The Minn. Dept. of Commerce, in a major position reversal, urged ...

The Minn. Dept. of Commerce, in a major position reversal, urged the Minn. PUC to drop its long-running investigation into whether intrastate access charges of incumbent telcos are unreasonably high. The consumer agency in a letter to the PUC said access charges paid by interexchange carriers help keep local phone rates down in rural areas, and substantial access cuts would force rural telcos to raise local rates. The Commerce Dept. said the telecom market is very different now from 1999 when the PUC opened the access investigation, with new wireless and Internet-based calling plans now available to substitute for traditional long distance. Deputy Commerce Comr. Edward Garvey said that when his agency was preparing comments for the latest deadline in this long case, “it dawned on us this [investigation] may not be the best approach.” Garvey said forcing access cuts doesn’t guarantee consumers will see lower retail long distance rates, and said he'd now prefer to let competitive market forces work out the problems. AT&T said it would be a “tragedy” to waste the 6 years of effort that have gone into this case, and dropping the matter now would leave IXCs paying exorbitant access charges to small rural incumbent telcos. Qwest supported dropping the case; its access charges are among the lowest in the state. The Minn. Attorney Gen. Office is also opposed to forcing access charge cuts because it could force retail local rates higher.