A U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injunction to block the implementation of Illinois Senate Bill 885, which would have significantly raised the UNE-p rates that SBC Communications charges to its competitors. AT&T cheered the ruling as “good news for Illinois consumers.” AT&T now plans to continue to take orders for residential local service in Illinois and will not, at this time, have to assess a special surcharge to the 300,000 Illinois households already subscribed to AT&T Local Servicehttp://www.att.com
- Last month, William Daley, president of SBC Communications, said his company was increasingly optimistic about the regulatory environment following the action of the recent legislative decision in Illinois to raise the wholesale rates for UNE-P elements. Speaking at the Banc of America “Media, Telecommunications, and Media�? conference in New York, Daley acknowledged that pressure from the AFL-CIO and other unions were instrumental in getting the Illinois state legislature to raise the wholesale rates.