john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (01/22/91)
Last week mention was made of GTE raising its rates to offset the loss
of revenue from touch tone charges that would no longer be leavied. I
responded with a condemnation of the whole rotten deal with the PUC,
but did not answer a question posed in the original article: how will
Pac*Bell handle it. My general answer was that it would be a "screw
the public" arrangement. Now that I am in my warm, fuzzy environment
again I have dug up the details:
First, Pac*Bell has cleverly "included" touch tone with a number of
its classes of service, e.g. COCOT, Commstar, and Centrex. None of
these services will experience any rate reduction as a result of the
change. This means that the rate reduction exposure to Pac*Bell is
considerably minimized. To compensate for the remaining customers that
will have the charge removed, Pac*Bell will increase everyone's bill
in a sneaky slight-of-hand maneuver.
For many years there has been an item on Pac*Bell bills called the
"Rate Surcharge". The amount in this column ranges anywhere from a few
cents to many dollars, positive or negative. It was a scheme used by
Pac*Bell to change rates without changing rates. The monthly charge on
customers' bills is almost a constant figure. When Pac*Bell is granted
small rate increases, the "rate surcharge" is adjusted upward. If
Pac*Bell is ordered to reduce rates it is adjusted downward. At the
moment, the rate surcharge is a negative number meaning it is a credit
every month. Bill insert: "The California Public Utilities Commission
has allowed Pacific Bell to reduce this monthly credit by 4.96
percentage points to offset the revenues lost by eliminating the
monthly 'Touch-Tone' charge."
So there you have it. After convincing the PUC to give Pac*Bell rubber
stamp "streamlined" regulations by, among other things, giving up
touch tone charges and expanding the Zone 1 calling, it turns out that
Pac*Bell gave us nothing at all except a shell game. Instead of
charging Touch Tone customers more than rotary customers, it will just
charge everyone more. And the people who really get the shaft are the
Centrex and Commstar customers (COCOT slime doesn't count) who were
conned with the line that "the service includes Touch Tone". Well, not
anymore, sucker! It's extra and NOT optional.
Does anyone still wonder why I foam at the mouth over the antics of
Pac*Bell?
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !