(MONTGOMERY, Ala.) (AP) June 28 - Alabama's largest phone company, AT&T, is raising rates for some residential customers on July 11.
Company spokesman Hood Harris said customers with a basic single-line home phone will see their cost go up 3 percent, from $16.95 per month to $17.45. About 15 percent of AT&T's Alabama customers have that type of service.
Customers with AT&T's more advanced plan, the Residence Complete Choice Package, will see an increase of 9.5 percent, from $21 per month to $23. The percentage of customers with that plan wasn't immediately available from the company.
The PSC used to regulate phone rates, but the Alabama Legislature passed a deregulation law in 2005 that took effect for basic home phones in 2008. It allows phone companies to increase rates for basic single-line residential service each year by the same amount as the Consumer Price Increase without any approval by the PSC.
AT&T's 2008 increase was 4.1 percent. Smaller phone companies made similar increases last year. Darrell Baker, director of the PSC's telecommunications division, said Friday he expects the same thing to happen this year now that AT&T is raising rates.
The PSC fought the 2005 phone deregulation bill unsuccessfully and another bill the Legislature passed in the spring to expand deregulation. Baker said phone companies promoted the price deregulation by saying competition would hold down rates. "It doesn't sound like the competitive market is having much impact," he said.
But Harris said the 3 percent increase simply reflects the cost of inflation, and AT&T went several years without increases before the raises in 2008 and 2009.
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