By Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2003
The public gets to speak out this week on local phone rates.
Under a new state law, Verizon, Sprint and BellSouth are seeking increases of 30 to 90 percent over two years in local basic rates in exchange for corresponding cuts in access fees they charge long-distance carriers for instate calls. The law doesn't specify how those reductions will translate into savings for residential customers.
A round of hearings by the state Public Service Commission begins Wednesday in Jacksonville. Tampa Bay area consumers will have their say at 1 p.m. Friday on the 26th floor of the Hillsborough County Center at 601 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.
The Office of Public Counsel had sought 13 hearings around the state. The PSC agreed to seven, but added three more after complaints that some areas had been left out, including Miami-Dade, the state's most populous county.
But first the PSC will vote Tuesday on whether the phone companies' rate-hike requests even comply with the new law. In a primary recommendation, the PSC staff said the requests should be dismissed because the increases would occur in less than the minimum two-year period.
Even if the PSC votes to dismiss the applications, the staff has advised that the public hearings go on because the phone companies can reapply with amended time frames.
