Agency suggests rule shift on telephone access charges

Article Abstract:

The FCC proposes allowing local telephone companies to lower access charges for large corporate customers. The access fees are paid by long-distance companies and allow companies to connect calls to the local lines. The FCC has rigorously regulated these fees to prevent local carriers from charging different rates for business and residential accounts. The access fees are usually set at inflated levels to help pay for residential telephone services. The proposal signifies a restructuring of existing systems and will profoundly affect the local Bells, which earns almost a third of total revenues from the access charges. The FCC has already changed access regulations, substituting a cap on the charges for the practice of setting rates to meet a predefined profit. The local Bell companies applaud the move, since it allows them to compete with a new crop of companies that offer long-distance companies lower access fees.

Long Distance Telephone Svc, Government Activity

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Rising phone bills are likely result of deregulation; lawmakers are angered free market rules mean end of subsidies that have let millions afford service

Article Abstract:

The FCC is attempting to decide if stripping away the subsidies given to local phone services is the best way to complete deregulation or if easing users into paying full price for their phone service by slowly decreasing subsides is a better solution. The FCC will have to make the decision, which may result in phone rates going up, on May 8, 1997. The Clinton Administration's campaign for the wiring of schools and libraries with sophisticated cable for high-speed Internet access will also have to be considered by the FCC. Should the FCC decide not to increase phone rates, or increase them only slightly, then state regulators will be left to deal with the problem, and the state regulators do not want to be the ones making the unpopular rate increases.

Telephone Communications, Prices and rates, Telephone services, Telephone, Telephony

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Rejection may show Bells way to long distance

Article Abstract:

The FCC is expected to deny Ameritech's bid to offer long-distance telephone service in its local region. The commission will issue a 200-page document that outlines what it expects from the local service providers before it will grant them permission to compete in the lucrative long-distance market. The FCC's guidelines should make it easier for the Baby Bells to enter the $75 billion long-distance industry. Ameritech's CEO, Richard C. Norbaert, believes his company has already met all the FCC's requirements and should be allowed to immediately begin providing long-distance service. Norbaert claims Ameritech will quickly fix whatever problems the FCC has found and reapply so that it can offer long-distance service by the end of 1997.

COMMUNICATION, Communications, Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Services, AIT, Ameritech Corp.

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