FreedomTalks

Rebuffed last year by regulators, the state’s largest provider of local telephone service is asking legislators to move Kansas toward deregulating the prices it charges consumers.

The Senate Utilities Committee opened hearings Tuesday on a bill sought by AT&T, which previously provided local service in Kansas as SBC Corp. The company hopes legislators will deregulate its prices in Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita and allow deregulation in other areas under certain conditions.

This is a good development (registration required). It is virtually agreed by economists that when the government sets price controls on a good, the quality and quantity of that good diminishes.

But there are some problems with the bill’s progress in the legislature.

SBC supported similar legislation last year, but Kerr acknowledged the company concentrated more on trying to persuade the Kansas Corporation Commission to deregulate prices for 31 separate services in Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita.

Last year, SBC’s parent company acquired AT&T, the long-distance company, kept the AT&T name and made it the largest phone company in the nation.

The KCC rejected most of AT&T’s proposals, concluding there isn’t enough competition to take controls off prices.

If this is true, it’s largely because local franchises prevent competition in Kansas. If there is anything bad about this bill, it’s that there isn’t enough deregulation.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 9:59 am and is filed under States, Telecom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.