Consumer options may cost more under new phone law

e-mail this story

Critics of the legislation say BellSouth and other big local phone service providers will reap the benefits while it will hurt competitors and consumers.

The law lets telephone companies in rural areas set prices without regulation as long as two wireless phone companies are offering service in the same area.

Sanford and lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill say prices will drop, uncompetitive firms will fold and fewer tax dollars will go to fund state regulatory efforts.

"It's good for economic development," Sanford spokesman Will Folks said. "There are going to be a whole host of companies that will benefit from this."

Jake Jennings, vice president for regulatory and industry affairs at NuVox Communications, a Greenville-based telecommunications company that competes with BellSouth, said consumers with complaints about telephone service can no longer complain to the Public Service Commission.

Also, the courts will be the sole means for BellSouth competitors such as NuVox to address any "anticompetitive behavior," Jennings said.

BellSouth argued that the state's current approval process lets competitors see what they would be offering. That, they argued, gave the competition an advantage. But others argued the process would tend to lower prices for consumers.

The law, which took effect immediately, also means that consumers can't use the Public Service Commission to settle complaints. Their issues will be handled by the companies themselves and the Federal Communications Commission. At the same time, the PSC no longer will have a role in handling antitrust allegations competing phone companies raise.

Jack Pringle, an attorney who represents phone companies that lease lines from BellSouth, called it a "power-play, pure special-interest legislation."

While the state Consumer Affairs Department and the AARP persistently argued against the legislation, supporters say the changes will ultimately benefit consumers and the telephone industry in the state.

Elliott Elam, acting consumer advocate, declined comment Tuesday. His role in advocating the public interest in utility matters falls to a new agency, the Office of Regulatory Staff, at the beginning of the year, he said.

Dukes Scott, executive director of that office, said he wasn't sure if it will take any consumer complaints about BellSouth service.

"I don't have the bill before me, but I believe we still take service complaints," Scott said Tuesday.

Ted Creech, BellSouth's regional director in Charleston, said the legislation will allow his company to compete better with flexible pricing. It has traditionally taken the PSC about two weeks to ratify a phone company's request to change rates.