20130523press release.pdf

Idaho Public Utilities Commission
Case No. CGS-T-13-02
May 23, 2013
Contact: Gene Fadness [phone], 890-2712

CenturyTel of the Gem State elects to price deregulate

CenturyTel of the Gem State, which does business as CenturyLink, has notified the Idaho
Public Utilities Commission that it intends to remove its telecommunications services
from price regulation effective July 2.

The election to deregulate does not immediately impact rates for the company’s
approximate 1,160 customers in the Owyhee County communities of Grandview,
Bruneau, and Grasmere-Riddle and in the Lincoln County community of Richfield.

CenturyTel of Idaho, also a CenturyLink company serving about 2,960 customers in
Salmon, Leadore and North Fork, is also electing to price deregulate.

In 2005, the Idaho Legislature amended the Telecommunications Act of 1988 to allow
telephone corporations to elect to set their own rates rather than have them
established by the commission.

Even with price deregulation, the commission retains authority to regulate customer
service issues such as service quality standards, customer notice and customer relations
rules and billing practices. CenturyTel’s price lists must still be filed with the commission
even though the commission will not set rates.

CenturyLink, then Qwest, initially sought price deregulation from the Idaho commission
in 2003, but the commission denied the company’s petition, ruling that cell phone
service did not yet provide effective competition to landline telephone service. In 2004,
Qwest asked the Idaho Legislature to amend the statute to allow price deregulation. The
company’s 2004 attempt failed, but an amended version passed the House in 2005 by a
48-22 vote. In the Senate, HB 224 ended in a tie vote with the Senate president, then Lt.
Gov. Jim Risch, breaking the tie in favor of the bill.

Shortly thereafter, Qwest elected to price deregulate in both its northern and southern
Idaho regions as did Verizon Northwest (now Frontier Communications).

There are nine rural telephone companies in Idaho that are still price regulated. Eight of
those still receive Universal Service Fund (USF) disbursements. That fund helps rural
companies provide service in areas where greater distances and fewer customers make
providing service more costly than in urban areas. If those rural companies elected to
price deregulate they would no longer receive USF disbursements.