State regulators to meet in Michigan about phone rates

LANSING, MICHIGAN - Utility regulators from six states will meet with federal officials next week in Michigan in an effort to keep control over how much telephone providers can charge to use their phone lines. <br> <br> State regulators from Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Georgia are scheduled to meet Monday in Dearborn with officials from the Federal Communications Commission. <br> <br> State officials set the meeting as the FCC revises its standards for unbundled network elements, pieces of the local telephone network large providers must make available to their competitors. <br> <br> The FCC&#39;s revision is part of its three-year review. But the agency has more work this year because a federal appeals court recently ruled that the FCC&#39;s 1999 rules were invalid. <br> <br> Although the FCC ended its comment period for the new rules this summer, the agency will consider the comments from Monday&#39;s meeting, an FCC spokesman said. <br> <br> The meeting demonstrates the prominent role Michigan plays in the debate over pricing unbundled network elements, said Dave Waymire, a spokesman for the Michigan Competitive Telecommunications Providers Association, a Lansing-based group of long-distance phone companies. <br> <br> ``The Michigan Public Service Commission has been a leader in convincing the FCC to continue allowing states to set wholesale rates,&#39;&#39; Waymire said, referring to the price providers can charge competitors to lease their networks. <br> <br> Michigan was one of the first states to set wholesale rates at a price providers considered too low, said Bob Nelson, one of the state&#39;s three public service commissioners. <br> <br> ``Ameritech has alleged that we&#39;re forcing them to lose revenues,&#39;&#39; he said. ``We wanted to get states&#39; views on the table.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The Michigan Public Service Commission recently denied a request by SBC Ameritech to raise the price from $14.44 to $34 a month a competitor, such as AT&T, pays a month per phone line. Although regulators denied the request, they said they would continue looking into the issue. <br> <br> A telephone company pays Ameritech $14.44 a month to use a line but Ameritech provides the maintenance, spending $27 a month to maintain a telephone line. <br> <br> Ameritech is a unit of SBC Communications Inc., based in San Antonio. It&#39;s the leading provider of local telephone service in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. <br> <br> Ameritech wants the FCC to come up with a new set of network standards because competitors are undercutting the company&#39;s business, spokesman Selim Bingol said. <br> <br> ``We have to provide competitors a full range of service ... at 40 to 60 percent less than it costs us,&#39;&#39; Bingol said. ``No business can sustain that for a long period of time. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s critical that policy makers take a hard look at the impact of the (unbundled network elements).&#34;