Basic residential phone service will increase in cost by record proportions, affecting most the Florida consumers who can least afford it, for no good reason.
Published December 19, 2003
It's official: Florida residents are at the mercy of the phone companies. A decision by the Public Service Commission this week will allow record increases in the cost of residential phone service - in some areas up to 90 percent higher rates over three years. The only hope left for consumers is an appeal promised by Attorney General Charlie Crist and the Office of Public Counsel.
Crist put the rate hike in proper perspective when he noted that "it's a heck of a Christmas present for the people of Florida." If the PSC turns down an expected request by Crist and others to reconsider its decision, then the state Supreme Court would be asked to overturn it. We commend Crist and the Public Counsel for pursuing the matter, which could take up to a year to resolve.
If the appeal fails, residential phone customers will be hit with rate hikes of double-digit percentages. In Pinellas, Hillsborough and most of Pasco County, that means Verizon will raise its rate by about $4.60 a month over two years. In other parts of the Tampa Bay area, Sprint will increase its rate by $6.86 over three years and BellSouth by $3.14 over two years. After that, the three phone giants will be allowed 20 percent annual rate hikes without seeking PSC approval.
Particularly disappointing is the fact that the governor, lawmakers and the PSC failed to protect consumers, exposing a cozy relationship between the phone companies - which have been generous contributors to candidates in both parties - and government officials. Phone lobbyists wrote the bill that allowed the rate increase and steered it through a compliant Legislature with the blessing of Gov. Bush, who signed it into law. The final decision was left to the PSC, whose members allow the phone companies and other utilities they regulate to pay for social events at PSC conferences.
The rate hike was based on a dubious assumption that residential phone customers would save money on reductions of in-state long-distance fees and benefit from more competition. But testimony during the PSC hearings indicated that most of that savings will be passed on to business customers, and even if competition for local phone service materializes, it will likely be at the higher rates. So little real benefit to home phone users is apparent.
No doubt the telecommunications industry is changing, with cellular and even Internet phone service offering alternatives to the traditional wired telephone. But those choices are neither cheap nor within the grasp of many Floridians. Those who will suffer most under the rate hike are low-income families and retirees on fixed incomes who rely on affordable basic phone service.
The phone companies, with the PSC's easy compliance, offered a sweetener - an expanded discount to the poorest customers over four years - but that will help only a small percentage of Floridians. Even then, this rate hike leaves a bitter taste.
In case anyone has forgotten, here are the politicians responsible for this law: Gov. Jeb Bush; and in the Tampa Bay area state Reps. Kevin Ambler, R-Lutz; Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City; Faye Culp, R-Tampa; Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg; Bob Henriquez, D-Tampa; Ed Homan, R-Tampa; Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa; Ken Littlefield, R-Wesley Chapel; Sandy Murman, R-Tampa; Frank Peterman, D-St. Petersburg; and state senators Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island; Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg.
