ComTech News

Right as last month came to an end the FCC approved a deal with incumbent local phone service provider AT&T which will allow for rate increases in northern Illinois including in Chicago and surrounding areas.

According to the Associated Press,

“The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) agreed to reclassify local phone service in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs as “competitive,” which exempts AT&T from complying with certain rate restrictions, said ICC spokeswoman Beth Bosch.In exchange, AT&T voluntarily agreed to limit annual rate increases for four years. Monthly usage fees would not increase by more than $1 each year and per-call fee increases would be capped at a half-cent, she said.“This compromise provides AT&T with enough regulatory certainty and flexibility to compete with our unregulated rivals,” Carrie Hightman, president of AT&T Illinois, said in a statement.New rates can take effect beginning Jan. 1.”

Advocacy groups including the AARP are concerned that the increases will have the largest effect on “those who can least afford it”, mainly retires and lower income households that rely on basic wire line services and don’t have the option to utilize services on broadband and wireless networks such as VoIP or Cellular phones.

Many groups, specifically the elderly and lower income are either not familiar or intimidated by VoIP and Broadband technology. Cellular which is often claimed to be a “competitor” by incumbent carriers has higher “basic rates” that tend to make it an unattractive option for those in lower income brackets.

For those effected by this increase, now may be the time to consider a competitive local phone service provider. Many such providers have entry level programs that allow low feature users to save money over incumbent providers. These users are the exact group the AARP and other advocacy groups are most concerned about being negatively effected by the new agreement. In fact the AARP went on official record with a statement stating,
“This decision will seriously impact the independence, health and safety of many seniors”.

I feel as usual that the AARP has gone just a tad bit overboard in their prediction that Uncle Joe many have to move into a home because his phone bill will increase by 2 dollars in the next 24 months, however they are correct that the older population who live on fixed incomes are the group that will be most effected by this decision. Certainly with the lobbying effort behind this decision the rate increase are going to come, no one puts out that kind of effort to get anything approved with out actually doing it.

Technorati Tags: at&t, aarp, icc, Illinois Commerce Commission, phone serivice, voip, broadband phone, cellular, cell phone, phone competition, rate increase, broadband, phone bill

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