Virginia To Consider Allowing Verizon To Provide Phone Books Only Upon Request

RICHMOND The State Corporation Commission (SCC) is considering two local telephone industry requests that affect how customers obtain local telephone numbers.

The first is a request on behalf of several local telephone companies to eliminate the provision that allows two free calls per month for directory assistance. The two free calls come with basic local dial-tone telephone service.

The Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association filed the request saying traditional local exchange telephone companies should be allowed to determine the number of free local directory assistance calls they provide to their customers. The two-call allowance has been in place since December 2008 when the Commission lowered the number from three to two.

The second is a proposal from Virginias largest local telephone company to waive the SCC requirement to publish and deliver a telephone directory containing customer listing information. Verizon proposes to make residential white page directories available only to customers upon request. Residential listings would also be available on-line at no charge. Verizon would continue to deliver directories that contain business and governmental alphabetical listings, together with the consumer guide information that is currently provided in white pages directories. Currently, the white pages directory is also included as part of basic local dial-tone telephone service.

An SCC hearing on the proposal to eliminate free directory assistance calls is set for November 10, 2010 at 10 a.m. The hearing will be held in a Commission courtroom on the second floor of the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street in downtown Richmond. Any person desiring to testify as a public witness should arrive early and sign in with the bailiff. The SCC intends to webcast the audio of the proceeding via the Internet. Instructions for listening to the webcast can be found on the SCC website at: http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case.

The SCC is also providing an opportunity for comments and requests for a hearing on Verizons proposal to waive the requirement to publish and deliver a directory of customer telephone numbers. Correspondence should refer to case PUC-2010-00046 and must be received by November 19, 2010. There are two methods for doing so. Send to the Clerk of the Commission, Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, VA 23218. Or, submit comments electronically via the SCC website at: http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case.

According to an article in Thursday's Virginian Pilot, Pennsylvania agreed to allow Verizon and other telephone service providers to stop providing the phone books unless requested last week.
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