Kansas Senate to debate AT&T bill that loosens regulations on phone providers

The Kansas Senate will take up a bill proposed by AT&T to relieve phone companies from having to follow state rules protecting consumers from fraud and abusive billing practices. House Bill 2201 also would prevent state utility regulators from enforcing minimum quality of service standards in AT&T areas. And it would relieve AT&T of having to provide phone service to poor people on Lifeline subsidies or difficult-to-serve rural customers.

In recent years in the Legislature, AT&T has steadily chipped away at regulations to move from its former perch as a regulated monopoly phone company to a fully deregulated business providing a variety of communications services including Internet access and television. David Springe, chief consumer counsel for the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board, said he thinks the current bill takes that too far, because AT&T remains the dominant phone company in the state and the only viable option for telecommunications for customers in much of rural Kansas.