When Lumen Technologies announced the sale of its Quantum Fiber consumer network to AT&T last May for $5.75 billion in cash, both companies promised a “seamless” transition. However, the handoff, which , has been anything but smooth for some customers.
“For old Lumen/CenturyLink/Quantum internet customers like me, things related to billing and future internet service are very confusing,” said Denver retiree Jeff Leib, a former Denver Post reporter.
For starters, Leib found that his automated billing, which had performed like clockwork, was cut off without warning, triggering an $18 late fee. Some customers have complained on Reddit of being double-billed and then hit with a late fee.
Leib said the fee was removed when he called to complain. He was also told that thousands of accounts were facing a similar problem.
“We can confirm that this issue has been resolved. Importantly, any late fees that may have been inadvertently assessed as part of the transition will be credited back to impacted customers,” said Joe Goode, a vice president of external communications at Lumen, in an email. Lumen is based in Monroe, La., but maintains a large presence in metro Denver.
Both companies have acknowledged the billing problem originated on their end and isn’t a reflection of anything customers did wrong, although some customers ignored or missed requests to update their payment information.
“We aim to provide excellent service to all our customers and were disappointed to discover that a system error inadvertently led to billing issues for some customers under the transition service agreement between AT&T and CenturyLink,” said Suzanne Trantow, a regional media relations executive with AT&T.
Customers impacted by billing issues will receive a credit on future bills to cover any late fees incurred, she said, and added the company appreciates the patience of customers during the transition.
Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, said he couldn’t confirm complaints related to the Quantum Fiber acquisition, but consumers who believe their concerns aren’t being properly addressed are encouraged to file a consumer protection complaint at .
AT&T and Lumen signed several two-year agreements that left Quantum Fiber and CenturyLink as the public face for existing customers in areas such as billing, customer support and field operations. That, in theory, should have contributed to the smooth transition promised. But there are several reasons why it didn’t.
Quantum Fiber uses a prepaid billing system, in which customers pay in advance for the following month of service. If they don’t pay, the service is cut off fairly quickly, avoiding the need to issue late fees. AT&T, by contrast, relies on a post-paid system, where customers are billed at the end of a usage period and then hit with a late fee if they don’t pay.
AT&T may have left Quantum Fiber as the public face, but it has linked customers’ account information to the financial reporting systems of NetworkCo, the name of the new AT&T-owned network. As the owner, it wants its rules followed. And in some cases, those rules conflicted with the way Quantum Fiber did things.
Autopay for some accounts, especially those relying on PayPal and certain credit cards, was delinked when the accounts were migrated to the NetworkCo backend system. That resulted in some customers getting hit with a late fee on a bill they didn’t know was overdue.
have complained about slower network speeds, price hikes hitting after discounts were removed, and disconnected service because of compatibility issues since the switch on Feb. 2. But those, unlike the late fees, appear to be isolated incidents.
The transition, even under the best of circumstances, was going to be complicated, given the relatively short eight-month timeline to switch over a million retail fiber customers and 4 million enabled fiber locations in 11 states.
Leib said his conversations with customer service representatives hint at more disruptive changes, but details are lacking. suggest Quantum Fiber customers can expect equipment swaps and the potential need to find new internet service providers in the future.
“No one has made clear that this is what the AT&T-Lumen deal means for consumers. There could be millions of customers affected by this and few may know what is going on as of this moment,” Leib said.
NetworkCo will likely be an “open” access network, meaning that it will operate the broadband infrastructure, but also allow internet service providers to come on board and connect customers. Quantum Fiber is currently a private network, meaning it both provides the infrastructure and the internet services.
Quantum Fiber boxes speak “Lumenese” and can’t communicate with other providers. It was never necessary. NetworkCo equipment will be multilingual.
Why open things up? Quantum Fiber reaches about one in four of the homes it could potentially connect, something it has achieved with aggressive pricing. If ISPs do the heavy lifting of signing up additional customers, AT&T could achieve higher penetration and more efficient use of its network.
Higher usage could, in turn, allow AT&T and its partners to build out the NetworkCo system faster. An open-access network would also give consumers more choice when it comes to providers, and that tends to lead to lower prices.
But opening up the network will require swapping out equipment. When asked whether Quantum customers would have to switch out their gear or find new providers, Lumen referred questions to AT&T, which in turn said it didn’t have additional information to provide at this time.
“We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for CenturyLink Fiber customers and will continue to communicate with them as more information is available,” said Trantow.
