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Nation’s
State Utility Consumer Advocates
Fight to Preserve Telephone Competition Columbus, OH. – November
20, 2002 – Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act in 1996,
years of work have been dedicated to the creation and support of
competitive local telephone markets. The National Association of
State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) has passed a resolution
that will be submitted to the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) urging it to preserve competition by keeping the very system
that has made customer choice a reality in many states.
As part of the FCC’s three-year review of how competitors access
the local telephone network, the nation’s largest telephone companies
are urging the agency to eliminate the unbundled network element
platform (UNE-P). The UNE-P was established in recognition that
competitors could not be expected to replicate existing networks
and infrastructure. The system permits competitors to lease facilities
needed to serve its customers at wholesale rates. It also allows
companies to customize the services they offer to customers.
Nationwide, millions of consumers are served by competitors that
rely on the UNE-P to affordably and seamlessly switch customers.
Without this process, local telephone companies would manually disconnect
and reconnect each customer, a costly and time-consuming method.
For customers of competitors, this could mean:
- Higher monthly telephone bills Less choices in the variety of services offered
- Potential service interruptions during the disconnection/reconnection process
- Less choices in the variety of services offered
Ultimately, competitors could be forced to exit local telephone markets across
the country, leaving consumers with few, if any, choices.
“With competitive local telephone markets still developing across
the nation, the largest telephone companies are trying to create barriers
to customer choice,” said NASUCA President, Robert S, Tongren. “Any
action taken to eliminate this system could shut down competition
as we know it.”
In addition, NASUCA believes that any review of mechanisms that competitors
rely on to provide service is best conducted on a state-by-state,
market-by-market basis.
National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates
8380 Colesville Road, Suite 101, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: (301) 589-6313 Fax: 589-6380
e-mail: nasuca@nasuca.org |