Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Lawmakers 11/10/1983 - breakup of "Ma Bell" telephone monopoly.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Paul Duke introduces report on breakup of "Ma Bell" telephone monopoly.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Alan Mollohan (D - West Virginia) on the House floor, The issue of telephone rate increases has caught fire, Mr. Speaker, and is blazing across my district, the state of West Virginia, and the nation as a whole.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Don Bonker (D - Washington) Across this nation local telephone users face massive rate increases in my own state of Washington, local rates may triple in some areas.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Bill Richardson (D - New Mexico) Our nation s telephone industry is going through a major transition. However, none of these changes, including the breakup of AT&T, can justify the doubling of local residential telephone rates.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Bob Hardiman, C&P Telephone Company, It s not going to be business as usual. There are going to be some changes and the customers are going to have to be dealing with three different telephone companies, if you will.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Exterior of C&P Telephone Company building.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
People buying telephone in a phone store.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Phone lines attaching to houses. Telephone wires pan to house.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Bob Hardiman, C&P Telephone Company, I can t believe in my own mind that an additional $2 per month is going to make that much difference in whether or not one can or cannot afford telephone service. Of course that $2 now builds up over a period of years, but even that I don t think is going to be that great an impact on whether or not one can afford telephone service.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Gene Kimmelman, Congress Watch, They know very well that $2 a month gets increased to $6 or $7 a month in a few years. Once they $2 in, it s easy for them to keep increasing it. And our projections are that in most places we are talking about $12 or $15 a month in addition, in addition to what they are going to pay in their local service charge which will also go up.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Tim Wirth (D - Colorado) As we move into an information economy, where it is increasingly important that we re in touch with all parts of the economy, that means that some people who have less money are just priced right out of the ability to participate in this society. And that s wrong.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Tom Tauke (R - Iowa), I don t think that the $2 a month charge in and of itself is excessive.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
DO NOT USE Clip of a lobbying ad, a woman walks through a telephone switch room, talking about upcoming changes in phone service.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
DO NOT USE AT&T newspaper ad urging approval of access fees.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Pic Wagner, AT&T, We ve spent over a couple of million dollars on it, which considering the number of people we had to reach, is a very modest figure.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Gene Kimmelman, Congress Watch, It s like David against Goliath, and we may not even have a slingshot on our side. AT&T has spent millions of dollars on their lobbying campaign, first with their shareholders - 3 million of them in the country, then with their employees, who is a captive audience for them, and then third with their lobbying force on the Hill.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Tim Wirth (D - Colorado), At stake here are billions of dollars that are going to transfer from rate payers, senior citizens, individuals on fixed incomes to AT&T. And if AT&T wins, there is a huge windfall for AT&T.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Pic Wagner, AT&T, That s an outrageous lie. AT&T shareowners don t pay the cost or get the benefits of any of the access charges or any of the changes in revenues.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Tom Tauke (R - Iowa), There is no question that the world s largest corporation has considerable resources to bring to any battle. It would be wrong to present this issue as AT&T against the world.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative John Dingell (D - Michigan) in debate in House, Why is AT&T so opposed to this legislation? Because AT&T wants to reach out and touch somebody. They want to reach out and touch everybody. They want to reach out and touch them in their wallet.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Ed Markey (D - Massachusetts) in debate in well of House, using money and shoeboxes labeled AT&T, Long-Distance Revenues and Consumers. So why are we getting into this mess? Why is Congress butting into a business that we've always left to the FCC for so many years and we haven t in fact taken any role whatsoever? Because this ought to be the one instance, that as corny as it may sound, that the buck stops here.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Matthew Rinaldo (R - New Jersey) arguing about the telephone legislation. We don t have all the facts. We don t have any actual experience. We don t know what s going to happen. The policy of the sponsors of this legislation is short-sighted. But I can assure you that no one will get up and deny on either side that there aren t going to be telephone rate increases.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
People buying telephone in a phone store.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Bob Hardiman, C&P Telephone Company, If they come to me, I would say - Yes, your local telephone rates are going to go up.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Representative Tom Tauke (R - Iowa), I think phone rates will go up in the near term no matter what is done by the Unites States Congress.
Lawmakers Nov 10 1983
Paul Duke comments that at the moment, the fate of the telephone access fee is uncertain.