Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a bill repealing a number of telecoms regulations at a closed-door event in Anchorage, Thursday.<\/p>\n
While the Legislature passed Senate Bill 83 with bi-partisan support, and it was approved by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, one Juneau lawmaker had misgivings about a specific part of the bill.<\/p>\n
“Most of SB 83 was just fine,” said Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau. “What was most concerning to me was called ‘carrier of last resort.’”<\/p>\n
Carrier of last resort was a regulation created “to make sure that no Alaskan who lived in an area that could get phone service was left without phone service,” Kiehl said.<\/p>\n
SB 83 removed that provision from state law and didn’t provide an effective replacement, Kiehl said. <\/p>\n
In an analysis from the bill’s sponsor, the late Sen. Chris Birch, R-Anchorage, “a carrier of last resort is a telecommunications company that commits (or is required by existing regulation) to provide service to any customer in a service area that requests it, even if serving that customer would not be economically viable at prevailing rates.”<\/p>\n
SB 83 states that the RCA commission may not designate a carrier of last resort. Kiehl tried to introduce an amendment that would’ve removed the word “not” from the legislation, but that effort failed.<\/p>\n
“With this bill we don’t have enough protection for small, remote communities,” Kiehl said.<\/p>\n
But the bill’s advocates say that protections do remain.<\/p>\n
“That is a misperception,” said Executive Director of the Alaska Telecom Association, Christine O’Connor in a phone interview Thursday. While the carrier of last resort law was removed, other laws remain that protect communities from companies pulling service.<\/p>\n