November 7, 2002

The Michigan Public Service Commission today approved Bloomingdale Telephone Company's application to expand its local calling area and authorized the company to increase its rates for basic local telephone service and establish a 2,000-minute adjacent exchange calling cap for its customers.  Under the approved plan, Bloomingdale will increase its basic local exchange rates for its residential customers by $4.85 per telephone line per month and its rates for its business customers by $5.82 per line per month.  Bloomingdale will expand the local calling area to encompass the Gobles, Paw Paw, Bangor, Grand Junction, Allegan, and Pullman telephone exchanges and provide each of its customers with a monthly 2,000-minute local calling allowance for calls placed into these six exchanges*.  Calling time within the Bloomingdale exchange will continue to be unlimited.   The Commission indicated that it would be unlikely to approve monthly call allowances into adjacent exchanges significantly less than 2,000 minutes.

The Commission concluded that the proposed expansion of the local calling area is in the public interest.  The Commission found, based on evidence and public comment, that local calling is presently limited in the area, that the community of interest surrounding Bloomingdale's licensed service area supports the expansion, that present restrictions compare unfavorably to the calling areas provided by nearby local service providers, and that a substantial segment of its customers supports the expansion or would benefit from it.  The Commission received comments from 156 customers, a substantial majority supporting Bloomingdale's expanded local calling request.

The 2000 amendments to the Michigan Telecommunications Act required providers with more than 250,000 access lines to offer local calling to adjacent exchanges, but the Telecommunications Association of Michigan obtained an exemption for providers with less than 250,000 lines.  Subsequently, a few of the exempt providers, including Bloomingdale Telephone Company, have voluntarily implemented expanded local calling areas.  In most cases, these expansions are accompanied by rate increases to cover lost toll revenues and costs to provide the services.

Bloomingdale, headquartered in Bloomingdale, Michigan, provides telephone service to about 2,250 customers.

The MPSC is an agency within the Department of Consumer and Industry Services.


Case No. U-13515

*All calls into those exchanges beyond the customer's monthly 2,000-minute allowance would be billed at 4¢ per minute.

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