TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Don't Increase Telephone Rates

ADVERTISEMENT

By LORI K. PARHAM

Special to the Tribune

Published: April 2, 2009

Times are tough, and money is scarce.

So, it's a mystery why Florida legislators don't reject out of hand a plan to let Florida's local telephone companies raise the cost of many consumers' bills by up to 20 percent a year, every year.

It's an outrage. But that's not stopping swarms of telephone-company lobbyists from flooding into Tallahassee, demanding that state legislators strip consumers of regulatory protections. They want to give telephone companies free rein to raise your phone rates.

At issue are bills (SB 2626; HB 1465) by Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, and Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel. These bad bills are designed to help big phone companies dig deep into your wallet, even though the companies already make healthy profits.

Currently, state law and the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) set strict limits on raising rates for most kinds of landline telephone service for business and residential service.

But these bills would allow phone companies to raise rates by up to 20 percent per year for many customers. Even if those customers bought only the most basic phone service, plus one extra service, such as caller ID, they could be affected.

Telephone company lobbyists tell lawmakers that consumers won't be harmed. They swear competition for phone service is so strong that no phone company would risk increasing consumers' rates.

That's the theory. The reality: A recent study by the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates found significant price increases in states that removed price protection.

Millions of Florida families are using every means to reduce expenditures and to stretch their budgets. Do you favor letting big, profitable business hide lower-cost consumer options from you?

That's exactly what these bills do. They eliminate provisions that require phone companies to tell a consumer about lowest-cost plans for basic local phone service the first time the customer contacts them.

Instead, companies would have to disclose low-priced basic service plans only if consumers directly ask for that information - and even then, consumers have to know just how to ask to make the phone companies come clean and disclose lowest-price plans for basic service.

That's flatly outrageous.

Incredibly, these bills go even further. They would reduce the PSC's oversight of the quality of local telephone companies' service delivery. Static on your phone line that doesn't get resolved? Call time delays? Currently, the PSC has authority to make phone companies meet quality of service standards. Recently, the PSC found that phone companies failed to meet minimum quality standards, and it turned back lobbyists' attempts to let the companies off the quality-of-service hook. Now the phone companies are trying an end run around the PSC in the Legislature.

If nothing else, today's current economic mess should have shown us all that consumers get ripped off when policymakers scrap basic regulatory protections.

It's time for Florida consumers to speak out. AARP has set up a special toll-free number, 1-888-222-4121, to help you tell your legislator where you stand on this issue. You also can call the office of Gov. Charlie Crist at (850) 488-7146, to encourage him to stay focused on protecting consumers and to veto this bill should the Legislature pass it. For more information on the legislation visit www.aarp.org/fl.

Yell if you must. It may take yelling to get the message through to Tallahassee.

Lori K. Parham is AARP's Florida state director.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT