The V.I. Public Services Commission has scheduled public hearings this week, starting today, on the proposed purchase of Innovative Telephone and several other former Innovative Communication Corp. assets by Rural Telephone Finance Co.

The hearings on the change of control will be conducted on all three islands, starting with today's 11 a.m. hearing on St. Thomas at the PSC Conference Room in Barbel Plaza. Hearings are scheduled on St. Croix on Wednesday and on St. John on Thursday.

A federal bankruptcy judge in April gave initial approval to the Virginia-based RTFC to make the purchase.

The move must be approved by a variety of agencies - including the PSC, the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission - before RTFC's bid can go before bankruptcy court Judge Elizabeth Fitzgerald again for final approval.

The PSC regulates all public utilities in the territory. Utilities cannot be purchased or control transferred without PSC authorization.

ICC, formerly owned by St. Croix businessman Jeffrey Prosser, was forced into bankruptcy by creditors demanding more than half a billion dollars from Prosser and his companies.

One of those creditors is RTFC, which made loans to Innovative Telephone, formerly known as Vitelco. RTFC is owed $525 million by Prosser and his companies. Several businesses formerly owned by Prosser through ICC already have been sold to help pay off creditors.

Still up for sale is the group of companies that represents the largest chunk of ICC assets - a group that contains Innovative Telephone, Innovative Cable, Innovative PowerNet, Innovative Business Systems, Innovative Cellular and TV2.

RTFC has made a credit bid to buy that group of companies. That means that the purchase cost will be subtracted from the total debt that ICC owes the cooperative. RTFC decided to purchase the companies because bids coming in were too low, Innovative officials have said.

The hearings this week were extended because of the amount of information that is expected to be covered, said PSC chairman Joseph Boschulte.

"I would encourage the public to come out," he said.

The change of control hearing on St. Croix is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. at the Education Department's Curriculum Center. The hearing on St. John is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Thursday in the Legislative Conference Room.

According to the PSC announcement, time will be allotted for the public to offer comments during the hearings at the discretion of the hearing examiner.

Daily News Publishing Co., which publishes The Virgin Islands Daily News, was owned by ICC until June 2008, when the newspaper was acquired by Times-Shamrock Communications of Pennsylvania.