The good news for Viya customers is that their telephone bills will probably not go up in the next five years. The Public Services Commission Wednesday heard from Geraldine Pitts, Viya CEO, about a recent streamlined rate investigation.
Pitts concurred with the PSC finding that the investigation showed a rate hike would not be advantageous for residents or for the company. A rate hike would accelerate the company’s loss of landline customers as well as become an increased burden on lower-income residents, according to the report.
The rate hike question was enfolded in a larger debate at the meeting about whether the PSC should even be regulating the rates of Viya in a world where mobile phones had already replaced half of the old landlines.
The meeting started with reading correspondence concerning the debate. A letter from Liberty Mobile stated, “Liberty agrees with Viya that significant changes in the USVI telecommunications sector make it appropriate to reexamine how the Commission regulates Viya. Liberty also agrees that it will likely be appropriate to update the USVI’s regulatory regime for telecommunications to reflect new industry and technological circumstances.”
However, the correspondence went on to assert that Viya’s petition lacked the economic and technical data needed to allow the Commission to make an informed decision. Liberty recommended that if the Commission decides to consider Viya’s petition, it should conduct an investigation of the facts Viya asserts.
In Viya’s petition, it says, “Unlike in years past, when Viya was the dominant provider of telecommunications services in the USVI, the current degree of regulatory supervision of Viya by the Commission is unwarranted given the competitive realities of the USVI’s telecommunications marketplace. Today, Viya provides landline voice service to only a small minority of the USVI’s voice customers. It faces intense competition from many mobile and fixed voice and broadband providers — competition that is more than adequate to ensure that Viya prioritizes the best interests of its customers.”
In correspondence to the Commission Wednesday, Viya committed to no increase in landline services for five years.
Commission Chair David Hughes has told the Source that though he understands Viya’s predicament, he also has concerns about residents who might need a landline carrier as “a last resort.”
The one resident who commented on Viya’s petition also brought up customer service issues concerning Viya. She said that, though she gets three services from Viya, she pays that as one bill. But when she was late paying the bill she was charged three late fees.
Commissioner Andy Rutnik said he was surprised the Commission had not heard this complaint before.
Pitts said she had not heard the complaint before either and would look into the matter. The Commission also heard a report from its consultants that indicated Viya was not handling installations and customer complaints in a timely fashion. It was recommended that Viya be fined if it did not improve its record. The Commission took no action on the recommendation.
Hughes chaired the meeting with Commissioners Pedro Williams, Raymond Williams, and Rutnik attending.
