[1st-mile-nm] PRC - CenturyLink

[Richard Lowenberg]

NM PRC moving to deregulate land line phone business

http://www.abqjournal.com/254646/biz/nm-prc-moving-to-deregulate-land-line-phone-business.html

By Kevin Robinson-Avila / Journal Staff Writer | 2 days ago

The state Public Regulation Commission ruled Wednesday that most of New 
Mexico’s residential telephone market is competitive enough to ease 
regulations for CenturyLink.

The PRC voted 3-2 to declare the residential market for “packaged and 
bundled” telephone services competitive in 61 of the 65 areas that 
CenturyLink serves in New Mexico, reflecting steady growth of wireless 
and cable-telephone providers in those places.

The finding allows the commission to move to the next phase of the case 
to determine appropriate regulatory relief for CenturyLink, such as 
eliminating price controls and quality-of-service standards.

Any regulatory changes, however, only will affect packaged services – 
which encompass basic phone lines with added features such as caller ID 
and call waiting – as well as bundled contracts that contain 
non-telephone services like Internet.

Regulation will continue for basic, stand-alone telephone lines and for 
services provided to business customers, since the commission did not 
find those markets to be competitive.

CenturyLink, which acquired Qwest Communications International in 2011, 
is the state’s largest provider of traditional landline phone service.

But the local customer base under Qwest and now CenturyLink has fallen 
nearly 48 percent since 2001 as cellphone use has exploded and as 
cable-telephone and Internet-based services have spread.

CenturyLink petitioned the PRC in fall 2011 to declare that effective 
competition exists in all market segments throughout New Mexico to pave 
the way for regulatory relief.

In the end, however, the commission accepted PRC hearing examiner 
Carolyn Glick’s limited finding of competition just in packaged and 
bundled residential services.

On the other hand, the commission rejected Glick’s recommendation to 
declare those residential services competitive in all 65 CenturyLink 
service areas, leaving regulation intact in four rural zones.

It also rejected a recommendation to give CenturyLink another 
opportunity to present evidence of competition in more market segments, 
encouraging commissioners Pat Lyons and Valerie Espinoza to vote against 
the final order.

“I think CenturyLink has a lot of competition from wireless providers, 
and I don’t think they’ll get much regulatory relief with this order,” 
Lyons said. “I also think they should have gotten a second chance to 
prove their case.”

The case will now go back to the hearing examiner to consider 
regulatory reform, a process that could take up to six to eight months, 
Glick told the Journal.




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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Dir.
1st-Mile Institute, 505-603-5200
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
www.1st-mile.org  rl at 1st-mile.org
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