2. Both OptimumCable and Eversource
electricity performed poorly
• However, the issues were actually very different, though some
solutions are similar.
• Cellular infrastructure remains an issue, but because of big
differences, they are not addressed here.
3. Most people just vented that Optimum and
Eversource performed poorly.
My Background and experience speaks to the
hows ad whys they underperformed
• I was President of Reliant Energy in Houston, TX, one of the nation’s
largest combination utilities.
• Before that, I was the Chief Marketing Officer of MediaOne, in
Boston, owned then by USWest, now part of Comcast, and the first to
brand and launch “Broadband” in the world.
• So, I do have some professional understanding of the issues,
obstacles, and performance, of Optimum and Eversource.
4. Former President of Reliant Energy and Chief
Marketing Officer of MediaOne (now part of
Comcast), then owned by USWest.
5. The findings, conclusions and recommendations
are applicable to many areas, though one
specific set of events are used for illustration.
• Many homes in Fairfield County do not get adequate cell phone
reception, so losing power, phone and Internet, can be life-
threatening (I had to drove someone to the ER, where she was
admitted for four days, because I could not call an ambulance).
• This is an overview only.
6. Actual sequence of events at 115 Lyons Plain
Road – an example of state-wide issues
• August 4th, 2020 – Storm Isiais hits. Tree branch falls and breaks power
lined from across road to house.
• August 5th – Optimum technician comes and cuts cable wire to that energy
can be restored. Makes notes and promises connection will be restored
when power is back. We clear tree branch and debris ourselves.
• August 9th – Eversource restores power in the evening.
• August 11th – try to call Optimum; lines busy; spend on hour online setting
up service call for Aug. 14th, between 11-2pm. Bucket truck specified.
• August 14th – Service Technician does not come.
• August 15th – Online with Optimum one hour to set up service call for Aug.
18th, between 8-11am
• Aug. 18th – Service technician never comes. Spend time online in the
afternoon to set up Service call for Aug. 20th between 2-5pm. Bucket truck
specified.
7. Actual sequence of events at 115 Lyons Plain
Road – an example of state-wide issues
• Aug. 20th – Optimum service technician shows up, but does not have the
right equipment. He says he will call and try to get a bucket truck out by
the end of the day, but none comes
• Aug 21st – online with Optimum, Service call with Optimum bucket truck
scheduled for Sunday 23rd, 8-11am.
• Aug 23rd - none shows, so go to Optimum online (note that this is all from
my parked car by the town library, as I get zero cell phone service from
home). They tell me one will come that evening – none does.
• Aug 24th – online with Optimum again, appointment set up for Aug 27th.
Since I have no expectation of coming, I decide to get help from someone
who knows a service manager.
• Aug 24th – service manager shows up with a bucket truck and colleague.
Service is restored. In the midst of this another service technician shows
up, alone and without a bucket truck!
8. Causes of Optimum underperformance from
confidential intervoews with service technicians
• This is a small sample based on lengthy conversations with a handful of service
techs, plus my own experience.
• Optimum, in a drive to save costs, which is still ongoing, has reduced equipment and staff
to a bare minimum – sufficient for regular maintenance, but not for unusual repair loads.
• For example, while there were 150 bucket trucks in Fairfield County a few years ago, there
are now 10!
• While much of the initial disconnections were the result of power outages, or the same
causes as power outages, the reconnection process has been staggeringly poor, inefficient
and dishonest.
• Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) were so overloaded that not enough were
available to answer phone calls for any reason (this may also have been deliberate to
shield them from customer anger, and them quitting).
• So, customers were driven to messaging online - a challenge with no Internet available –
which allows a single CSR to deal with multiple customers, though responses are slow.
9. Causes of Optimum underperformance from
confidential intervoews with service
technicians(Cont.)
• CSRs did not seem to have full visibility into what was happening, were too
overloaded to look, or simply deflected all questions by making up an answer.
• So, when checking on the status of a service call, the CSR would ether say they
did not know, or make up an answer
• When contacting the company to set up a Service call, the service technicians
told me that whether or not there was availability, the CSR simply promised a slot
to get the customer off for a few days.
• The service techs were given calls to make with little logic. Often the wrong
equipment was sent to an address even if the correct piece had been specified,
so many calls were wasted.
• Service Technicians were assigned so many calls that they could not make them
that day, but there was no scheduling flexibility for them to call in and get
reassigned.
10. The Eversource issues and inactions are a
textbook of solutions in future
• The best way to deal with power outages is to minimize them in the first
place.
• Clearing foliage (trees and brush) is the most important tool for this.
• When I was in the cable business, and later energy utilities, most of our
lines were laid in buried trenches, but we did have some exposed lines.
• Tree trimming has to be a priority. Much of CT also suffers from too many
shallow-rooted trees that are vulnerable to strong winds and rain.
• There should be restrictions on tree planting in the state.
• Tree trimming is both expensive, and unpopular at the times it happens.
However, over time, it is more expensive to the local economy not to do it.
11. Current issue: power and communications cable
hang dangerously close to trees and above roads
and houses.
12. Putting cables in trenches is an expensive (often quoted as $1 million per mile)
retroactive action, particularly in wooded areas. However it does pay back over
time in savings on maintenance and repair to the company, and new technology
can reduce the cost. However the biggest benefits lie in economic strength, and
critically, in the area of national security – this benefits to our society and
nation. The vulnerability of infrastructure is extremely dangerous, including
health and risk to life. Even at $1 million per mile, the cost of one F-35 would
pay for 400,000 miles of trenching.
13. The same issue affects all physical
infrastructure
• Whether it is about roads, bridges, tunnels, bridges, rail,
communications, or energy, if it is not constantly improved, it steadily
falls behind.
• Minimum maintenance is a recipe for disaster.
• Staffing and equipping for ongoing maintenance is a guarantee that
inevitable emergencies will turn into disasters, at least for some.
• https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
15. Legislators have only limited immediate impact
on utilities
• Regulators and franchising authorities have much more.
• However, they often affiliate more closely with those they regulate
than the customers they serve.
• Energy, cable, and phone companies have large staffs of regulator and
government relations people, whose job it is to get regulators to think
the same way they do.
• They get paid to influence regulators, and can lose their jobs if they
do not.
• They rarely lose their jobs.
