In search of telephone competitors
My telephone rates story today touched on the state of competition in North Carolina for local telephone service. I found lots of interesting data in a state Utilities Commission report. But reading the report is slow going.
I'll save you some trouble. I learned two things: It's very difficult to assess how much competition there is for local telephone service in the state because of the many companies offering services that are apples to oranges.
The other thing I learned is that when the survey did find decent data on competition, many markets seem almost closed to competitors. Essentially, the "switched" or traditional phone companies are pretty much a monopoly because very few "CPLs" (Competing Local Providers) can get access to the hard land telephone lines.
Take heart, though: If you're in a business or a major city, more companies want your business and you may have a shot at a lower price.
Below is a key part of the report, filed last November. Note, "unswitched" typically refers to digital or wireless phone service. "Rate Centers" are individual local markets.
From the report:
An overarching result from the analysis of the survey data is that wireline competition, as measured by market shares of CLPs in connections, is mottled across services and areas.Typically, and not surprisingly, CLP market shares are higher for services to businesses than services to
residences (except for residential prepaid telephone
service, in which the CLP market share is very large); very small for residential nonprepaid telephone service; higher for nonswitched services than switched services, despite the data reliability issues; higher for services in metropolitan markets than in rural
areas.Of the 430 Rate Centers in North Carolina, 74 (17.2 percent)
have no switched services provided by a CLP, and 197 (45.8
percent) have no nonswitched services provided by a CLP.Of the 356 Rate Centers that have switched services provided by
at least one CLP, 106 (29.8 percent) are served by only one to
three CLPs. Of the 233 Rate Centers that have nonswitched
services provided by at least one CLP, 213 (91.4 percent) are
served by only one to three CLPs.