• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Senate Approves Bill to Curb Telephone Rate Hikes of 20%

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 May 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Jim Wyss, The Miami Herald

May 3--TALLAHASSEE -- Three years after opening the door to what could have led to the largest telephone rate hike in state history, Florida lawmakers moved to slam it shut on Tuesday.

By a vote of 37-0, the Florida Senate approved a bill that would lock all future price increases in basic telephone service to inflation minus 1 percent.

Without the measure, telephone companies would have been able to unilaterally increase prices by up to 20 percent annually.

"This was a long time coming," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who opposed the hikes in 2003.

With three days left in the legislative session, the House must approve the bill before it is sent on for the governor's signature. But an amendment to the bill, which would broaden the reach and scope of the public counsel as it investigates consumer complaints against telecom firms, could be a sticking point with the House.

Telephone companies said market realities made the measure moot.

"We said to people all along that there was no way we could raise our rates 20 percent year-over-year and keep our customers," said Bob Elek, spokesman for Verizon, which has 2 million land lines in Florida.

BellSouth Spokeswoman Marta Casas-Celaya pointed out that the much-touted 20 percent was a cap, not a target.

When lawmakers approved the rate hike in 2003, it created a firestorm, as critics accused the telephone lobby of pouring more than $5 million into political campaigns and parties to grease the wheels of legislation.

After the measure passed, it was hounded all the way to Florida's Supreme Court where -- last December -- the hikes were declared legal.

One of the ringleaders behind the legal actions, as well as the bill approved Tuesday, was the AARP, which has 2.7 million Florida members.

Because senior citizens have been slow to adopt to newer communication technology, they are more susceptible than most to price increases, said Lori Parham, AARP's advocacy manager for state affairs.

"Seniors are one of the largest groups that depend on land-line service," she said. "When you take into account the electricity increases, rising healthcare costs and the rising price of insurance -- this was more than they could bear."

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:VZ,

Source: The Miami Herald

More News in this Category