Phone Bills to Rise in April

If you’re considering adding another phone line, you might want to think again: A new state law means phone bills will become more expensive beginning April 1.

House Bill 776, passed during the 2005 legislative session and signed by Gov. Bill Richardson, compelled the state Public Regulation Commission to implement a fund — paid for by telephone customers around the state — that rural telecommunication companies could use to offset their higher costs of doing business. It would help ensure people in rural areas had affordable access to telephone service.

The fee per telephone line could range from 75 cents to $1.50 per month, said PRC Commissioner Jason Marks.

Qwest customers, he said, might see a $2 to $3 rise in monthly phone bills.

Melvin Reams, president of Valutel Communications, a telecommunications company with business in Texas and New Mexico, said the new charges likely would make his customers unhappy.

“We think it’s going to be a problem for us,” he said. “I mean, it’s just another tax.”

But Curt Huttsell, president of the New Mexico Exchange Carrier Group and manager of government and external affairs with Navajo Communications in Arizona, said rural telephone users have unusually high costs that need addressing.

“The customers we serve on the Navajo Reservation in northwestern New Mexico pay more to call Gallup and Farmington than they do Denver, Salt Lake or Phoenix,” he said. “We think that this important law and its implementation is a giant first step toward bringing the benefits of lower long-distance rates to the citizens of New Mexico, especially the rural citizens of New Mexico.”

The PRC is still working on how to put the fund in place. Questions remain about exactly which customers of telecommunications companies will pay into it and how much. How fast the rate changes will come about is also under review.

One of the big concerns is whether to charge the fee to wireless and wired customers, or just wired. Altogether, the fee needs to bring in about $1.5 million per month, Marks said.

The 1 million wired customers in New Mexico would pay $1.50 a month if only they were charged, Marks said.

Add the 1 million wireless customers in New Mexico, and each type of customer would have to pay only 75 cents to reach the $1.5 million per month, he said.

So charging both types of customers would lower the amount of the fee per telephone line, but it could mean some people — for example, somebody with a cell phone and a land line — could get hit twice.