Telecommunications deregulation ‘AT&T’ bill heading to governor’s desk

NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

Monday, March 2, 2015, 10 p.m. — The Kentucky Senate approved Monday a telecommunications reform bill known as the “AT&T bill,” making it the first bill to pass both chambers of the 2015 Kentucky General Assembly.

House Bill 152, sponsored by Rep. Rick Rand, mirrors bills filed in prior years that would remove requirements for telephone companies to offer basic landline service in some areas of the state. This year’s bill offered some protection for landline users in rural areas who wish to keep their service.

Once it becomes law, HB152 will allow AT&T and other carriers to terminated stand-alone basic telephone service to new and existing customers in any phone exchange with more than 15,000 housing units, which includes cities like Elizabethtown, Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Frankfort, Owensboro, Henderson, Hopkinsville and others.

Customers who use landline services in these areas could be force required to accept Internet-based voice communication services if landline service in those areas is terminated.

Proponents of the bill said that telecommunications companies could save money by eliminating the cost of maintaining old technology and instead spend that money on Internet and mobile phone service expansion.

Critics of the bill noted that it stripped away consumer protection by removing the Public Service Commission’s jurisdiction over consumer cellphone and broadband complaints.

Since 2010, AT&T has worked to get deregulation legislation introduced in more than 30 states; one of the goals of the legislation is to remove or prevent state regulation of IP-based telephone services that the company is moving toward.

Not all members of the Kentucky Senate supported the bill. Sen. Robin L. Webb, D-Grayson, said the legislation was deregulation being disguised as something else.

“That is what this is all about,” she said, adding the legislation comes at the expense of the consumer.

On Monday, AT&T Kentucky President Hood Harris testified in support of the bill before the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Labor.

He said legislation much more comprehensive than HB 152 has been passed in 17 of the other 20 states where AT&T operate as a landline carrier, and no person in an urban or rural area has lost a landline.

The legislation heads to the Governor’s office for his signature.

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