Consumers deserve telecommunications choices

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Harry M. Lightsey III: Consumers deserve telecommunications choices (07/18/04) • David Shi : Furman grads fulfill their promise (07/18/04) • Cathy Batson: Serving community needs requires a united effort (07/18/04) • Brad Halter: Trolley system plan would keep downtown moving (07/16/04) • Desiree T. Sayle: Volunteer this summer and change your life for the better (07/15/04) More details Harry M. Lightsey III of Columbia has served as president of Bell South in South Carolina since 2000. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of South Carolina School of Law.

The South Carolina Public Service Commission does not regulate the wireless, cable, satellite and Internet providers that offer these new types of communications services, but it does regulate telephone companies that are competing with these companies. Telephone companies, such as BellSouth, are subject to regulatory requirements that make it difficult for them to offer consumers the same level of choice, innovation and value that their competitors do.

Clearly the government, and not the consumer, is in charge of how telephone companies like BellSouth compete. The telecommunications bill, H.3080, was passed by the General Assembly this past session and is awaiting the governor's signature. It will take an appropriate and important step toward putting the customer in charge by removing only the most competitive of communications offerings — bundled offerings and contract offerings — from these regulatory requirements. Under this bill, telephone companies, like BellSouth, could offer bundles and contracts to customers in the same way that wireless, cable, satellite and Internet providers do.

This means that telephone companies will be able to quickly and effectively respond to the numerous offerings with which they compete (including offerings from wireless, cable, satellite and Internet providers). This also means that businesses and individuals who purchase communications services will be able to bargain for a better and more competitive deal with telephone companies just as quickly and efficiently as they have been able to bargain for a better deal with the many other companies that are offering communications services. The customer, rather than government, will be in charge.

Purchasers of communications services — including large and small businesses — will enjoy all the benefits of vigorous market-based competition for their communications services. These benefits will create more jobs in the state, increase investment in the state and lower prices. For example, since the government stepped aside and allowed market-based competition in the wireless industry in the early 1990s: the number of jobs in the wireless industry has increased by 415 percent; investment in the wireless industry has increased by 942 percent; the number of wireless subscribers has increased by 780 percent; and the average monthly bill has decreased by 19 percent.

These are the same benefits that we saw in South Carolina when the local communications markets were opened to competition, when certain aspects of the regulation of some telephone companies were relaxed, when BellSouth was allowed to provide long-distance service, and when government regulation of broadband Internet services was prevented. Every step of the way, the same companies who oppose H.3080 raised the exact same scare tactics they are using today. And every step of the way, what we saw come about was what always happens when markets are allowed to work without government intervention: lower prices for consumers, more choices and more investment by companies in South Carolina. This bill will lead to the same thing.

Finally, H.3080 includes significant protections to every business and every person who buys service from a telephone company. These protections include fines for companies that unlawfully change a customer's chosen telecommunications provider. Customers who choose to keep government-regulated services can continue to do so. The PSC will enforce the terms of a bundled offering or a contract offering if there is a complaint by the purchaser of the offering. And a legislative committee will monitor the impact of this legislation. If the speculative "fear, uncertainty and doubt" raised by the opponents to this bill actually materialize, they will be addressed by this legislative committee.

History has proven time and time again that consumers are best protected by vigorous market-based competition rather than when the government is allowed to choose winners and losers. This is a foundation of a free market economy. When companies compete for consumers head on, consumers reap the benefits of better pricing, improved service and increased product innovation. These are exactly the rewards that consumers are entitled to under this bill.