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State Regulators Hail Tech Valley Communications, Time Warner, Others

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Larry Rulison, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.

Apr. 4--COLONIE -- At a time when interruptions in electric and cable television service have made headlines in the Capital Region, local telephone companies are being recognized for their reliability.

Last month, thousands of Time Warner Cable customers lost service after a fire in Cohoes burned wires that brought TV, phone and Internet service to Capital Region customers.

And in February, thousands of National Grid customers in the region lost power for days following a devastating windstorm. The loss of services called into question the reliability of the Capital Region's most essential services.

Patting the phone companies on the back for reliability may sound like an impossibility when many of the largest telecommunications companies, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., have completed industry-consolidating mergers, leading some consumers to believe customer service would suffer.

But it's true. In fact, 49 of the 78 local telephone companies -- or operating divisions of larger companies -- in New York have received commendations from the state Public Service Commission for excellent service in 2005.

Among them are some from the Capital Region: Tech Valley Communications, State Telephone Co., Germantown Telephone Co. and Time Warner Telecom. So what sets these companies apart? Most say it was a combination of good people and top-flight technology.

Officials at the Colonie office of Time Warner Telecom Inc., which serves more than 500 business customers in the region, say it's about their work force.

Jeff Fiori, regional vice president, said the company's employees feel a special sense of responsibility because they are given a chance to own a piece of the business, which is headquartered in Littleton, Colo. It was spun off from Time Warner Cable in 1998 and held an initial public offering the following year.

"Customer service is important to everybody in the organization, regardless of job or title," Fiori said. "Everyone in this organization has some stock ownership."

To qualify for PSC service commendation, telephone companies must have limited complaints in two categories.

One category measures complaints a company receives directly, otherwise known as its customer trouble report rate.

Each company must inform the PSC how many complaints its individual offices receive each month. A company is eligible for a PSC commendation if 95 percent of its reports to the PSC list just 3.3 complaints, or fewer, for every 100 phone lines.

The PSC also measures the number of complaints it receives from consumers directly about individual companies. A company is eligible for a PSC commendation only if it receives fewer than 0.075 complaints for every 1,000 phone lines it operates. This rate is called the PSC complaint rate.

Companies must satisfy both criteria in order to qualify for a PSC service commendation. For instance, Time Warner Telecom posted perfect scores on both criteria. It has qualified for the commendation now for five consecutive years.

Tech Valley Communication's customer trouble report rate also achieved a perfect score, and its PSC complaint rate was zero. It has received the PSC award two years in a row after a 2002 merger with Mid-Hudson Communications that created a new company.

Kevin O'Connor, CEO of Tech Valley Communications, said his Albany-based company is proud to employ a local customer service staff of between 15 and 18 people instead of outsourcing that function. That's one of the keys to the company's service award, he said.

Tech Valley Communications serves more than 5,000 businesses, students and residential customers with a variety of telephone and Internet services.

"Our customer service and technical support staff are located right here in downtown Albany," O'Connor said. "We know what the market looks like in various parts of the region."

He also said the company's fiber-optic network, now more than 280 miles long, is more reliable than the old copper wire network on which many telephone companies rely.

Not every local telephone company received a PSC commendation. Verizon's local operations did not qualify, for instance, because it had a 78 percent customer trouble report rate and a PSC complaint rate of 0.08 per 1,000 lines. A number of Verizon divisions across the state did qualify, including four in New York City, but the company's upstate divisions did not. Berkshire Telephone Corp. in Kinderhook also did not qualify. It had a perfect customer trouble report rate, but its PSC complaint rate was 0.15 percent.

Cliff Lee, a local Verizon spokesman, said the company "narrowly missed" one of the service measurements. It continues to improve its service quality numbers, he said.

"We think we provide the best service of any telecommunications company in the state," Lee said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.

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Source: Times Union

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