Voting yes to deregulation would benefit MTA members

My name is Michael Burke, and I’m the Chief Executive Officer of MTA. Today, I want to talk with you about deregulation and what it means to you as a member. MTA has filed with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) to deregulate your cooperative. I have been holding public meetings to help our members understand this is about MTA’s ability to self-regulate, and to discuss the benefits for our members. We have sent a couple of mailers to you as well as put information on our website so you can better understand this important issue and see how you will benefit.

MTA is in a competitive market and we are competing across all product lines. About twelve years ago, a competitor entered the market to provide local service, so the RCA did what they called relaxed regulation. This means the RCA does not approve any of our rates, however we still go through all the motions as if they were approving them. We still prepare tariff sheets, file it with the RCA, and go through a public notice process but the RCA does not review any of the costs and they don’t approve the tariff.

MTA collects what’s called the regulatory cost charge or RCC charge from customers on their local phone service. This is around $150,000 to $175,000 a year that we remit to the RCA. Since the RCA does not review and approve MTA’s rates, there is really no benefit to any of the members from this cost. By deregulating, MTA will save our members money by eliminating the RCC charge on your local service. We all know there are enough other taxes on your bill, so it is nice to be able to eliminate one of them.

As far as the ballot process is concerned, the RCA controls it. The ballots will be mailed separately at the same time as your billing on January 19th and February 3rd. Customers will return their ballot directly to the RCA in the return envelope we are providing. You must return your ballot within 30 days. The RCA will count the ballots and certify how many people voted and if they voted yes or no. We have to have at least 15 percent of the membership vote, and then we need at least a simple majority of that 15 percent to vote yes in order to get this enacted. If the ballot fails, we have to wait two years to try a new ballot process, so it is critical that members send back their ballots.

MTA is one of only two remaining telephone cooperatives in the state to not deregulate, the other is OTZ Telephone in Kotzebue. We are playing a little bit of catch-up in terms of what other Co-ops have already done. I’m asking for your help by voting yes.

I’m excited about what the future holds for MTA. Voting YES is a step in the right direction, and will save you, our member-owners, some money. For more information visit www.mtasolutions.com/about /deregulation.

Michael Burke is CEO of Matanuska Telephone Association.