Bill to Deregulate Basic Telephone Service Would Cripple Watchdog Function of PSC

Senator Jeff Plale and Rep. Phil Montgomery are at it again. This time it's a bill, SB 285, that would drastically limit the Wisconsin Public Service Commission's (PSC) oversight of plain old landline telephone service. The AARP, Citizens Utility Board, and the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group warned us what the bill is trying to accomplish:

In two years, this bill would allow local phone companies to completely opt out of PSC oversight for basic land-line telephone service.  This bill would allow phone companies to charge much higher prices for this critical service, and phone companies would no longer be required to provide notice to their customers of rising prices.

The bill would allow phone companies to engage in “price discrimination”: charging higher prices to certain customers for the same type of service it provides other customers at lower prices.  For example, phone companies could raise prices for phone service in areas where there is no competition, and lower prices in areas in which there is competition.  Unless prohibited, price discrimination can force rural customers including elderly customers to unfairly pay higher prices for phone service.

The bill would greatly curtail the ability of customers to file and pursue complaints against local phone companies.  The bill would severely limit the financial and technical information the PSC could require of phone companies, and would require the PSC to withhold the information from public inspection.

The Capital Times' Judy Davidoff did a good job on the story Tuesday:

University of Wisconsin telecommunications Professor Barry Orton...said this is another attempt to remove all telecommunication oversight powers from the Public Service Commission, which has long served as Wisconsin's watchdog regarding telephone service.

In 1993, he said, the Legislature drastically reduced the commission's powers to review rates and enforce service quality issues. Plale's proposed bill would "severely limit the financial and technical information the PSC could require of phone companies, and would require the PSC to withhold the little information it got from public inspection," Orton said. "Senator Plale's bill would gouge out the eyes of Wisconsin's watchdog, and then surgically remove its vocal chords."

- Barry Orton

Comments

[Peter]

Is the PSC doing any real watchdogging these days anyway?