New phone plan: You'll pay more so they pay less

TROXLER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2002

Okay, here's the deal being considered in Tallahassee. Your local phone bill would go up, by an extra dollar a month.

If you're a Verizon customer, there would be another $1-a-month increase each year, until the total was $5 a month more than now.

If you're a BellSouth customer, there would be another $1-a-month increase until the total was $3 a month more than now.

That is the deal that your "conservative" state House and your "conservative" state Senate are in the middle of approving.

The deal is as greased as a pig at the fair. The deal zipped right through its final committees this week. The only thing left now is the floor vote in the full House (House Bill 1683) and in the Senate (Senate Bill 988).

You might ask: Why should I pay more?

Part of the answer is:

So that long-distance companies such as AT&T and Sprint can pay less.

The long-distance companies would pay less in "access charges" to your local phone company. You would make up the difference.

Why is this supposed to be a good idea?

I can tell you why local phone companies SAY it is a good idea. They say they are charging you an artificially low price now. If they could charge more, the market would become more "competitive." More phone companies would come to Florida.

You might ask:

Huh? If I have to pay more anyway, then what do I care if the market gets more "competitive"? But in the long run, the theory goes, the competition will keep bills down.

Listen:

Your legislator will tell you that this law will require the long-distance companies to "share" their savings with you. That is true.

But there is no guarantee that the long-distance companies won't just turn right around and slap new charges on you. That's exactly what AT&T did last year when it invented a bogus new "connection charge" of $1.95 a month.

Your long-distance "savings" could last a month. A week. A day. The companies say sweetly, we wouldn't do that, we couldn't get away with it! But AT&T's action last year is direct proof that they can and they will.

Here is another thing.

Not all local customers would get stuck with higher rates. Here is who would pay more: residences and single-line, mom-and-pop businesses. Bigger customers would not.

Here is something else.

The less long-distance you use now, the more frugal you have been, the more you will get hurt. You will not share as much in the supposed "savings" from lower long-distance rates. But you will get a higher local bill anyway.

We have heard all of these promises before. We got exactly, and I mean exactly, this same stuff in 1995. That was the year the Legislature voted to stop regulating the rate of return on local telephone profits in Florida.

The deal in 1995 was that if phone companies could make more money, local service would become more "competitive." It was not true then. I do not know if it is true now.

I do not believe many legislators fully understand this bill. They are bamboozled by the lobbyists and under tremendous peer pressure in Tallahassee.

Can citizens still stop this? You bet. Last year, there was a greased deal to store dirty surface water in Florida's aquifer. That bill was even further along in the process. But the people of Florida rose up and stopped it.

Experience proves that even just a few telephone calls from taxpayers -- that is to say, voters -- will change a legislator's mind.

If you do call, they might try to tell you what you have just read is wrong. You can make up your own mind about that. Just remember who is getting campaign contributions from telephone companies and Tallahassee lobbyists, and who isn't.

Look up your legislator's phone number in the phone book. Look it up on the Internet at www.leg.state.fl.us.

Better call, while you can still afford it.

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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