Verizon asked the Va. Corporation Commission for retail rate dere...
Verizon asked the Va. Corporation Commission for retail rate deregulation of all telecom services other than stand- alone basic exchange, E-911 and Lifeline, and for removal of floor rates that limit price reductions. Stand-alone basic exchange increases would be…
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limited to $1 per year for the next 3 years. The proposal would affect only retail services. Wholesale rate regulation wouldn’t change. Under the current price cap plan, adopted in 2005, Verizon can increase basic exchange prices by the same rate as inflation, and increases for other rate-regulated services are limited to 10% a year. A handful of services have been rate- deregulated as fully competitive. Verizon said rate regulation hobbles its ability to respond to rivals in “a competitive, dynamic, technology-driven, ever-changing marketplace that regulation was never designed to manage.” Verizon said it needs pricing freedom to compete against the more than 50 rivals it faces statewide, including CLECs, cable, wireless and broadband providers. It said 92% of Va. consumers can choose from 5 or more providers for local service. Verizon said its landline business has shrunk to 3.8 million lines in 2005 from 4.85 million in 1999. But during those years phone connections by all technologies grew to 11.4 million from 7.3 million.