Florida House of Representatives Votes to Deregulate Land Lines: Public Service Commission Would No Longer Regulate Quality or Price
Florida's seniors are nervously watching developments in the State's House of Representatives, which voted on April 20, 2011 to deregulate land-based telephone lines.
Florida's AARP opposes the measure and says it will result in higher-priced phone service for seniors. A statement is reprinted below from AARP Florida Interim State Director Jeff Johnson on SB 1524 and HB 1231, bills that would eliminate state regulators’ oversight of telephone companies’ rates, and on a new Public Service Commission analysis of the legislation.
An Associated Press report as published in the Ocala Star-Banner is reprinted below that.
AARP Florida: Telephone deregulation plan could cost Florida consumers heavily
Posted 3/22/2011 2:22 PM EDT
AARP Florida Interim State Director Jeff Johnson issued this statement today on SB 1524 and HB 1231, bills that would eliminate state regulators’ oversight of telephone companies’ rates, and on a new Public Service Commission analysis of the legislation:
"Under these bills, Florida consumers of all ages could face large increases for basic landline telephone service if Florida lawmakers continue their headlong plunge into abandoning decades of established state consumer protections. AARP believes this legislation could hurt thousands of financially hard-pressed Florida residents, especially older people already struggling with rising fuel, food and prescription-drug costs."
Johnson noted that advocates of the legislation have claimed that competition will keep prices low and benefit consumers.
"As an alarming new Florida Public Service Commission analysis of these proposals shows, the real results could be exactly the opposite – sharply higher costs for consumers, while leaving telecommunications consumers with fewer protections. For example, the bill would deprive consumers of any regulatory review of inaccurate billing."
Johnson pointed to this passage on Page 12 of a PSC analysis issued Friday:
"As noted previously, current rate caps limit rate increases for basic service to an amount not to exceed inflation minus 1 percent in a 12-month period. Nonbasic rate increases are limited to 10 percent in any 12-month period. A January 2011 report of the Kansas Corporation Commission concluded "that price deregulation has not brought lower prices in those states where deregulation legislation has passed." The report cites Missouri where AT&T-Missouri has increased residential rates by approximately 60 percent since 2007. In Ohio, deregulation legislation passed in September 2010, and AT&T recently implemented a residential increase of 9 percent, the maximum allowed under the law. In Arkansas, where deregulation became effective in 1997, AT&T recently raised its residential rate in its smallest exchanges by 19 percent. In California, residential customers received a 22 percent increase in January 2010, after receiving a 23 percent increase the prior year. California price controls expired entirely on January 1, 2011. Testimony provided to the 2009 Ohio Legislature by the Office of the Ohio’s Consumers’ Counsel listed only one state, Delaware, where basic service prices decreased following price deregulation."
Johnson called on legislators to review the PSC report closely, adding: "As recently as January, four in 10 Floridians 50+ told AARP that they were struggling to pay utilities costs. Now some want to allow telephone companies to reach into their wallets at will. AARP Florida hears loud and clear what Florida consumers are saying: They can’t afford for the state to abandon all protections for basic landline telephone-service consumers."
Call your legislator about proposed higher utilities costs
Tags: Telephone, deregulation, consumer, Florida, costly, alarming, competition, protection, outrage
Florida House OKs deregulation of telephone landlines
The Associated Press
April 20, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House has approved the deregulation of landline telephone service in the state.
The bill (HB 1231) passed by a vote of 110-4 on Thursday. A related bill is moving through the Senate.
The measure removes landline phones from the oversight of the Public Service Commission. The commission regulates utilities and must approve proposed rate increases. It would no longer have a say in matters of service quality or price.
Supporters say deregulation will modernize phone service. The AARP opposes the measure and says it will result in higher-priced phone service for seniors.
Estimates released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that 27 percent of adult Floridians live in wireless phone-only households.
Florida's AARP opposes the measure and says it will result in higher-priced phone service for seniors. A statement is reprinted below from AARP Florida Interim State Director Jeff Johnson on SB 1524 and HB 1231, bills that would eliminate state regulators’ oversight of telephone companies’ rates, and on a new Public Service Commission analysis of the legislation.
An Associated Press report as published in the Ocala Star-Banner is reprinted below that.
AARP Florida: Telephone deregulation plan could cost Florida consumers heavily
Posted 3/22/2011 2:22 PM EDT
AARP Florida Interim State Director Jeff Johnson issued this statement today on SB 1524 and HB 1231, bills that would eliminate state regulators’ oversight of telephone companies’ rates, and on a new Public Service Commission analysis of the legislation:
"Under these bills, Florida consumers of all ages could face large increases for basic landline telephone service if Florida lawmakers continue their headlong plunge into abandoning decades of established state consumer protections. AARP believes this legislation could hurt thousands of financially hard-pressed Florida residents, especially older people already struggling with rising fuel, food and prescription-drug costs."
Johnson noted that advocates of the legislation have claimed that competition will keep prices low and benefit consumers.
"As an alarming new Florida Public Service Commission analysis of these proposals shows, the real results could be exactly the opposite – sharply higher costs for consumers, while leaving telecommunications consumers with fewer protections. For example, the bill would deprive consumers of any regulatory review of inaccurate billing."
Johnson pointed to this passage on Page 12 of a PSC analysis issued Friday:
"As noted previously, current rate caps limit rate increases for basic service to an amount not to exceed inflation minus 1 percent in a 12-month period. Nonbasic rate increases are limited to 10 percent in any 12-month period. A January 2011 report of the Kansas Corporation Commission concluded "that price deregulation has not brought lower prices in those states where deregulation legislation has passed." The report cites Missouri where AT&T-Missouri has increased residential rates by approximately 60 percent since 2007. In Ohio, deregulation legislation passed in September 2010, and AT&T recently implemented a residential increase of 9 percent, the maximum allowed under the law. In Arkansas, where deregulation became effective in 1997, AT&T recently raised its residential rate in its smallest exchanges by 19 percent. In California, residential customers received a 22 percent increase in January 2010, after receiving a 23 percent increase the prior year. California price controls expired entirely on January 1, 2011. Testimony provided to the 2009 Ohio Legislature by the Office of the Ohio’s Consumers’ Counsel listed only one state, Delaware, where basic service prices decreased following price deregulation."
Johnson called on legislators to review the PSC report closely, adding: "As recently as January, four in 10 Floridians 50+ told AARP that they were struggling to pay utilities costs. Now some want to allow telephone companies to reach into their wallets at will. AARP Florida hears loud and clear what Florida consumers are saying: They can’t afford for the state to abandon all protections for basic landline telephone-service consumers."
Call your legislator about proposed higher utilities costs
Tags: Telephone, deregulation, consumer, Florida, costly, alarming, competition, protection, outrage
Florida House OKs deregulation of telephone landlines
The Associated Press
April 20, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House has approved the deregulation of landline telephone service in the state.
The bill (HB 1231) passed by a vote of 110-4 on Thursday. A related bill is moving through the Senate.
The measure removes landline phones from the oversight of the Public Service Commission. The commission regulates utilities and must approve proposed rate increases. It would no longer have a say in matters of service quality or price.
Supporters say deregulation will modernize phone service. The AARP opposes the measure and says it will result in higher-priced phone service for seniors.
Estimates released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that 27 percent of adult Floridians live in wireless phone-only households.
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