Phone carriers bestow little support to plan

State telephone carriers aren’t responding kindly to an Oklahoma Corporation Commission plan to enact a statewide toll-free calling plan.

Commission staff invited phone companies to spell out their concerns about the plan after a Jan. 20 meeting with industry representatives.

That three-hour technical conference was replete with questions from attendees about legal issues, economic considerations and the language in the proposed rule change.

The same things have been cited repeatedly in the last couple of weeks in companies’ filings to the commission, addressing what an attorney for AT&T Oklahoma called a "significant industry restructuring” in the works.

Another technical conference is scheduled at 10 a.m. today to continue discussions about the toll-free calling plan.

A filing by the Verizon companies said the proposal "would work the biggest structural and market changes to Oklahoma’s telecommunications markets since the AT&T divestiture in 1984.”

Verizon also questioned the rush to finish the proposed rules by April 1 so they can be considered by state lawmakers and Gov. Brad Henry.

"Given the extraordinarily high stakes for consumers and the industry, it would be a grave mistake to rush into adopting rules without a comprehensive, fact-based analysis of the need for the rules, how they would work, their market effects and, most fundamental of all, an answer to the question of whether consumers want or need the proposed statewide toll-free calling plan, given an accurate accounting of the cost,” Verizon attorney Jack G.

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