FCC shouldn’t raise subscriber line charge (SLC) to $6.50 next ye...
FCC shouldn’t raise subscriber line charge (SLC) to $6.50 next year, as envisioned in CALLS plan, because ILECs already are collecting too much revenue with current $5 charge, National Assn. of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) said Fri. NASUCA…
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unveiled study that said consumers were paying $641 million too much per year under $5 monthly charge and would be overpaying by $1.8 billion in 2003 if charge were raised to $6.50 per month. SLC is flat charge added to phone bills to recover variety of local loop costs. NASUCA said study showed not only that current rates were high enough but also that “residential and single-line business customers are currently paying implicit subsidies to the carriers and thus supporting the carriers’ other customers and stockholders.” Group said another problem was that customers with costs at or below $5 were paying $1.1 million too much while those with costs over $5 were paying $472 million less than cost. Group said it wasn’t asking FCC to rectify that situation in this proceeding but only to stop increases in SLC. However, it said, FCC should open another proceeding to improve its cost allocation procedures. In response, BellSouth said CALLS plan was devised to allow rates to gravitate to underlying costs. It doesn’t make sense in competitive environment to continue to charge residential customers rates that are below cost, BellSouth Vp Robert Blau said: “No one ever intended, as NASUCA argues, for retail rates to be based on the ‘most efficient network’ model devised for wholesale rates.”