A bill to remove retail pricing from the hands of the Oklahoma Public Utilities Commission in favor of complete retail pricing deregulation is now in the Oklahoma State Senate. This will allow ALL providers to accurately assess their returns on equipment and infrastructure investments and set the stage for increased capital investment in the high-speed communications network Oklahoma companies need to compete. Despite the scare-tactic rhetoric about rising consumer costs, expect this to trigger more competition, increased investment, newer technology, and rising employment and incomes. Where there is capital, jobs will follow. Bravo, Oklahoma ! See the article from the February 13, 2004 Oklahoman.
Senate panel OKs telecom bill
2004-02-13
By John Greiner and Adam Wilmoth
The Oklahoman
A Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that SBC Oklahoma said will let it compete equally with other communications businesses, despite predictions it could raise consumer costs.
SBC Oklahoma, formerly Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., said Senate Bill 1119 levels the playing field among telecommunications companies.
SBC officials said this could help attract investments and technology to Oklahoma by putting all telephone-service providers under equal pricing rules, which they called market-based parity.
Industry analyst Jeff Kagan praised the Senate's actions Thursday, saying the legislation has been needed for several years.
"Local telephone companies are the most highly regulated competitors in the telecom industry," said Kagan, an Atlanta-based telecommunications industry expert. "While it made sense when they were a monopoly and had 100 percent of the market, it no longer makes sense when you have competition that takes business from them."
Some opponents said the change will give SBC an unfair advantage because it still owns almost 90 percent of the wire lines in the state.
Kagan, however, said it is time for the change.
"You don't want to see a company weakened to the point where they have to downsize very much," Kagan said. "If we just keep regulating them until their market share drops to 60 or 50 or 40 percent, then the huge company that's been such a part of the community becomes a 90-pound weakling. That's not good for anybody."
The bill removes SBC Oklahoma from commission regulation of its rates on retail services, but the company said it isn't a deregulation bill. In documents accompanying the bill, SBC Oklahoma said the Corporation Commission will continue oversight of areas such as wholesale issues, service quality, law enforcement, minimum service standards, interconnection and slamming, which involves unauthorized switching of phone service providers and forwarding unauthorized bill and collection charges to a consumer's local telephone company.
"You have to have less regulation, but it's important to make sure the competition and the customers don't suffer in the process," Kagan said. "If the local phone company abuses its powers, the state utility commission can always come in and force them to do the right thing, but without these changes, they are at a disadvantage."
Wauneta Browne of AT&T said the legislation has the potential of taxing the Internet. Asked later to explain, Browne said the legislation could allow SBC to charge fees for other providers such as AT&T to use SBC lines for Internet service. Those charges would be passed on to consumers, she said.
SBC said the language Browne cited in her claim about Internet fees has nothing to do with that. SBC said the provision singled out by AT&T was included in the legislation to prevent one phone company from defrauding another phone company.
Last year, AT&T took another communications company to court over the issue SBC Oklahoma is trying to prevent, a statement from SBC Oklahoma said. AT&T also said the rates of a business with a single line or a residence with a single line cannot be raised until June 15, 2005.
"However, if that same business or residence is part of a package or promotion, those rates can go up immediately, with no upper limit," AT&T said.
Donald E. Cain, president of SBC Oklahoma, told the Senate Energy, Environment and Communications Committee that opponents would tell the committee the legislation will create a disaster. Cain said the purpose of the bill is to have every telecommunications organization competing under the same rules. He said SBC Oklahoma hasn't had a rate increase since 1986, and those rates will stay the same until 2005.
David A. Bialis, vice president and general manager of Cox Communications, opposed the legislation, calling it sweeping. He said Cox has invested $300 million in Oklahoma . He said the legislation removes all Corporation Commission regulation on pricing.
The measure passed 9-0 and now goes to the full Senate.
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