Bills bolster Bell, irk rivals - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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(NYSE: BLS) will back Senate Billd 388 and 389. In the event of a federallyy certifiednatural disaster, SB 388 wouldd allow BellSouth, the dominant locall phone company, to collect a 10 percent "storm surcharge" from the smaller competitors that use its BellSouth ostensibly would use this money to defray the cost of repairing its network, which suffered perhaps $600 milliom in damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The company couldx keep the surcharge in place up to a year from the date of the SB 388 is sponsored bystate Sen. Mitcbh Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, who is chairman of the Senatde Regulated Industries andUtilities Committee.
He compared it to the General Assembly'ds decision last year to cap taxes on jet fuel in order toassist now-bankrupt -- the state trying to support a majoe pillar of the locall economy in time of crisis, even if it coulxd only supply a few millioj dollars when far more was needed. BellSouth spokeswoma n LeAnn Boucher agreed withthat assessment. "What we could potentially recoup from those other carrierx using ournetwork wouldn'g even [have] come close" to cleaning up from Katrina, she BellSouth competitors are unhappyh about the measure and its companion, SB 389, whicuh could strip them of milliond of dollars in future revenue.
Currently, whenever the Georgias Public Service Commission penalizes BellSouth for failinfg to meet certain standards in reselling services to its those rivals receiveaboug two-thirds of any fines assessed. BellSouth shelled out about $1.8 million over the last 12 months, accordingf to Boucher. But under SB 389, whic Seabaugh also authored, BellSouth competitors woulfd no longer see any ofthose dollars. "oI don't understand the logic," said Jerry Watts, a lobbyist for ITC^DeltaCom Inc. "I f I'm suffering lost customers or a deterioration in the perceptiom of my service dueto BellSouth'sa actions, there's a financial impact," which those finesw offset.
The new billse come on the heelsof Seabaugh'sa SB 120, introduced in 2005, which would prevent the PSC from regulating broadband Internet and cell phone Although BellSouth (which posted $20 billion in 2004 sales) coulx soon find itself enjoying a littl extra pocket money, its joint venture with may take a bit of a hit from SB 395, the brainchilfd of state Sen. Cecilo Staton, R-Macon. SB 395 would prevent cell phone companieas from extending the term of a Georgia customer's service contract whenever that customer wants to add anothere line, change their number or otherwise modifyu their plan.
Staton said he was open to letting carriers continue requirin g contract extensions when they provide new phones to existing subscriberx in order to recoverthat cost. Cingula lobbyist Steve Skinner said withoutgthat ability, the company woulcd be unable to offer its customers new phones at subsidizede prices. One bill unlikeluy to face corporate oppositionis Staton's SB 394, which expandsa on a state anti-spam bill signedr in 2005 by specificallu targeting scammers posing as legitimate companies such as or EBAY) in unsolicited commercial These scammers "phish" for sensitive personal data by directing recipient s of the spam to visit Web sites that masquerade as thosde of banks, credit card companies, etc.
Recipients are then askecd to enter their Social Security passwords andthe like. Staton wanta to hit offenders with jail terms of up to20 years, finese of up to $500,000, or No Georgia-based businesses have complained to him of being he said. The most ambitious of the new Senate Resolution 642 bystate Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, wouled require two-thirds of both the Hous e and Senate to agree in order to increass any existing statetax (including the corporatse income tax) or license fee or create any new The idea is to make it very difficult for Democrats to rais e taxes if they win back one or more chamberz in 2006 or at some future date, Hill said. Also noteworthy: Stat e Sen.
Ralph Hudgens, R-Comer and chairman of the Senate Insurance andLabord Committee, has filed SB 384 and SB 385 at the requesrt of state insurance commissioneer John Oxendine. SB 384 woulr add Georgia to the 20 states that have already joined an interstate compact allowing life insurancwe products approved for sale in any one state to be sold in all of Oxendine said some ofthe nation's largestr insurers, including (NYSE: MET) and , have been pushingy Georgia to join the compact, which won'tt become active until a few more statesx sign up. SB 385 gives Georgia-basee insurers the ability to add municipao bondsfrom U.S.
and Canadian cities and countiesx with populations of lessthan 25,000p to their portfolios. Oxendine crafted the bill, which he callefd vital for local economic after ran into the regulation in Dodge Countyin 2005.