browns@uunet.uu.net (CONTR BROWN,STAN) (12/21/90)
I was intrigued to hear how far one regulatory agency appears to be in
bed with a regulated utility.
Ohio Bell (part of Ameritech, an RBOC) wants to offer caller ID. I'm
told that Ohio Bell has inserted things in bills asking people to
write to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) supporting
caller ID. (I don't know that for sure because the first thing I do
with the phone bill is throw away the advertising inserts.)
In Ohio, the Consumers Counsel is a publicly funded watchdog agency.
I sent them a copy of my letter to the PUCO against caller ID as
proposed. They called me to verify that I truly had sent the original
to the PUCO, because the PUCO haad not logged it. According to the
Consumers Counsel, this appears to be a widespread pattern. I
mentioned to the officer I talked to that I wouldn't have thought the
PUCO to be so biased, but perhaps I was naive. His response, "You're
naive."
So, if you have written to the PUCO about any telecom-related issue, you
may want to send a copy to:
Mr. Robert Ceisler
Consumers Counsel
77 South High Street/15th floor
Columbus OH 43266
(+1 800 282 9448).
Other telecom-related tidbits:
Last summer the Consumers Counsel proposed requiring phone companies
to offer subscribers a free listing indicating "telemarketers don't
call". The PUCO has taken no action, and the Consumers Counsel is
considering proposing legislation at the state level.
Call*Trace (if I've got the right name) is also not available. It was
proposed last summer but the PUCO is sitting on it too. (Whatever the
name, this is the service where you get a harassing call and punch a
few numbers to lock it into the phone company's computers but you
yourself don't get the number.)
Please do not attribute these remarks to any other person or company.
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, USA +1 216 371 0043