News-Record.com

From this Sunday's paper:

RALEIGH — Regulatory changes that phone companies say they need to compete with wireless providers and cable companies could hurt consumers, particularly those who buy only the most basic land-line services, say consumer advocates.

The measure, which passed the state House last week, amounts to a partial deregulation of telephone services provided by companies such as AT&T and North State. Under the bill, utility regulators would no longer keep close tabs on services and prices related to local phone service.

“You’ve got some legacy rules and regulation that were created to manage an industry that frankly no longer exists,” said Clifton Metcalf , a spokesman for AT&T, which pushed for the bill. “Consumers have a tremendous amount of choice now.”

But consumer advocates say that those choices — mainly mobile phones and phones provided by cable companies — aren’t available equally across the state. And they argue less-wealthy customers could suffer if rates are allowed to rise.

“(Phone companies) would now have carte blanche to raise prices as they want to with the one exception of stand-alone consumer lines,” said Bill Wilson , a lobbyist for AARP, who said the rise in rates would hurt more than just those over 50.

Click here for the full story.

Click here for information on the bill, including the latest draft.

I have one bit of business to tidy up here. North Carolina has not only a Public Utilities Commission, which serves as a regulator, but a Public Staff, which serves as an advocate on behalf of the public to that regulator.

The staff is a group of public employees but they're not under the commission and are fairly well regarded by advocates in the nonprofit community.

I was unsuccessful in catching up with them last week and particularly wanted to do so because someone working for a phone company suggested to me that the Public Staff might actually favor H 1180.

That's not the case.

John Garrison, who oversees the communications division of the Public Staff, and I finally got a chance to speak this morning. He said that the Public Staff wasn't actively opposing the bill but favored the existing law.

"That's what we think would be best," he said.

Garrison said that the latest version of the H 1180 offered "some protections to consumers," but the public staff thought the existing regulatory scheme did more to ensure quality and price protections.

"Not opposing" something and "favoring" it are two different things on Jones Street. If you favor something, you want to see the change and may be actively working on its behalf. "Not opposing" means you may not like something, but you're keeping your political powder dry - either because you have other issues to work on or because there's little you can do to stop a particular political train from rolling down the tracks.