Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission deregulates Verizon landline service in Philadelphia area

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission moved to deregulate prices for Verizon's landline phone service in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and three other regions -- a decision that could lead to sizable price jumps for customers, who pay about $22 a month for traditional local phone service. By a 3-2 vote that drew sharp dissents from the commission's two Democratic appointees, the PUC partly backed Verizon's October petition, which asked that its service be declared "competitive" in the five markets under a 2004 state law that sought to promote phone and Internet competition. The commission declined to deregulate 41 of the 194 wire centers Verizon sought to reclassify, largely in suburban areas such as Ardmore, Chester, Jenkintown, and Langhorne, where testimony showed that at least 3 percent of households lacked access to cable companies' phone service as an alternative. PUC Chairman Robert F. Powelson called the decision "an important step towards modernizing how we regulate telecommunications in Pennsylvania."