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Protest PacBell ISDN rate hike
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TAP/CPT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTES
January 4, 1996
JANUARY 5, 1996 DEADLINE TO PROTEST PACIFIC BELL'S ISDN TARIFF
BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
- Pac Bell Proposes huge increases in residential ISDN
tariffs. Pac Bell proposed to double the daytime metered
usage rate, and to introduce, for the first time, per minute
metered charges in off-peak hours.
- Deadline for Comments to California PSC is Friday, January
5, 1996.
- Public may file comments by fax, at (415)-703-1758. If your
fax is received by the deadline it will be accepted by the
CPUC as an official protest. Faxes may be accepted beyond
the 5th, at the discretion of the Commission.
- The California PUC Public Advisor also receives email at
public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov. The status of protests filed by
email is uncertain, but we are hoping that these comments
will be processed by the Commission staff. (The Washington
State WUTC just announced that it will receive comments on
the Washington State US West ISDN Tariff at
isdn@wutc.wa.gov).
WHAT WILL THE RATE HIKES DO?
The following is from Jim Warren's excellent newsletter,
GovAccess (available from Majordomo@well.com), in a December 27
article titled "Telco Monopoly Ripoffs Begin: Pac Bell Wants to
Double Home, Business ISDN Rates."
Seasons Greetings! . . . on Dec 5th, Pac Bell applied
to the Calif Public Utilities Commission to *double*
its per-minute rates for residential and business ISDN
victims, uh, subscribers -- jacking it up to 2.1-cents
per minute for daytime phone use; [and adding new
charges of ] 1.46-cents per minute for evening calls;
[and] 0.84-cents per minute for nights and weekends.
They also propose to eliminate their current waiver of
installation charges for customers who subscribe for at
least a two-year term. All sorts of other ISDN charges
are also escalated, and previous benefits are
eliminated or capped.
Dan Kegel's description of the Pac Bell rate increases is as
follows:
Centrex rates: increasing by $8/mo.
Business rates:
Old Each Additional Minute New Each Additional Minute
Day $.0105 $.0210
Evening $.0073 $.0146
Night/Weekend $.0042 $.0084
Home rates: same as business, but with 20 free hours of off-peak/month. [TAP/CPT Note, current residential tariff is
unmetered for evening, night and weekend use]
Pac Bell's proposed increases are clearly an attempt exploit its
monopoly power. The practical result of the rate hike will be an
extreme limiting of residential ISDN as a popular option for
Internet access.
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
You may send faxes to the California Public Utilities
Commission that will be filed as official protests to this action
if received by close of business in California on January 5,
1996. The CPUC Public Advisor's voice number if you have any
questions is (415) 703-2074. The cover sheet of your fax should
be marked to the attention of the "Public Advisor" and should
also be marked "Urgent" in large, distinctive type. The CPUC's
fax number is:
(415)-703-1758
On the cover of the fax as well as in the heading of your faxed
protest letter, you should also reference the docket number:
A95-12-043.
The protests should be addressed to:
Public Advisor's Office
California PUC
505 Van Ness Ave or 107 S. Broadway
San Francisco CA 94102 Los Angeles CA 90012
via fax (415)-703-1758
Re: A95-12-043, Pac Bell proposed ISDN tariffs
TALKING POINTS
- Pac Bell should not be allowed to impose per minuted metered
charges for off-peak hours
- Pac Bell is proposing to charge residential consumers 39
percent more for off-peak use than it currently charges
commercial users during peak hours. (1.46 cents compared to
1.05 cents per minute.
- It is in the public interest to promote ISDN deployment, and
the use of new information services that are connected for
longer periods of time (as we use the Internet to deliver
new services). Per minute charges for the service should be
avoided.
- ISDN has tremendous application in education, entertainment,
civic participation, and self-improvement. It is a general
consumer technology not confined to a niche market, and it
should be encouraged rather than made inaccessible by an
unjust and unwarranted rate hike.
Please get your faxes out as soon as possible. Stress to the
CPUC that ISDN is an important technology representing the next
step in the evolution of the information superhighway, and Pac
Bell's proposal would prevent ISDN from reaching its potential in
opening up new services and telecommunication advances on the
Internet.
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