SBC, Phone Rates in the Spotlight

It’s not surprising that SBC Communications Inc.’s Ed Whitacre isn’t exactly delighted with the current state of affairs in telecom (“For SBC’s Chairman, a Distance to Go,” Oct. 28).

That’s because his company is starting to face the kind of competition the 1996 Telecommunications Act envisioned. And like any good monopolist, he doesn’t like it.

SBC’s efforts to push network connection charges for competitors well above retail rates is a desperate and anti-consumer reaction to the development of meaningful local competition in the state. The truth is that the rates approved by state regulators guarantee a profit for SBC.

Clearly, SBC’s game is to maintain its monopoly over local phone service in total disregard for the law requiring it to open the market to competition before getting into long-distance.

Wayne Huyard

President, MCI Mass Markets

Ashburn, Va.

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Ed Whitacre said that rates should go up because SBC’s revenue has dropped by 6%.

Sure, SBC’s revenue may have taken a minor dip, but it’s the economy. We’re in a recession.

Even so, SBC is making money hand over fist in California. It made $1.8 billion this quarter, and California is its most profitable division, with return on investment exceeding 30%. What other company can claim the same?

A 6% loss of revenue? It sounds like they’re doing just fine.

Jim Pickrell

Brand X Internet

Santa Monica

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I am just a housewife who is concerned for her husband’s job and the jobs of 11,000 other people who will find themselves in similar situations if SBC does not get the support it deserves.

This is not about bottom-line profit, this is about fair business practices on the part of the other phone companies, which for years have used the phone lines that were built and that are maintained by SBC.

The simple fact of the matter here is that if the other companies are going to use or lease those lines, then the maintenance and upgrade costs should be billed to them or included in the amount that they are paying to SBC to use those lines.

Heidi Elizabeth Neal

Palmdale