I suppose it’s touching to see the Public Staff of the N.C. Utilities Commission try to stick up for consumers during the recent A&T rate case ? and ironic given that on other matters the Public Staff seems less inclined to put customer interests first ? but its position is antiquated and short-sighted.

AT&T, which includes BellSouth, sought more regulatory flexibility to set its rates. From the Raleigh News & Observer story:

In changes that customers could start seeing on their bills this year, the N.C. Utilities Commission granted AT&T unlimited pricing freedom on key services: basic business phone service, and residential calling features such as call forwarding, call waiting, speed dialing, call tracing and call block.

Additionally, the Utilities Commission said that AT&T will be able to raise the price of the basic home service by as much as 20 percent a year, doubling the previous allotment set in 2005. The changes, sought by the phone company for two years, affect AT&T customers in North Carolina’s metro areas, where AT&T is bleeding customers to competitors.

The Public Staff objected to the regulatory relief, arguing that it would allow AT&T to gouge residential customers. There is no truth to the rumor that the staff’s Robert Gruber made this argument in a polyester leisure suit and floppy lavender shirt, though you can understand how these things get started. The notion that phone companies can charge whatever they want to unless the government keeps them in line is so 1970s.

If AT&T jacks up the price of basic service, plenty of additional folks will head to the nearest wireless store and sign up. Internet telephony is also growing among younger consumers. Perhaps the Public Staff should stop dancing the public-policy equivalent of the New York Hustle and focus its attention on real monopolistic threats to consumer pocketbooks.