Long Beach town hall plaed for customers affected by Frontier-Verizon switch

Local lawmakers are getting involved in the fray over Frontier Communications takeover of Verizon FiOS’ landline assets on April 1, as complaints continue to pour in across the region.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, who chairs the Utilities and Commerce Committee, said he is prepared to hold hearings on the matter in Sacramento as his office has been hearing of complaints from residents in Southe Califoia and from other parts of the state.

“It’s alarming because we’ll likely see other transitions like this happening around the state in the future,” he said. “If companies want policymakers to approve these types of transitions they need to ensure that there will be a seamless delivery of service.”

Assemblyman Patrick O’Doell, D-Long Beach, also aounced Thursday that he is holding a town hall for residents impacted by the switch, promising that customers will be able to resolve service issues with Frontier and regulatory officials at the May 14 event.

Gatto said he hopes the situation can be resolved without resorting to hearings. But if it comes to that, he said, the needed resources will be there.

“We have broad investigative authority for these kinds of issues and we can put people under oath if we need to,” he said. “I just want to find out what went wrong and what we might need the Califoia Public Utilities Commission to do.”

A representative with Gatto’s office said some cities, including Oxnard, have been unable to live-stream their council meetings on TV. And residents in areas with phone outages are at risk of not being able to call 911 for emergency service.

Meanwhile, the complaints are piling up fast. A representative with the CPUC said the agency received 361 complaints between April 1 and 22.

Steven C. Crosby, Frontier’s senior vice president of govement and regulatory affairs, addressed the ongoing problems in a statement issued late Wednesday afteoon.

“We are continuing to resolve customer issues as they come to us,” he said. “As you’re aware, we are transitioning more than 1 million customers in Califoia to Frontier-provided services. With a transition of this size and geographic scale, there will be issues that need to be addressed and that’s what we’re focused on.”

Crosby also addressed the formal complaints.

“We’re aware that complaints have been submitted to the Califoia PUC,” he continued. “We take all complaints very seriously and it’s one of the reasons why our West Region President Melinda White implemented another way for our customers to provide their direct feedback, via email to us at [email protected]. We’re providing as many avenues as possible for our customers to communicate with us.”

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Frontier’s $10.5u2009billion acquisition includes Verizon’s Inteet, video, phone and FiOS networks across Califoia, Florida and Texas.

The town hall in Long Beach will be 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 14 at the Expo Arts Center, 4321 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach. To RSVP call the O’Doell’s District Office at 562-429-0470 or email [email protected].