Verizon request: Study says exemption would boost bills

VERIZON REQUEST: STUDY SAYS EXEMPTION WOULD BOOST BILLS
[SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, AUTHOR: Bob Fernandez]
Phone customers in Philadelphia and five other cities could face higher phone and Internet service bills if the Federal Communications Commission approves a deregulation measure sought by Verizon Communications Inc., according to an economic study financed by a group of competing phone companies. Local phone bills in Philadelphia could jump $87 a year per household, the study says. The total higher bill for the region could be $345 million a year, it says. Other cities facing higher phone and Internet service bills if the FCC allows the measure are New York; Providence, R.I.; Boston; Pittsburgh; and Virginia Beach, Va. Verizon has asked the FCC to exempt it from rules requiring it to carry the "last mile" - connections to individual homes - of phone and data traffic for competitors at government-set prices. The provision was a key part of the Telecom Act of 1996 that was crafted to help smaller companies, called CLECs, or competitive local-exchange carriers, to compete with what were then the local phone monopolies. The law unleashed hundreds of small competitors in the late 1990s. Among those in the Philadelphia area are XO Communications, Cavalier Telephone & TV, and Covad Communications Group Inc. The study by QSI Consulting Inc. of St. Louis warns that, if Verizon is exempted from the last-mile rule, it could raise wholesale phone rates 200 percent to 300 percent.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20071113_Verizon_request__Study_says_exemption_would_boost_bills_.html