Competition for Connecticut

The General Assembly is considering creating new onerous rules for AT&T — rules that wouldn't apply to AT&T's biggest competitors.

Here are some facts you should know:

Competition Protects Consumers Better than Regulation

Connecticut has one of the most competitive markets for voice services in the country, with cable companies offering service everywhere in the state and many other providers competing and offering service. As a result of this competition, AT&T has 40 percent fewer customer lines in Connecticut than it did in the year 2000.
This competition makes companies provide better service to their customers. If companies don't provide good service, customers will vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere.

AT&T Provides Outstanding Service to its Customers:

AT&T has consistently ranked at or near the top of the DPUC's "Customer Scorecard" for Connecticut companies subject to the DPUC's jurisdiction.
Out of nearly 17 million interactions AT&T had with its customers in 2008, the DPUC received only 459 customer complaints — that's one complaint for every 36,600 customer interactions.
AT&T is Better Business Bureau ("BBB") Accredited and rated the grade of "A" for service in Connecticut.

AT&T is Continually Investing in its Network and Staff to Provide the Best Service to its Customers.

AT&T invested approximately $850 million in its Connecticut network from 2006 - 2007.
AT&T has maintained a consistent level of technicians per access line.

Federal Law Preempts States from Regulating the Biggest Competitors to AT&T

Already, AT&T’s biggest competitors aren't subject to DPUC rules and regulation. That has created an unlevel playing field and HB 6608 only makes the situation worse.
Rules that don't apply to all providers are unfair to the ones to whom they do apply, and are not in the interest of consumers; they don't offer a consistent set of rules which consumers can rely upon and skew the marketplace, thereby undermining competition.

Service Metric Laws and Regulations Already Exist

Connecticut's existing rules are already among the toughest in the country.
A 1999 law already requires the DPUC to have service quality metrics for some providers. But the law rightly leaves the details to the DPUC — the regulatory agency with the expertise necessary to set and enforce such rules.
AT&T has consistently met four of the five metrics established by the DPUC, including perhaps the most important metric — trouble reports — which measures whether customers are experiencing problems with their lines. AT&T has never met the metric for out-of-service repair which requires 90 percent of customer lines out of service to be repaired within 24 hours. (Nighttime hours, weekends, and holidays are included in that 24 hour measure.)

DPUC's Out of Service Metric is Flawed

While Connecticut’s out-of-service metric appears similar to metrics in other states, it differs because it doesn't allow companies to take exclusions for things beyond AT&T's control — like weather.
Other states provide exceptions for, among other things, inclement weather. If such an exception were provided in Connecticut, AT&T would have recorded significantly better results on the OOS metric in each of the last eight years.

The DPUC Should be Allowed to Fulfill Its Duties

The DPUC has an open docket which is examining AT&T's specific performance with respect to the one metric the company has missed and more importantly determining which metrics and the specifics of those metrics to apply to providers going forward.
The DPUC, not the legislature, is the right place for this highly technical review to occur.