Despite promises from AT&T and their astroturf friends that telecom deregulation would result in lower prices for Ohio residents, the company announced this week it was -increasing- prices for basic landlines — the service Ohio’s poorest rely on most from the phone giant.

AT&T Ohio residential customers are receiving notices with their recent bills that effective Jan. 7, monthly service will increase by $1.25, the maximum amount allowed under Ohio’s new deregulation law.  Before taxes, fees, and surcharges, Ohio phone rates for basic residential service will increase from $14.25 to $15.50.

It’s the fourth rate hike in four years for Ohio landline customers who were promised savings as a result of telecommunications deregulation.

But in fact AT&T’s lobbyists recommended and got language in the legislation that actually reduced the competitive test required for AT&T to win approval of rate increases.

Under old Ohio law, AT&T had to show they had at least five competitors in a service area; today that number has been reduced to just two, leaving virtually the entire state wide open to unfettered rate hikes.

“It is unfortunate residential consumers will have to pay more for basic landline service, especially during these difficult economic times,” Consumers’ Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander told the Times-Reporter.

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel tried to have the rate increase rolled back, arguing under the new law, AT&T Ohio failed to show proof that even two competitive services are available.

But AT&T’s lobbyists made sure the company really did not have to respond, because the new law provides for automatic approval if Ohio’s Public Utility Commission fails to deny rate hike requests within a 30 day window.  In this case, they did not rule on the Consumer Counsel’s appeal within 30 days, which effectively ceded the issue to AT&T’s favor.

While large numbers of Ohio residents continue to drop landline service in favor of cell phones or phone service from the cable company, Ohio’s rural and poor consumers are the least likely to cancel landline service, and face the brunt of the rate hikes, even as they cannot buy (or afford) products like U-verse AT&T said would be possible with statewide deregulation.

AT&T claims every family should have access on the go, which is why they are “introducing” Smartphone data plans for the family.  Only one problem.  There is nothing new about the data plan, which still starts at $15 per month, per line, for up to 200MB of usage.

AT&T changed the plan’s name, but left the same high price in place.  An Internet Overcharging scheme is still an Internet Overcharging scheme no matter how a wireless company pitches it.

The plan, which throws in AT&T Wi-Fi, which customers can also already get, “is designed for families that primarily surf the web, send and receive personal email and visit social networking sites,” says AT&T spokeswoman Mari Melguizo.

But a real data plan for families would let every user on the account share from one data plan, billed once on the account, not per phone.  That’s not on offer from AT&T, although analysts predict the next wave of smartphone upgrades will come only when data pricing comes down, especially on accounts with multiple phones.

[flv width=”480″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/ATT Family Smartphone Data Plan Ad.flv[/flv]

AT&T’s new ad for the same old, overpriced product.  (1 minute)

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Doherty Sees Exodus of ATT IPhone Users to Verizon 1-11-11.flv[/flv]

Richard Doherty, research director at Envisioneering Group, Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, and Bloomberg Businessweek’s Roben Farzad talk about Verizon Wireless’s agreement to start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone. They talk with Pimm Fox and Julie Hyman on Bloomberg Television’s “Taking Stock.”  (9 minutes)

Some AT&T customers who buy bundled packages of services including landlines, cellular and satellite television have been running into a problem recently: AT&T keeps “losing” part of their monthly payments.

KOVR-TV’s consumer reporter Kurtis Ming shared the story of Karen and Darrell Smith.  The Sacramento area residents were AT&T landline, cell phone, and satellite TV customers for years, faithfully paying their monthly bill on time with no problems until the family decided to cut the cord on their landline service.

Darrell says he was told it would be no problem.  “She did say that once we cancel the landline then we wouldn’t be eligible for the bundle anymore, but we’ll just get a bill for it and just pay that.”

The Smiths say they paid their AT&T bills online in September, and October.  But then they received past due notices from both DISH Network and AT&T.  So what happened to the payments they have proof they paid?

“They said they had no way of knowing where the money went,” says Darrell.  “Once it comes in it’s gone,” says Karen.

The Smiths say the billing issue didn’t seem to surprise AT&T.

“He said, ‘All you had to tell me was that you were having trouble with the bundled billing department because everybody in this company knows that money gets lost there all the time,’” says Karen.

Thus began several months of ongoing billing nightmares for the family, including familiar “buck-passing” between DISH, who blamed AT&T for the billing errors, and AT&T, whose representatives eventually zeroed out their balance, if only to get the Smith family out of their collective hair.

After AT&T shut off their cell phone service because of “past due” bills, the family cringed every time a new bill arrived, wondering what new problems would be coming next.

“How can a large company like this operate with such disjointed departments and such a lack of ability to communicate?  She said that they’re working to improve that,” Karen tells the Sacramento CBS station.

After four months of nightmares, the family called the TV station hoping their consumer reporter could penetrate AT&T’s billing department and get the billing fixed once and for all.

Steven Smith (probably no relation), an AT&T representative, sent the station an official explanation that seemed to blame it all on the Smith family:

Ming

[…] Three revised final bills were generated due to payments made on the account. The first final bill separated the combined Mobility and DISH accounts. It appears the consumer did not understand that separate bills would be rendered from DISH and AT&T Mobility after the landline disconnection and the customer evidently did not notify their financial institution of the account changes for automatic payments….

Another AT&T representative suggested it was inappropriate for a customer service agent to state the company was having billing problems.

Ming was happy to report AT&T appears to have fixed the problem, at least for one family.

AT&T customers should always scrutinize their bills to make sure they are accurate.  If errors are found, contact the company as soon as possible.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KOVR Sacramento ATT Losing Money 1-4-11.mp4[/flv]

KOVR-TV Sacramento’s consumer report Kevin Ming describes the story of one family’s ongoing billing problems with AT&T.  (3 minutes)