Land-line telephone customers in the District who pay only enough of their monthly bill to cover local service should not lose that service, and critical access to 911, if other phone charges go unpaid, D.C.’s utility regulator has ruled.
The Public Service Commission has directed Verizon, AT&T and other providers of local exchange service to stop the practice of DNP — disconnection of basic, regulated local telephone service for failing to pay for a non-regulated service such as long distance, or in some cases wireless.
DNP, the commission concluded in its order, is “unreasonable and contrary to the public interest. … If a customer is making payment sufficient to keep its local service account current, including any taxes and fees, then local service should not be disconnected,” the order states.
D.C. joins 11 states in barring DNP.
Verizon’s current practice is to disconnect all services if a customer does not pay the total balance on their bill, said spokeswoman Sandy Arnette.
“Let me stress that customers who can’t afford to pay for phone services already are protected with low-cost options,” Arnette said. “This move only benefits those customers who chose to game the system by not paying their bills, knowing that they will get a free ride.”
Roughly 4 percent of Verizon D.C.’s 151,000 customers are disconnected each month for nonpayment, according to statistics filed with the commission.
Verizon has estimated it will cost $1.7 million to overhaul ordering and billing systems to track delinquent amounts by type of service. The amount of uncollectable charges is likely to increase at the same time, Arnette said, but Verizon “cannot raise rates in direct response to the commission’s decision.”
The Consumer Bill of Rights requires all utilities to apply a customer’s payments in a specific order: past due for regulated and non-regulated services first, then current due for regulated and non-regulated services.
But under the no-DNP rule, Verizon will have to offer its customers the option of reordering their payment so that past due and current local service charges are settled first, to protect them from disconnection.
