Phone Bill Relief Welcome And Long Overdue

I don’t know whether I should start biting my nails or break open the bubbly. But the recently announced cuts by the federal government in long distance telephone rates is cause for concern, if not eventual celebration.

Consumers have taken such a beating with various telecommunications changes these past 18 months that a little skepticism, all in the face of the Federal Communications Commission-ordered long distance rate reduction of a couple of weeks ago, might seem appropriate.

Until a few days ago I didn’t think there was a snowcone’s chance in the inferno of any rate relief that might stick. Particularly this year.

Truth is, long distance cuts are expected to take place by July 1 - thanks to the FCC’s recent rate reduction mandate and the realization by at least one major long distance carrier that consumers really do deserve some kind of immediate break.

In the case of the nation’s largest long distance carrier, AT&T, that comes to a 15 percent cut in monthly long distance charges - or an average of about $2 less in phone bills for customers each month. Good news indeed.

Apparently behind this commendable move by long distance companies is a decision to give the same monetary consideration to residential customers as blue-chip corporate clients now get. It’s not entirely billing parity as we know it, but it is a big step in the right direction.

Admittedly, I’ve beaten up on the phone companies quite a bit in recent years. And they deserved it. The lobbying muscle that local phone companies and long distance carriers put on Congress - mainly the Republican majority - during the legislative process for the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was nothing short of shameful.

In fact, it was downright disgusting. Consumers apparently didn’t stand a chance.

According to USA Today, the total tab for the lobbying of Congress by the so-called Baby Bells, AT&T, MCI and Sprint came to a whopping $4 million. The Bell companies are said to have accounted for a little more than half of the lobbying amount. How’s that for political influence?

Not surprisingly, the Baby Bells - all seven of them - ostensibly came out on top in the telecommunications trench warfare. The long distance companies, meanwhile, were pretty much left holding the bag - trying to reassert their influence that gave way to the local phone monopoly.

What actually evolved from this whole mess, from consumers’ point of view, didn’t bode well for the little guys - the people who have to pay monthly long distance bills. Long distance phone rates have gradually inched up this past year and a half, despite government assurances that increased competition would drive down rates under the telecommunications bill.

Simply, it hasn’t happened. And I ought to know. As a bi-coastal customer these past two years of two of the major long distance carriers, I’ve seen my long distance phone bills go up steadily, with no apparent end to this rate madness in sight. You’ve probably experienced something similar.

That’s why I’m so ebullient about AT&T’s proposed July 1 rate reduction, the first substantive action by the company in this direction in five years, and only the second company pullback, according to The Wall Street Journal, in about eight years.

My big question: Why couldn’t this recently announced reduction have taken place long before now? It’s anybody’s guess, of course, as to the real reasons. But I do know as a close observer of local, state and federal governments that change only seems to come when pressure is brought on the appropriate government agency.

Both Congress and the FCC have been pressured relentlessly since the first of this year to do something about the skyrocketing phone costs.

The FCC - broadcasting’s often maligned regulatory agency and, in this case, the last bastion of hope for both sides of the political spectrum - may for the time being have quelled criticism, particularly from the political right, as an expendable governmental operation,.

Isn’t it interesting, though? Here we are at a time when the calls - no pun intended - continue to go out for less government intervention, and we applaud the FCC for intervening in our long distance rates. No matter what the ideology, we all would be hardpressed to come up with a cogent argument requesting that phone rates - local or long distance - should go up instead of down.

Even politics at times has to take a back seat to common sense.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fred Davis Washington State University