By Mark Rockwell
July 27, 2004
WASHINGTON -- A powerful consumer group is hoping to spur lawmakers to pay extra close attention to the proposed AT&T Wireless/Cingular Wireless merger in light of AT&T Corp.’s decision last week to throw in the towel on residential long-distance services.
The AT&T Wireless/Cingular deal will whittle down the competitive options even further, compounding the loss of AT&T Corp. from the residential long-distance market, says Mark Cooper, director or research at the Consumer Federation of America. In a white paper titled, ’Remonopolizing Local Telephone Markets: Is Wireless Next?’ issued Monday, Cooper takes a critical look at the implications of the wireless merger on telecom overall.
He contends, in light of AT&T’s decision to get out of residential long distance, an «immense» amount of pressure is placed on wireless and other companies that hope to compete with the local Bell phone companies’ bundled local, long-distance and wireless service packages.
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Stock gets bounce from AT&T decision
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA
BellSouth Corp., a telecommunications company, reported yesterday a nearly 5 percent rise in second-quarter profit on flat revenue as it continued to lose access lines but benefited from growth in its long-distance and high-speed Internet services.
Shares of BellSouth and other companies in its industry rose as investors continued to react to AT&T Corp.’s decision last week to stop chasing new customers for its traditional consumer long-distance service.
«This is more a group thing where it’s driven off AT&T’s announcement than BellSouth’s earnings surprise,» said Patrick Comack, an analyst with Guzman & Co. in Miami. «It’s a major benefit to BellSouth in the short-term, but in the long-term the major enemy is cable.»
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Herald-Whig Staff Writer
An SBC billing error earlier this year that charged local calls at long-distance rates was to blame for many area customers receiving phone bills several times higher then normal.
Some consumers saw their SBC phone bills double or triple. One business saw its bill jump from $170 a month to $800 and $600 in following months. A residential phone user saw her phone bill add up to $400 over two months.
The charges started showing up after the customers switched to SBC long distance.
Beth Bosch, an Illinois Commerce Commission spokesman, said the problem was traced to a billing glitch.
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A pending Federal Communications Commission decision that would increase the charges for
prepaid calling cards used by the military to stay in touch with their families has irked U. S. Rep. Curt Weldon.
«It’s outrageous,» said Weldon,
R-7, of Thornbury. «Our troops need to have some sort of contact with their loved ones and raising their rates and limiting access is not the way to do it.»
The FCC decision would result in rate increases of more than 20 percent, a price hike members of the armed services and their families can ill afford because 95 percent of military personnel use these cards.
Richard Zangara of Darby Township, father of U. S. Army soldier Nicholas Zangara, who was killed in action in Iraq on Saturday, said his son would call home constantly and rang up a monthly credit-card charges of $300 with the special G.I. rate of 4.7 cents per minute.
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Sprint Corp. said Monday it plans to offer local and
long-distance service bundles to
medium-sized businesses in 29 cities.
The packages, which also include data services, are designed to compete with local telecom providers while helping Sprint penetrate the smaller business market. It also is taking advantage of the current popularity of selling complete packages of telecommunications products, mostly to commercial clients.
«That’s the telecom du jour,» said Greg Gorbatenko, with Marquis Investment Research.
The announcement comes only days after AT&T Corp. said it would stop actively marketing its consumer long-distance. Analysts said AT&T, which offers local and long-distance bundles for business, made the consumer announcement to focus more on its business customers, possibly signalling it is ready to increase competion in this segment.
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