Update to CenturyLink’s and Frontier’s Price Plans

As you may recall, this past April I blogged about CenturyLink’s application before the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) to approve a price plan that would allow the company to set prices for basic residential phone service without any PUC imposed pricing parameters. This was concerning to CUB because it would have meant that the company could raise prices for residential services as much as it wanted, and the PUC would have no ability to ensure that rates remained fair, just and reasonable for CenturyLink’s Oregon customers. This was especially troubling when CUB thought about CenturyLink’s “captive customers”—those customers who don’t have a good alternative to traditional landline telephone service or aren’t aware of appropriate alternatives.

CUB, along with PUC Staff, fought hard in settlement discussions with CenturyLink to ensure that rates for residential phone services would remain subject to pricing parameters and would remain fair, just and reasonable. Though the PUC has not approved the settlement yet, CUB is proud to report that CenturyLink agreed to a price plan that includes explicit caps for basic residential phone service and limits the increases that would be permitted for other, related phone services (such as caller ID, call waiting, etc.). Additionally, to ensure that the price plan remains in the public interest and that customers are gaining some benefit to offset the potential increase in prices, CenturyLink also agreed to invest $650,000 in network improvements for customers. You can read the settlement documents on the PUC’s website.

Frontier also recently filed an application for price plan regulation with the PUC. Unlike the CenturyLink price plans, Frontier did not propose to remove price caps for basic residential landline service, but it did initially propose to remove pricing safeguards for other related services such as caller ID, call waiting, etc. Accordingly, CUB also negotiated hard with Frontier to ensure that its price plan would be in the public interest and would contain pricing safeguards for residential customers. Similar to CenturyLink, Frontier also agreed to make investments to benefit its Oregon customers totaling $400,000, with $50,000 of those dollars going to the CUBConnects program. CUBConnects helps consumers navigate the deregulated world of telecommunications services, such as wireless phones and internet. The PUC has already approved Frontier’s price plan, which can be accessed here.

All and all, CUB is happy with both CenturyLink’s and Frontier’s respective price plans that contain critical pricing safeguards for their residential customers in Oregon.

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