Phone carriers bestow little support to plan

If a statewide toll-free calling plan is approved, Oklahoma would be the first in the nation to expand local calling to the entire state. Colorado recently rejected a similar proposal, as regulators ruled it would harm competition and there was no proof state consumers wanted to pay for it, according to papers filed with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Oklahoma already has two of the country’s largest local calling areas in the country, as all calls within about a 35-mile radius of Oklahoma City and Tulsa are considered local. Enid and Lawton have smaller local calling areas. Those areas would be eliminated if the statewide plan is approved by regulators and state officials because the entire state would be considered local calls.