Florida Contractor Takes on the Big Guys - Infinity Communications Services sues Lucent Technologies and AT&T over GTE cable lines - Company Business and Marketing

It could be described as David suing Goliath.

Infinity Communications Services Inc., a small, Florida-based contractor is suing Lucent Technologies and AT&T Corp. for $89 million in damages allegedly for driving it out of business after Infinity refused to illegally move Time Warner Cable's cable to make room for GTE Corp.'s lines in Tampa, Fla.

GTE hired Lucent (before it was spun out from AT&T a couple of years ago) in 1995 to be the telco's primary construction contractor for its cable system project in Florida. Lucent then hired Infinity to strand cable for the new build. But there wasn't much room on the poles for more wires, says Infinity president Frazier Gaines.

Lucent instructed Gaines' employees to move TW's wires to make room for GTE's cables. Generally, if a cable needs to be moved to make room for another provider, the owner of the cable must either move the wire or OK the work. Gaines and TW maintain that Lucent simply moved the cables (or had them moved by subcontractors) and never let TW know it had been done.

In 1997, TW sued GTE to stop the company from moving its wires. A judge refused to grant an injunction stopping the practice, but said TW had enough evidence to pursue damages in civil court. Several months ago, TW dropped its civil case.

In its defense, GTE claimed that it had not interfered with Time Warner's cable system or its equipment. "Specifically," GTE said in its deposition, "GTE has not moved TW's cables, has not moved or damaged TW's grounding lines, and has not violated pole attachments involving TW."

Maybe it didn't, says Gaines' attorney Harvey Spinowitz. But Lucent did. Meanwhile, when Gaines' employees filled him in on Lucent's demands, he refused to allow his workers to do any more illegal work, he says. That's when things started going South for Gaines' construction firm.

In his deposition, Gaines says Lucent set up payment of services in such a way that "companies doing construction had no choice but to perform make-ready (the process of moving and signing off on any changes to the wire placement on the poles) on TW's attachments if they wanted to be paid on time." At the same time, Lucent wouldn't pay for any services if invoices included any wording that involved moving TW's lines," he adds.

After TW got wind of what was happening, it sued GTE. Lucent, meanwhile, covered its tracks by suspending its contract with Infinity, Gaines says. It also hired away most of Gaines' employees "essentially shutting us down," he says.

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