Fortnightly Magazine - February 15 1995

Ariz. Telcos Lose Monopoly Hold

The Arizona Corporation Commission has opened local telephone service to competition. The transition from monopoly service to a structure of managed competition is expected to take six months. The rules allow cable television companies, fiber-optic network owners, and other utilities to seek authority to provide business and residential dial tone in competition with the present local exchange monopoly provider.

Court Remands Mass. Ruling on Externalities

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has vacated and remanded a Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) decision on environmental externalities, agreeing with Massachusetts Electric Co. that the DPU had no authority to require electric utilities to select new power sources based on externality values that encompass costs ratepayers otherwise would not incur.

V