New Hampshire Legislature Seeks to Deregulate Retail Services, VoIP
A New Hampshire deregulation bill that sailed through the state Senate recently is making its way through the House. Supporters said SB-48, which will loosen retail service requirements on regulatory reporting, service quality penalties and rates, has broad industry support and will be passed this year. However, independent ISPs like Destek Group see deregulation as bad news for consumers and small ISPs in the state. The bill would overturn a New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission decision to regulate VoIP.
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State Senator Bob Odell, one of the three Republican sponsors of SB-48, is confident it will pass, he said, citing wide support from telcos and cable operators in the state. While the bill would deregulate ILECs like FairPoint, it wouldn’t affect wholesale services, he said. Other telecom providers had wanted to ensure the bill has no discrimination, but they are all on board now, he said. Most of the state’s telecom providers supported the bill, Odell said. It would put companies like FairPoint on a level playing field, said Senator Gary Lambert, another sponsor.
FairPoint also believes the bill has support from providers across the state, a spokesman said. The bill would allow the company to respond quickly to changes at competitors and would further competition and encourage investment, he said. Under the bill, a new category of telecom utilities called excepted LECs would be established. That includes RBOCs, CLECs and RLECs. The excepted LECs wouldn’t need to obtain approval for special pricing, and most utility laws would no longer apply. There are a few exceptions for incumbent excepted LECs, including a provision for carrier-of-last-resort for basic service, limited regulatory review of a buyer of incumbent assets, wholesale obligations and broadband and capital expenditure requirements. That means FairPoint still has to provide basic service, and its residential rate increases for such service would be capped for the next eight years, a regulatory analyst said.
Deregulation means consumers would have nowhere to go for service quality issues, said Destek President Brian Susnock. Independent ISPs in New Hampshire are struggling because they didn’t have equal access to the market, he said. Competition will be lost without some degree of regulation, he said.
Meanwhile, SB-48 defines VoIP for the first time in the state as the conduit for being able to have a phone conversation using the Internet. The state’s PUC had warned that the bill would change its ability to regulate safety standards in the telecom industry. But the Senate Energy Committee said that under the legislation, the PUC retains its authority to regulate safety, along with its ability to manage rights of way. The PUC had denied Comcast’s petition for rehearing of the PUC’s decision that cable VoIP service is subject to state regulation (CD Oct 6 p10).