“SCC urged to end free 411 calls for landlines”

SCC urged to end free 411 calls for landlines

Posted: 10 Nov 2010 09:20 PM PST

By Peter Bacque | TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: November 11, 2010

Robust telecommunications competition has eliminated the need for free directory assistance for landline telephone customers, a state telephone industry group told the State Corporation Commission yesterday.

And providing the required two free 411 calls a month puts wireline telephone companies at a competitive disadvantage, the group said.

"When you're giving away a service," said Richard D. Gary, attorney for the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association, "something else is [paying for] it."

The SCC is considering a local telephone industry request to eliminate the requirement allowing landline telephone customers the pair of free calls for directory assistance. The two free calls come with basic local dial-tone telephone service.

The commission didn't render a decision yesterday.

Most wireline subscribers do not take advantage of the service at all, industry officials said at the SCC hearing on their request yesterday.

"About 80 percent of our customers never use 411," said Trudy Adams with Verizon, the state's largest telephone company.

Those customers who do use the service average less than two directory assistance calls a month, she said.

The two-call allowance has been in place since December 2008 when the commission lowered the number from three to two.

The SCC's directory assistance mandate "is a carryover from the monopolistic era" of telephone industry history, said Duront A. Walton Jr., the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association's executive director.

Citing the number of free alternatives that telephone customers have to find phone numbers, the SCC staff did not object to axing the requirement. The free services make money by, for example, providing advertising messages.

SCC Commissioner Mark C. Christie questioned how helpful the free services might be for those who are not Internet savvy or do not have Internet connections, especially in rural areas.

Depending on their local telephone company, billed directory assistance calls can cost a residential landline customer between 29 cents and 75 cents in Virginia, according to information Verizon supplied to the commission, while wireless users can pay 95 cents to $1.99 per call.

The Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association said traditional local exchange telephone companies should be able to set the number of free local directory assistance calls they provide to their customers.

"Allow the market to decide how many calls should be free," argued Del. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, who is an attorney for Verizon's Virginia wireline subsidiaries.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com.

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