BE OUR GUEST: TELEFUTURE 2 PROPOSAL CAN PROVIDE LONG-TERM BENEFITS FOR MISSOURI

Craig Felzien is a resident of Cape Girardeau and the area manager of community relations for Southwestern Bell Telephone.

Important public policy will be decided on by the Missouri Public Service Commission in the next few months. Have you heard about it?

It's not common knowledge yet, but you'll hear more as the hearings begin. What you've probably heard so far is a lot of big numbers being bounced around numbers that are up in the millions. That's the kind of numbers that get people's attention.

Unfortunately, in this case, knowledge of the numbers is not the whole story. The whole story, in fact, isn't as sexy as all those millions, but it is far more beneficial.

In the next few months important public policy will be formed that could provide a way for Missouri to gain new education and health advantages, as well as economic and social development opportunities.

The Missouri Public Service Commission will hear testimony regarding a proposal by Southwestern Bell Telephone. The proposal would continue the flexible guidelines that have governed the telecommunications industry for the last three years.

This earnings flexibility provided new opportunities for SWBT to invest in Missouri, and providing for sharing of profits with customers. In all, we invested about $180 million in new technology and shared with customers about $45 million over the last two years.

If those guidelines are continued, SWBT would begin work on a package of rate reductions and network modernization called TeleFuture 2.

TeleFuture 2 is a vision of what telecommunications can be. It represents a practical application of high-technology in combination with some rate reductions.

Here are the specifics:

SWBT will lower rates for several services, including long distance. The total rate reduction is $22 million.

Rates for basic local service will be frozen for three more years, bringing the total to 12 years since a basic local rate increase.

The LifeLine program that provides reduced rates for the poor and elderly will be expanded.

SWBT also would begin a new round of network modernization.

The modernization plan is the heart of TeleFuture 2. Southwestern Bell plans a fiber optic superhighway that will weave a thread of new high technology throughout the rural Missouri landscape. This thread would tie together Missouri's communities by joining schools and hospitals to a fiber optic network.

Almost every middle school, junior high, high school, community college and university in SWBT territory could be connected to this network. Once connected, these schools and communities could enjoy new educational opportunities through what is commonly called distance learning.

The value of distance learning is that through a video network, teachers can extend their reach as far as the fiber link and the demand for their services allow. For example, if a German language teacher were not available at Central High School, but several students wanted to take German, they might "distance learn" from a teacher at Southeast Missouri State, or even from, say, Webster University in St. Louis.

Also, as hospitals join the network, they will bring new health care services and efficiencies to outstate Missouri. For instance, doctors can do many things over the network that normally would be done in person. This advantage could save you the time and expense of traveling for a second opinion. It also could give more people access to specialists who tend to migrate to urban centers.

The plan benefits SWBT, too. The continued flexibility sought by the company provides earnings potential. It is this potential that provides the incentive for new investments in Missouri's telecommunications, including the fiber network.

It is no exaggeration to say this fiber optic network would be like a new I-55 with hundreds of traffic lanes running in both directions.

In fact, you might compare this innovative step in telecommunications to the evolution of transportation in the country. Today's largest cities grew up alongside transportation hubs. A railroad depot or shipping port in a town was a virtual guarantee of economic growth. Next, major highways provided an economic catalyst, then airports.

Service roads and smaller airports were available in many towns across the country. However, cities that were not intersected by a major highway or served by a large airport were relegated to what many people now view as areas too remote to be considered for a new or relocating business.

Today, it is becoming more and more obvious that telecommunications can overcome the penalties of distance. But it will take modernization programs such as Southwestern Bell's TeleFuture 2 to ensure that rural Missouri is not bypassed again.

There are those who undervalue what can be done with your telecommunications services. They believe the goals of regulation is to make local rates cheap and provide service that is "adequate." The message this sends is that the value of service is based solely on price and that you don't need access to new technology.

The message of TeleFuture 2 is more than that. It provides a balanced approach. The plan is designed to deliver services to customers at a reasonable rate, bringing new social and economic development to the state. It's the kind of approach that provides long-term benefits for Missouri.

(Zeke Robertson, Assistant Vice President-External Affairs, with Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., will present a program on TeleFuture 2 at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee on Jan. 8. This meeting starts at 7:30 a.m. and is held at the Drury Lodge. Interested members of the community are encouraged to attend.)