Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Phoning Home Will Be Different Soon

Telecommunications is changing the face of today and tomorrow, according to Dennis Mills, with Southwestern Bell Telephone.

Speaking to Gurdon's Rotary Club Thursday afternoon, Mills said SWB has been in Arkansas for more than 100 years already and has a good record of service to its customers.

In fact, he said, SWB has a reputation as being one of the most reliable utility companies in Arkansas.

The phone company has 2,800 employees in the state, with $1.8 billion of capital investments.

Additionally, Mills said, SWB is currently in partnership with the Clark County Industrial Council, Gurdon, Arkadelphia and Clark County on a fiber-optic park to be located in the Clark County Industrial Park.

"We hope to be a magnet," Mills said, "and bring new jobs and technology to a basically rural community."

Once the fiber park is done, Mills said AT&T plans to download massive amounts of information on the internet.

Changing topics, Mills said the new communications law, recently passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, will create an open market in telecommunications. This, he said, will lead to more competition, which means more changes and choices for customers.

According to Mills, most customers want one bill for their phone services. Future bills, he said, could include a customer's local and long distance telephone services, along with their cable television bills.

However, he said people still need affordable and available service. SWB is working to ensure this to its customers, Mills told the Rotarians.

The Arkansas Legislature is examining the current telecommunication law, which will need to be rewritten and updated.

Mills said the legislature is concerned about protecting rural telephone service in the state.

One term Mills said will be bandied around in the near future is "universal service." He said those who have phones need them at reasonable rates.

This could be done through some sort of subsidization in Arkansas, and is a concern of the phone companies in the state.

However, with technology changing at a frenetic pace, Mills said customers will have more decisions to make.

He said there will be more packages offered to customers, who will have to examine their individual needs before choosing a service.

Mills said rural areas cost phone companies more to operate than do metropolitan ones. This is because of the population base in metro areas as compared to rural communities.

Because of this, he said, the legislature is working to rewrite the telecommunication laws and protect rural areas.

"A lot of regulations are outdated," Mills said. "This leads to an uneven playing field. We need to change this and get on a level field federally as well as in the state.

"Things are changing constantly and SWB is working to meet your needs."