Canadian salutes miners
Dear Editor: I am a third generation coal miner from Cape Breton Island in the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada. I have been following the coal-mining crisis in Somerset since the events began to unfold. I cried tears of joy when I learned that all nine coal miners were rescued and were in good spirits.
I read that one of the trapped miners joked about needing some “chew” when they pulled him from the hole. Humor has always been a miner’s friend when faced with the dangers of the deep; it is a universal tool in our arsenal.
How typical of the coal miners on the surface to believe “right in their gut” that if anyone could make it through those horrific conditions, a coal miner could.
I know in my heart that the miners underground found comfort in the knowledge that their brothers would never quit on them and that awareness helped to fuel their will to survive against all odds. It is a source of personal pride to be counted in their numbers.
It’s a funny thing about coal miners. It doesn’t matter if they live in Canada, the United States, China or the Ukraine… we share a camaraderie unlike any other profession. When one hurts, we all hurt.
A Canadian salute to the rescuers and my brothers underground. It’s a great day in Pennsylvania and a great day to be a coal miner.
Stephen J.W. Drake
New Waterford, NS
Canada
Flip side of local phone war
Dear Editor:
David Schwencke, president of Full Service Network, accuses Verizon of trying to keep competition out of Pennsylvania’s local phone market (“Phone choice still on hold,” July 19). He’s dead wrong and the facts prove it.
With more than 1.2 million phone lines served by Verizon’s competitors, Pennsylvania’s telecom market is flourishing, a fact recognized by the governor, the Public Utility Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
Nearly 90 companies, including Full Service Network, lease elements of Verizon’s telephone network to compete for Pennsylvanians’ local phone service. The current, PUC-set wholesale rates for these elements are below what it costs Verizon to provide them, especially in rural areas of the state.
Mr. Schwencke complains that Verizon’s current rates are too high, and that the proposed rates under consideration by the PUC would remove all incentive for competitors to serve suburban and rural customers.
However, the proposed rates follow specific directions from the PUC administrative law judge. While the judge’s directions would raise some proposed rates, rates for the urban areas most attractive to competitors like Full Service Network would decline as much as 26 percent from current rates. And the new proposed rates are still below Verizon’s actual costs.
The FCC has found that, on average, some competitors in Pennsylvania enjoy a 30-percent profit with Verizon’s wholesale rates in the state’s residential market. That profit is even higher for business customers.
We welcome the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. But we can’t be put into the position of subsidizing our competitors.
Doing so would dissuade them from investing one nickel in building their own networks and eliminate any incentive for Verizon to further invest in our own network if we could never recover our costs.
It’s time for competitors to stop looking for a free ride on Verizon’s network and start investing in their own facilities.
We must have reasonable wholesale rates to make that happen.
Daniel J. Whelan, president and CEO
Verizon Pennsylvania