COMPETITION: Longtime local co-op MTA intends to keep its customers
For the first time, Mat-Su phone callers will have a choice of local service providers as General Communication Inc. ventures deeper into Matanuska Telephone Association territory.
The Anchorage telecommunications and cable TV company just last week started offering digital local telephone service in Wasilla, six months after moving into MTA's service area of Eagle River.
GCI's push into Wasilla represents the first time MTA has faced competition in the heart of its territory, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Formed in 1953, the Palmer-based telecommunications cooperative serves 40,000 customers from Eagle River to Clear Air Force Station.
Since competition started in Eagle River, about 2,500 customers have switched from MTA to GCI, though more than 100 later switched back, MTA spokeswoman Jackie Kenshalo said. She expects a similar scenario for Wasilla.
"There's a certain number of customers that are going to switch just because they have a choice," Kenshalo said. "But we feel very confident we'll make a strong showing. Our goal is to absolutely keep our customers."
GCI plans to charge Wasilla customers $9.40 for basic dial-tone service, not including taxes and surcharges. MTA charges $13.20.
GCI plans to expand to Palmer by mid-November.
But most households order more than basic local phone service, and MTA hopes for an advantage as the two companies compete on "bundled" packages of local service with long distance, wireless, television and Internet.
GCI offers a number of different bundles. The most popular, which includes television, long distance and Internet, costs $89.99, according to GCI spokesman David Morris.
While MTA does offer a fixed bundle for similar services that costs $82.99, the co-op created a new package of flexible bundling as a pre-emptive strike against GCI competition, Kenshalo said.
The option lets customers pick and choose services rather than sign up for a fixed package. MTA customers get a 10 percent discount on two or more services including local phone, and 15* percent if they pick at least three.
LOYAL CUSTOMERS
GCI got its start with long-distance service in the 1980s, and went head-to-head with Alaska Communications Service for local phone customers in Anchorage in the late 1990s. It quickly won a significant share of the customers.
Dana Tindall, GCI's senior vice president of regulatory affairs, described MTA as a stronger competitor than ACS, with "more loyalty in its customer base."
"MTA is doing fine; MTA will continue to do fine; the consumers are much better off," she said.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska last year ruled that GCI could not lease MTA's phone network to provide phone service under its own brand. GCI then began building its own digital wires network in the Valley. GCI already has many Valley homes wired as the cable TV provider there.
However, regulators did allow GCI to provide Mat-Su phone service in another way -- by buying MTA local phone services at discounted, wholesale rates, then reselling it to customers. GCI now has also started offering phone service under this ruling elsewhere in Mat-Su, Morris said.
GCI counts 114,000 customers in Ketchikan, Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kodiak, Eagle River and Chugiak, or 27 percent of the state's telephone lines.
*corrected from original story
