Ameritech faces an array of competitors that hold an unfair advantage because it is saddled with excessive regulation, the local phone company argued to a group of Illinois lawmakers Wednesday.
The current state law governing telephone service in Illinois will expire next year, and legislative committees have begun holding hearings aimed at rewriting the law.
Ameritech’s plea for less government oversight came from Steve Selcke, the firm’s government regulation officer, in a hearing chaired by State Sen. Dave Sullivan (R-Mt. Prospect).
Selcke said that telecommunications services have changed radically since 1985, the last time the state’s telephone law was completely rewritten.
“Illinois has a somewhat fragmented telecommunications marketplace,” Selcke said. “Uneven regulation inhibits that marketplace.”
Whatever regulations lawmakers choose to impose in the new law should apply evenly to all local phone companies, not just to the big incumbents such as Ameritech, Selcke argued.
But in a separate presentation to lawmakers, Richard Mathias, chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, suggested that competition to provide local phone service is still in its earliest form in this state. The Illinois Commerce Commission oversees phone companies and other utilities.
Mathias told the committee that Ameritech, which was acquired last year by San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc., provides service to about 99 percent of residential customers in its service area and about 96 percent of business customers.
Ameritech’s Selcke was questioned about a telecom law just passed in Michigan that was widely regarded as a defeat for Ameritech’s lobbying efforts. The new law rescinds a monthly charge of $3.28 that Ameritech had imposed on Michigan customers.
Selcke said that one factor in Michigan was that the law was passed during an election year. The Illinois law, he noted, will be written next year, after the election.
