Quinn signs telecom overhaul that changes oversight, includes low-cost landline options

Quinn signs telecom overhaul, changing oversight

CHICAGO — Gov. Pat Quinn signed a telecommunications law Tuesday that guarantees consumers low-cost options for landline telephone service while freeing companies from some state oversight.

The new law overhauls an original telecommunications act that predated the widespread use of cell phones.

Officials contend that changing the regulatory oversight will lead to increased competition in the market because the law allows telephone companies to change pricing and package details without having to wait weeks for approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Consumers who want cheap landline service can get it through “safe harbor” packages.

“Some people may not be into all kinds of wireless technologies and that. They have a landline phone, they want to keep it affordable,” Quinn said at the bill-signing event.

Rates on the low-cost landline options are frozen for three years, said Jim Chilsen, a spokesman for the consumer group the Citizens Utility Board.

The rates are as low as $3.05 per month in downtown Chicago for basic service of 30 local calls per month and up to $19.70 a month for unlimited local calls and two extra calling features in other parts of Illinois.

AT&T, the company that provides most of the landline service in Illinois, was a major force behind efforts to rewrite the law.

Chilsen said the bill Quinn signed had stronger consumer protections than earlier iterations of it. He said a significant number of people still rely on their landline phones.

“Those people deserve to be protected and we thought that was very important,” he said.

Quinn trumpeted the law as a way to create jobs in Illinois because it will encourage investment in telecommunications technology. But the law has no provision for companies to create jobs.