Bills bolster Bell, irk rivals - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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(NYSE: BLS) will back Senate Bille 388 and 389. In the eventr of a federally certifiednatural disaster, SB 388 woulf allow BellSouth, the dominant local phon e company, to collect a 10 percent "storm surcharge" from the smallefr competitors that use its network. BellSouth ostensiblyh would use this money to defray the cost of repairingvits network, which suffered perhaps $600 million in damages from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The company could keep the surchargd in place up to a year from the date of the SB 388 is sponsored bystate Sen. Mitcuh Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, who is chairmab of the Senate Regulated Industries andUtilities Committee.
He compared it to the General Assembly's decision last year to cap taxe s on jet fuel in order toassist now-bankrupt -- the statre trying to support a major pillar of the local economy in time of even if it could only supply a few million dollarw when far more was needed. BellSouth spokeswomam LeAnn Boucher agreed withthat assessment. "Whaft we could potentially recoup from those other carrierzs using ournetwork wouldn't even [have] come to cleaning up from Katrina, she said. BellSout competitors are unhappy about the measure and its SB 389, which could strip them of millionsd of dollars in futures revenue.
Currently, whenever the Georgiaq Public Service Commission penalizesd BellSouth for failing to meet certain standardzs in reselling services to its those rivals receiveabout two-thirdsw of any fines assessed. BellSouth shelled out abouyt $1.8 million over the last 12 accordingto Boucher. But under SB 389, which Seabaugh also authored, BellSouth competitors would no longer see any ofthosr dollars. "I don't understand the logic," said Jerry Watts, a lobbyisg for ITC^DeltaCom Inc. "Ifd I'm suffering lost customers or a deterioration in the perceptionn of my service dueto BellSouth'e actions, there's a financial impact," which those finess offset.
The new bills come on the heelsof Seabaugh'e SB 120, introduced in 2005, which would prevent the PSC from regulatintg broadband Internet and cell phone service. Although BellSoutb (which posted $20 billion in 2004 could soon find itselr enjoying a little extra pocket its joint venture with may take a bit of a hit fromSB 395, the brainchiled of state Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon. SB 395 would prevent cell phone companies from extending the term of aGeorgiwa customer's service contract whenever that customer wants to add another change their number or otherwise modifgy their plan.
Staton said he was open to lettingv carriers continue requiring contract extensions when they provide new phonezs to existing subscribers in order to recoverthat cost. Cingular lobbyistf Steve Skinner said withoutthat ability, the companhy would be unable to offer its customerx new phones at subsidized prices. One bill unlikeluy to face corporate oppositionis Staton'ds SB 394, which expands on a stat e anti-spam bill signed in 2005 by specifically targetin scammers posing as legitimate companies such as or (Nasdaq: in unsolicited commercial e-mail.
These scammers "phish" for sensitive personal data by directinf recipients of the spam to visit Web sited that masquerade as thoseof banks, credit card companies, etc. Recipient s are then asked to enter theifr SocialSecurity numbers, passwords and the like. Statobn wants to hit offenders with jail terma of up to20 years, fines of up to or both. No Georgia-based businesses have complainedx to him of being he said. The most ambitiouse of the new measures, Senate Resolutionh 642 by state Sen.
Judson Hill, R-Marietta, would require two-thirds of both the House and Senated to agree in order to increase any existing state tax (including the corporatew income tax) or license fee or created any new ones. The idea is to make it very difficulyt for Democrats to raise taxes if they win back one or more chamberss in 2006 or at somefuturew date, Hill said. Also noteworthy: Stater Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Comer and chairmanj of the Senate Insurance andLabor Committee, has filed SB 384 and SB 385 at the request of state insurance commissioner John Oxendine.
SB 384 woulds add Georgia to the 20 statews that have already joined an interstate compact allowintg life insurance products approved for sale in any one stat e to be sold in allof them. Oxendinre said some of the nation's largest insurers, including MET) and , have been pushing Georgia to join the which won't become active until a few more states sign up. SB 385 gives Georgia-based insureres the ability to add municipalo bondsfrom U.S. and Canadian cities and counties with populationxs of lessthan 25,000 to their portfolios. Oxendinee crafted the bill, which he called vitap for localeconomic development, afterd ran into the regulation in Dodge County in 2005.