Source: John Howard, Capitol Weekly

An attempt sponsored by Verizon to cut into the state Public Utilities Commission’s power over telephone-company mergers is drawing fire from unlikely bedfellows—the PUC itself and an array of consumer groups. The effort, which partisans describe as a related piece of California’s 2-year-old deregulation of the telephone industry, is the second of two high-stakes measures sought by telephone companies this year worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

The latest bill is the most important communications deregulation bill to go before lawmakers since the cable deregulation bill authored by former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez in 2006. The freeze on phone rates contained in that bill expires in January.

Like the Núñez bill, the new legislation, by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, is supported by a number of grass-roots community and civil rights groups, including the NAACP, some of whom have received financial support from Verizon’s charitable foundation. Thus far, the bill has received limited public attention.

Read Full Article: California phone dereg bill aims to ease mergers