25-years after the breakup of  AT&T, many consumers are paying more for long distance and wireless services than they should

Read the 87-page report here (PDF format).

An exhaustively researched audit of over 700 San Diego
long distance and wireless phone bills is challenging
long-cherished myths about deregulation. 

The study, arguably the most probing public audit of
phone bills undertaken, exposes many myths about phone
competition.

The study was sponsored by Utility Consumers’ Action
Network, a San Diego-based consumer group and conducted
by auditors with Teletruth, the New Networks Institute,
and LTC Consulting.   

It found that many San Diego consumers are paying far
more for long-distance service and wireless service
than they -- and regulators -- believe.

The consultants reported that “Unlike Federal regulators,
who have evaluated phone bills with number-fiddling and third-party data, we used true cost accounting to examine
every charge for more than 700 San Diego phone bills.”  

Some of the surprising findings in the 87-page report include:

- Deregulation has increased phone costs for low- income
families. For some local services, these increases were as
high as 346%

-  For  the past 8 years, the FCC has used deceptive statistics
   from questionable third-party sources to create an illusion of
lower phone prices and regulatory success. 

-  Since 2004, ong distance charges have increased, on average, to 55¢ a
minute. Only about 8% of land line customers pay less than
10 cents per minute for long-distance calls. The majority pay
well over 10 cents per minute, with 20% of people paying more
than 50 cents per minute and 10% paying more than $1.

-  The average cost of the wireless bills studied was $3.02 per minute.  
Wireless costs were higher than they should have been because 
customers are only utilizing 32% of their plan allowance

-   90% of all AT&T and Verizon phone bills are improperly taxed. 

-   There is no meaningful phone competition for San Diego 
households.

The results of the full 87-page TeleTruth report were released
today at at UCAN web site.