Oklahoma Turns Up the Pressure for Growth
February 16, 2004

This editorial in the Tulsa World, supporting Oklahoma Senate Bill 1119, shows that Oklahomans know what it takes to turn their economy around—attracting capital. Taking telephone pricing decisions out of the hands of state officials and returning it to the companies who bear the costs will be a big step toward unleashing investment and growth in the Oklahoma telecom industry.

Level field:
Market parity good for telecommunications
Tulsa World, February 16, 2004

Regulating one telephone company's ability to raise or lower prices made sense when there was only one phone company. It does not make sense now, when competition is flourishing among many phone companies and when emerging technologies offer alternatives to traditional land-line phone service.

Not only does it not make sense, it is anti-competitive and unfair.

Senate Bill 1119, which was approved last week by a state Senate committee, would, if passed, bring Oklahoma's horse-and-buggy phone regulation into the telecommunications age. It would end state regulation of phone rates and let free and open competition set those rates.

After June 15, 2005, SBC could raise or lower its rates without seeking approval from the Corporation Commission. That regulatory process can take months, a restraint that none of SBC's growing number of competitors has to deal with.

The measure, however, would preserve valuable state oversight in several areas, among them, E-911 service, slamming, phone service quality and minimum service standards. And it preserves programs that provide basic phone service for low-income residential customers.

The Legislature in 1996 and 2002 passed important laws that began to level the playing field among telecommunications competitors. Oklahoma consumers already have benefited from those laws. SBC has invested millions of dollars in infrastructure here, while the trend to such investment nationally is down. It has extended high-speed Internet service, DSL, to92 Oklahoma cities -- about 65 percent of the homes and businesses in its operating territory. And DSL prices have dropped.

Competition abounds. Twenty years ago Southwestern Bell had 83 percent of the Oklahoma market; now it has 40 percent. In addition to 44 incumbent companies similar to SBC but smaller, 88 new local competitors have begun since 1996. There are 13 wireless, or cell phone, companies and 20 high-speed Internet providers using four alternative technologies. Cable phone service has been introduced in the state and is growing.

Competition has brought greater choices and better prices. Passage of SB1119 will further level the playing field and encourage more growth and investment in Oklahoma.