A Utah House committee has passed out a bill that would keep the Public Service Commission from having to produce an annual telecommunications industry report, despite opposition by a leader of the state's consumer watchdog group.
SB93 would repeal the requirement of the commission to present a report annually to the governor and Legislature regarding the state of the telecom industry in Utah. The commission has produced six such reports so far.
The Utah Technology Commission recommended the bill, according to its sponsor, Sen. Beverly Evans, R-Altamont, who chairs the tech commission.
"The report is very outdated anymore," Evans told the House Public Utilities and Technology Standing Committee on Monday. "It doesn't address any of the cell phone usage or any new technology that we have."
Evans also said preparation of the report puts a burden on the Utah Public Service Commission.
But Roger Ball, director of the staff of the Committee of Consumer Services, which represents residential and small-business customers in utility matters, said the report details actual competition among telecom companies instead of theoretical competition. That helps determine whether the commission should implement certain aspects of 1995 telecom legislation regarding competition, he said.
One example, he said, is whether enough competition exists to grant Qwest Communications International Inc. the ability to set its own prices rather than be under price regulation.
If Qwest is granted pricing flexibility, its rates will rise, as will those of its competitors, "and we believe that consumers will be worse off as a result of that," he said. However, a representative of Qwest denied that the company wants pricing flexibility so it can increase rates.
"It is the belief of the Committee of Consumer Services that there is not effective and meaningful wireline telecommunications competition for residential customers in Utah," Ball said.
If the report is not required, the Public Service Commission may not require the state Division of Public Utilities to gather information from telecom companies. Ball said that information is available in no other place, not even on the PSC or division Web sites. The PSC Web site does list utility companies in the state, he said, but the list includes only the name, address, phone number and perhaps a Web address for each company.
"So, with the absence of the report, the information will sink below the visible horizon of members of the public," Ball said. "Those of us who work in utility regulation may still be able to obtain it, but the only way we get it at the moment is because the division collects it."
Evans countered by saying the information is a public record and available, although "this is not data that is really widely used."
Rep. Gordon Snow, R-Roosevelt, sided with Evans. "I think Mr. Ball makes a point or two, but he hasn't convinced me that the information is not available to those who really need it and use it regularly," Snow said.
Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, voted against moving the bill out of committee. While he acknowledges that the Legislature deals with many reports, the telecom document has helped when legislators have been confronted with "a tremendous amount of disputed information" about telecom industry competition.
"We needed an independent source, which is the Public Service Commission and the public utilities division, to provide an analysis that we in the public could have available as we were considering issues relating to more competition and deregulation, . . . and while I would support not having a report necessarily come to the Legislature every year, or the governor, I cannot support eliminating the need for the report because I think we need that independent information to be able to make good decisions when the time comes to deal with these issues," Becker said.
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