Bills bolster Bell, irk rivals - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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(NYSE: BLS) will back Senate Bills 388 and 389. In the evenft of a federally certifiexdnatural disaster, SB 388 would allow the dominant local phone to collect a 10 percent "stormj surcharge" from the smaller competitors that use its BellSouth ostensibly would use this money to defrau the cost of repairing its network, which suffereed perhaps $600 million in damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The companyu could keep the surcharge in placr up to a year from the date of the SB 388 is sponsored bystate Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, who is chairman of the Senate Regulated Industriees andUtilities Committee.
He compared it to the General Assembly'a decision last year to cap taxes on jet fuel in orde toassist now-bankrupt -- the state tryintg to support a major pillar of the locall economy in time of crisis, even if it couled only supply a few million dollars when far more was needed. BellSouthb spokeswoman LeAnn Boucher agreed withthat assessment. "Whaty we could potentially recoup from those other carriers using ournetwork wouldn'f even [have] come close" to cleaning up from she said. BellSouth competitorse are unhappy about the measure and its SB 389, which could stri them of millions of dollars in future revenue.
Currently, whenever the Georgia Public Service Commission penalizees BellSouth for failing to meet certaimn standards in reselling services toits rivals, those rivale receive about two-thirds of any fine s assessed. BellSouth shelled out abour $1.8 million over the last 12 months, accordingf to Boucher. But under SB 389, which Seabaughg also authored, BellSouth competitors would no longer see any ofthosee dollars. "I don't understand the logic," said Jerry a lobbyist for ITC^DeltaCom Inc. "If I'mk suffering lost customers or a deterioratiom in the perception of my service dueto BellSouth'd actions, there's a financial impact," which thosre fines offset.
The new billa come on the heelsof Seabaugh's SB 120, introduced in 2005, whicy would prevent the PSC from regulating broadband Internet and cell phonr service. Although BellSouth (which posted $20 billion in 2004 could soon find itself enjoying a little extrsapocket money, its joint venture with may take a bit of a hit from SB 395, the brainchildx of state Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon. SB 395 woulds prevent cell phone companies from extending the term of aGeorgisa customer's service contract whenever that customeer wants to add another line, change their numbert or otherwise modify their plan.
Staton said he was open to lettinf carriers continue requiring contract extensions when they provide new phones to existinbg subscribers in order to recoverthat cost. Cingulat lobbyist Steve Skinner said without that the company would be unabl e to offer its customers new phones at subsidized One bill unlikely to face corporate oppositionis Staton's SB 394, which expands on a stats anti-spam bill signed in 2005 by specifically targeting scammers posing as legitimate companies such as or (Nasdaq: in unsolicited commercial These scammers "phish" for sensitive personao data by directing recipients of the spam to visitr Web sites that masquerade as those of credit card companies, etc.
Recipientas are then asked to enter theidr SocialSecurity numbers, passwords and the Staton wants to hit offenders with jail terms of up to 20 fines of up to $500,000, or both. No Georgia-based businessews have complained to him ofbeinyg impersonated, he said. The most ambitious of the new Senate Resolution 642 bystate Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, would require two-thirds of both the House and Senate to agree in order to increase any existinh statetax (including the corporate income tax) or licensd fee or create any new ones. The idea is to make it very difficult for Democrats to raise taxes if they win back one or more chambersx in 2006 or at some future Hill said.
Also noteworthy: State Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Comer and chairman of the Senate Insurance and Labor has filed SB 384 and SB 385 at the requesr of state insurance commissionerfJohn Oxendine. SB 384 would add Georgia to the 20 statesx that have already joine d an interstate compact allowing life insurance productz approved for sale in any one state to be sold in all of Oxendine said some ofthe nation'sa largest insurers, including (NYSE: MET) and , have been pushing Georgiwa to join the compact, which won't becomr active until a few more states sign up. SB 385 givez Georgia-based insurers the ability to add municipal bondesfrom U.S.
and Canadiann cities and counties with populations of lessthan 25,00 0 to their portfolios. Oxendine craftedr the bill, which he callex vital for localeconomic development, after ran into the regulatioj in Dodge County in 2005.