Frontier Fires West Virginia Exec For Supporting Broadband Bill

Frontier is under fire for allegedly terminating an executive that refused to oppose a West Virginia bill that will will dramatically improve broadband availability and competition across the lagging state. House Bill 3093, recently signed into law by West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, aims to improve broadband competition in the state via a combination of utility pole reform, and efforts to encourage local broadband community co-ops. The bill passed overwhelmingly in the state Senate (31-1) and the House (97-2) thanks to immense public annoyance at inferior broadband in the state.

But Frontier opposed the bill. And the Charleston Gazette Mail indicates the company may have fired an employee for supporting it.

West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael and six-year Frontier executive says he was let go suddenly after voting for the legislation. Carmichael also says he refused the company's demand that he sign a non-disclosure form, preventing him from talking about his firing.

"The one thing I’m not going to do here as Senate president is advance special interests," Carmichael tells the paper. "It was obvious the body [legislature] wanted that bill, and I wasn’t going to stand in the way of it."

We've explored just how corrupt and dysfunctional West Virginia has been when it came to spending their $126.3 million in broadband stimulus funds. Local Charleston Gazette reporter Eric Eyre has been doing an absolutely fantastic job the last few years, highlighting how Verizon, Frontier and Cisco convinced the state to buy ridiculously overpriced, overpowered and unused routers, and ridiculously overpaid, redundant consultants who haven't actually accomplished anything.

Attempts to hold anybody accountable for any of this have seen mixed results. In 2014, the state buried a study on their spending of the stimulus money (which they spent $118,000 for) that leaked anyway, highlighting that how Frontier Communications did a sloppy job in tracking spending, may have overbilled taxpayers substantially, and only built a mish mash of geographically scattered fiber upgrades that the majority of state residents wouldn't benefit from in the slightest.

And while many say Frontier's stranglehold over the state legislature has long been absolute, the company's recent struggles -- and the public reaching its breaking point when it comes to bad broadband -- may be weakening the company's iron lobbying grip. Frontier's losing customers, is saddled with debt from its bungled acquisition of Verizon's unwanted lines in Florida, Texas and California, and is facing a backlash from employees who say morale at the company is at an "all time low" courtesy of incompetent executive leadership.

It should be clear that Carmichael should never have been deciding major telecom issues while being employed by Frontier, and the fact that nobody in the state appears to find this a bit gross should tell you everything you need to know. It should also be made clear that Carmichael previously has opposed legislation that would have increased competitive pressures on Frontier, so his support of his citizen constituents shouldn't be over-stated.

Even if he may have stumbled into it courtesy of a critical mass of annoyed West Virginians, Carmichael wound up being a rare example of a politician actually doing the right thing in the face of incumbent lobbying pressure.

"As Senate president, my role is to facilitate the will of the members and advance good public policy," he said. "The [legislators] wanted it, and the public wanted it."