Volume Twelve
Number Three
Fall 2003
NEWS From the Illinois Telecommunications Association
REPRESENTING The Telecommunications Industry in Illinois

When
Seconds
Count, a
Phone
Makes
the
Difference

When seconds count in a medical or police emergency, a telephone can make all the difference. Most of us take for granted ready access to a potentially life-saving telephone. But for thousands of low-income individuals in Illinois, a phone is a luxury they can’t afford.

That’s why the Universal Telephone Assistance Corporation (UTAC), an Illinois not-for-profit corporation created by state law and operating under the auspices of the Illinois Commerce Commission, has developed a special campaign to promote voluntary giving to help those who are less fortunate obtain and maintain basic local phone service.

UTAC, which is governed by a nine-member board of telecommunications company representatives and representatives of consumer advocate organizations, has developed a glossy cardboard tabletop display and information cards specifically designed for use in hospital waiting rooms and intended to encourage support of the programs.

UTAC hopes to raise additional voluntary contributions to help offset the cost of local phone service for qualified individuals who can’t afford it on their own.

“We’re hoping the hospital community will share our desire to help connect all Illinois citizens to potentially life-saving telephone service,” said Allen Cherry, president of the UTAC board and an advocate on behalf of low-income individuals and families. “Participation in our programs has grown tremendously over the past few years, and the voluntary contributions we currently receive from existing phone customers have not been able to keep pace.”

“By appealing for help from those who find themselves in hospital waiting rooms, we’re hoping to reach people who are acutely aware of the importance of a telephone link to outside services, family and friends,” he said.

UTAC oversees three basic programs to help ensure low-income families have local phone service. The first two, Link-Up and Lifeline, are federally funded and provide qualified people with a discount off the cost of phone installation of 50% up to $30 and a monthly credit toward the cost of basic local phone service. The third, funded by voluntary contributions, pays an additional amount toward the cost of phone installation.

More than 90,000 individuals received assistance through UTAC in 2002. Currently, UTAC receives voluntary monthly contributions of between 50 cents and $5 from 80,000 existing phone customers.

To receive the tabletop displays for your hospital waiting room areas, simply contact Jennifer Gordon or Helen Adorjan at Filson/Gordon Associates, 217/528-0538, or email your request to: jfilgor@aol.com. The displays will be shipped to you at no cost.

 
Community Leadership
 Each issue of TeleState highlights how Illinois Telecommunications Association member companies and individual members invest in and give back to their communities. This issue highlights an innovative approach to diversifying the services portfolio of one Illinois telephone cooperative -- Wabash Telephone Cooperative.

Wabash Coop
First to
Partner with
Cable
Company

 

“In effect, we will triple our customer base without moving outside our traditional geographic territory...”

-- David Grahn
Wabash Telephone

 

 

Wabash Telephone Cooperative has entered into an unusual and productive partnership with cable provider Advanced Technologies and Technical Resources, Inc. (ATTR). The companies are offering video services over Wabash’s existing telecommunications network and Internet accessibility to ATTR customers over its cable network.

Wabash and ATTR are the first companies in Illinois to enter into this unique partnership.

“I can’t take all the credit for this,” said David Grahn, general manager and executive vice president of Wabash Telephone Cooperative. “Gene Chiodo and the board had this vision of offering voice, data and video services over our copper pairs, and they started the upgrade of the outside plant in 1997.”

The upgrade laid the groundwork for the new and unusual arrangement. After only six weeks, 85 customers in Louisville have signed up for the new service, and are receiving cable content over their phone lines. Grahn said the phone lines. Grahn said the companies are phasing in the cable product, and plan to offer cable content to all existing Wabash Coop customers by the end of 2004.

“Through astute planning, our DSL lines have more than compensated for the declines we are experiencing in demand for dial tone line,” Grahn said. “In effect, we will triple our customer base without moving outside our traditional geographic territory because each dial tone customer can also be a data and a video customer as well.”

Grahn hopes customers will like the advantages Wabash offers – one bill for all three services, one-stop shopping, flexible service packages and “hopefully some economies tied to different packages.”

Wabash and ATTR worked through a few obstacles to be able to offer this unique opportunity for customers. “One of the biggest decisions centered on what video packages we could put together to best meet the wants and needs of our customers,” Grahn said. “We’re competing with an existing cable company in some instances and with satellite providers in other areas of our territory. We needed to be competitive.”

Technically, the companies had to coordinate their technologies and put together the pieces necessary to link the networks. And Wabash also had to negotiate franchise agreements with the appropriate local governments.

“As far as I know, we’re the first telephone cooperative or company to do this in Illinois,” Grahn said. “But I know others are interested.”

For the 5,000 Wabash Coop customers in east central Illinois, being “first” in the state has definite advantages.

 

President's
Message

The pace of change in the telecommunications industry continues to amaze me. A recent survey examined the total telecommunications services bills of 32,000 households and determined that by the end of this year wireless spending will exceed traditional phone service spending. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is no longer used exclusively by a few industrious college students. Instead, it will play a prominent role in the future of the telecommunications industry.

State and federal regulators are struggling with how to treat this new service. The triple play is no longer an exclusive term for baseball as the telecommunications business has adopted it as the term for a bundle of voice, video and data services provided to a customer by one company.

A related article in this issue describes how Wabash Telephone Cooperative achieved its triple play. Consumer packages for unlimited local and long distance calling just got more competitive when SBC won regulatory approval to offer long distance service.

We are talking more and paying less and the innovation by this industry to keep us connected is unparalleled. There appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel that has suppressed capital expenditures for the past three years. We need to make sure the light is bright and that it shines for a long time.

Doug Dougherty

SBC Gets Approval
From FCC to Offer
Long Distance

Consumers throughout Illinois and three other midwestern states are now able to purchase long distance service from SBC. Following a ruling on October 15 by the Federal Communications Commission, SBC has long-sought approval to sell long distance in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

“The real winners today are those who live and work in these states,” said Edward E. Whitacre, Jr., SBC chairman and chief executive officer. “Full competition for customers’ phone service is now only days away. Consumers can look forward to better values, more innovative products and services, greater convenience, and a new, reliable choice for all their communications needs.”

“Consumers can look forward to better values, more innovative products and services, greater convenience, and a new reliable choice for all their communications needs.”

--Edward E. Whitacre


The authorization to enter the long distance markets in these midwestern states comes after months of review by the FCC, which concluded that SBC has fully and irreversibly opened their local networks to local networks to competitors. Earlier this year, regulators in all four of these states endorsed their local company’s move into the long distance business.

“Our long distance entry will finally break the long distance duopoly controlled by AT&T and MCI WorldCom,” said Carrie Hightman, president of SBC Illinois. “Illinois consumers have been recently hit with dramatic price hikes by the long distance giants who use each other’s price increases as a justification for their own. Those days will come to an end when SBC enters the market. Illinois consumers are finally going to get the choice and competition they deserve.”

With the FCC’s ruling, SBC companies will soon offer a full bundle of telecommunications services to customers in all 13 states in which it operates. SBC long distance already is offered in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas.

“The FCC’s decision confirms what the Illinois Commerce Commission has determined and what our company has worked so hard to achieve,” said Carrie Hightman, SBC Illinois President. “SBC Illinois has met all the legal requirements of the 1996 Telecom Act and our network is irreversibly open to our competitors, who have the access they need to compete.”

 

ITA Fall Showcase
A Record Breaker

A record number of exhibitors and attending company representatives met in Decatur this September for the annual ITA Fall Vendors Showcase to hear about and see some of the latest technologies, partnerships and products available in the telecommunications industry.

“The interest in this year’s fall showcase
indicates the high level of activity in the Illinois telecommunications industry,” said Doug Dougherty, president of the Illinois Telecommunications Association. “During this event each year, new business approaches, new technologies and new relationships within the industry are highlighted. It’s a time for us to show off what’s new and how that will help our companies better serve consumers. I’m pleased that so many vendors and companies attended.”

Dougherty announced the 2004 Fall Showcase dates, which will be September 15 and 16. Each year, during the showcase, telecommunications companies have the annual meetings of a handful of not-for-profit corporations of which the companies are members. In addition, the showcase offers company representatives a chance to network and to get a head start on the latest technologies and products.

 

New ICC Final Order
Expected in
December for
ITAC Program

A new rule allowing ITAC more flexibility in equipment purchases is expected to be finalized this December by the Illinois Commerce Commission. The rule, which has been under discussion for about a year, will enable ITAC to keep up with innovations in technologies designed to facilitate communication between hearing individuals and those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired.

Originally, TTY devices were the only option for individuals who were deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired and who wanted to communicate with others over the telecommunications network. The ITAC rules allowed the corporation to purchase and distribute TTYs. But recent developments in the industry have resulted in development of captioned phones, and ITAC wanted the flexibility to offer that technology to its customers.

The final order in December from the ICC will allow that as well as purchase of other new technologies.

A publication of the
Illinois Telecommunications Association
300 East Monroe
Springfield, IL 62701
Voice: 217.525.1044
Fax: 217.525.1103
Email: illtelecom@ameritech.net
Website: www.il-ita.com