionals, media management and distribution experts from NBC, ESPN, SPRINT, AT&T, etc. We are customer focused, and are committed to being the broadband "provider of choice" in all of our chosen markets. To contact SkyWi, visit www.skywi.com or Customer Service at 866-221-3776.

SOURCE SkyWi, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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