Friday, January 01, 1999
Phone service for poor blasted
PUCO says Ameritech downplays it
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ameritech Ohio must work harder to make sure poor people know about and can sign up for a program that helps them afford phone service, state regulators say.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio told the company Wednesday to improve the Universal Service Assistance program within six months.
Ameritech must do more to publicize the program, study why people drop out and devel op ways to better determine who is eligible, the PUCO said.
The program gives discounts of $10.20 a month on basic phone service for eligible low-income Ohioans. No security deposit or installation fee is required.
The USA program was one of the projects Ameritech agreed to — in addition to a rate freeze — in 1994 in exchange for relaxed regulation. If the program is not improved, the PUCO said it might modify or revoke the 1994 alternative regulation plan.
Ameritech says it has met every commitment it made for the program, including signing up customers and spending $100,000 annually to promote the program.
“We certainly want to be sure that anyone who wants to have telephone service and is willing to fulfill the obligation to pay for it is entitled to have it,” spokeswoman Anne Bloomberg said Thursday.
The commission noted that Ameritech, on its own, had increased the discount from the initial $8.
However, the agency said Ameritech Ohio “either dragged its feet or structured its approach in a manner that stunted the effectiveness” of the program.
For example, the company sought to scale back the most effective publicity effort — mailings to people who get ben efits from the Ohio Department of Human Services — “because it chose not to adjust its staffing to accommodate the expected response,” the PUCO said.
However, Ms. Bloomberg said the fact the company received 300,000 calls from people interested in the program supports the idea that Ameritech has done a good job promoting the offer.
Ameritech signed up about 106,000 customers under the USA program, but half dropped out, the company and regulators say.
The PUCO thinks as many as 700,000 Ohioans could be eligible for the discount, spokesman Dick Kimmins said Thursday.
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