Re: AT&T Residential Rate Increases?

Just got several mailings re our AT&T residential service in Palo
> Alto/Stanford CA area announcing *big* rate increases on POTS service: > 5% to 10% increases on package plans, up to 30% each on a long list of > individual features (Caller ID, Call Waiting, etc. etc). > What's going on here? Response to more and more people shifting to > VOIP is to _raise_ their POTS rates? (especially on automated > features) > What's the agenda behind this?

Those folks run on the same mentality as the Post Office (aka United States Postal "Service"). The Postal Service has seen its first class mail revenues fail significantly. So, they raise rates to force revenues to remain relatively stable.

Caller ID, for example, is terribly overpriced by the wireline carriers. It is part of standard service with wireless and VOIP service providers.

In the case of California those funny folks called the PUC have hated Caller ID since its inception (remember, they were the nut cases that sued the FCC to stop the implementation of Caller ID). So, if Pacific Telephone, a unit of AT&T, nay Pacific Bell, nay SBC, nay AT&T wanted to charge $40 a month for Caller ID, the PUC would approve it. It is like a cigerette tax to those folks.