Competitor weighs options as SBC vote nears

Wednesday, July 27th 2005, 6:59 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposal to exempt SBC Communications from most price controls for land-line telephone service in Oklahoma.

Two of the commission's three members -- Denise Bode and Jeff Cloud -- have indicated they will vote for the plan.

Formerly known as Southwestern Bell, SBC is the state's largest telephone provider.

SBC officials say deregulation will allow the company to compete on a level playing field against other phone providers.

But SBC's biggest competitor in Oklahoma -- Cox Communications -- believes consumers will pay more as the deregulation plan is implemented.

A commission study shows SBC controls about 88 percent of the land-line telephone market in the state and that the company appears to be gaining a bigger share of the market.