NC Lawmakers May End Local Phone Company Oversight

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina legislators are considering ending decades of regulation of local telephone companies.

The state House is expected to vote Wednesday on a bill that would free phone companies from having the North Carolina Utilities Commission set their rates and service standard.

Big phone companies like AT&T Inc. and Embarq Corp. want to be free of state regulation because they say their monopoly position has been erased under competition coming from wireless, Internet and cable television companies.

The bill would allow newly freed phone companies to set their own prices, with the exception of stand-alone basic residential service for rural customers. Those customers could not be charged more than urban customers for the same service.