The Minn. PUC ordered Qwest to pay $132,500 in penalties for reta...

The Minn. PUC ordered Qwest to pay $132,500 in penalties for retail service quality shortfalls in 2002, as required by its price cap regulation plan and the Minn. conditions for approval of the Qwest-U S West merger. The carrier must pay $105,000 to affected customers via 25-cent monthly bill credits for 12 months, and pay a $27,500 penalty to the state. The Minn. Dept. of Commerce said that despite missing certain specific targets, Qwest was in “substantial compliance” with the overall service quality goals of the regulation plan and merger order, so only minimum penalties were in order.