Ladies and Gentlemen,

I appreciate your time to hear Somers‘s perspective regarding our
experience with Isaias emergency planning, response and restoration. As I
expressed on the call, from our perspective NYSEG has become the model for
service providers and utilities.  My remarks below express our experience
with Altice.

Below is the link to the Somers Telecommunication Task Force website.

In the resource section you will find a strategy document and related
correspondence that highlight the efforts we have taken on behalf of the
Somers community.  It will support your efforts.  

Take note of our response to Assembly Woman Amy Paulin’s  questionnaire. It
evaluates Somers experience with the various services providers. Assembly
Woman Paulin is leading the “Westchester United initiative”.  Somers is on
the Executive Committee with other Northern Towns participating in the
county wide initiative.  Although Somers is coordinating with Westchester
County, other Municipalities and State legislators, we believe that the
solutions to improvements are tied to local operational interaction with the
municipalities emergency leadership.

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SOMERS TELECOMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE WEBSITE

https://www.somersny.com/boards-and-committees/telecommunications-task-force          
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We covered many issues on the call, all which you will find documented on
the website. They call for improvements in customer service, trouble
management, network reliability and emergency response.  (Reference our
formal complaint dated August 21, 2020).  It is imperative that the outcome
of the Public Service Commission’s effort’s compel service providers to
agree to service level commitments that include operational points of
contacts for emergency planning and preparedness.  At a minimum,
communication, planning and the management of expectations are the
foundation for sustainable improvements.  At present, we have not achieved
this with Altice.

Somers continues to receive pleas from frustrated customers expressing
their experiences of  mismanaged repair expectations and  unresolved service
issues. To be fair, the Supervisor’s office has one contact in Altice’s
government affairs organization to escalate problems.  However, this is not
a solution. Altice must make the financial commitments to the manpower and
resources to respond to issues raised by their customers and municipalities.

Best Regards

AJC

Anthony J. Cirieco 🇺🇸
Councilman, Somers NY
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