Local phone market heats up

Jennifer Shubinski

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

Telecommunications giant SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio today said it will offer local residential telephone service in the city of Las Vegas and said other nearby areas, such as Henderson, aren't far behind.

"This marks our emergence into the consumer market in Las Vegas," said spokesman John Britton.

The telecommunications company has been talking for years about rolling out local and long distance services to homes in the Las Vegas area. SBC, already the main local phone company in Reno, rolled out long distance services in Reno last year, said Britton.

Britton said SBC waited to enter the Las Vegas market with local and long distance services because it wanted to offer consumers a package of telephone options.

"It is a fully integrated offer that people are after," he said. "It is ease and simplicity of one bill they want."

SBC phone services are now available to more than 400,000 Las Vegas households.

SBC companies currently provide business services, such as Internet access, data services, and voice products, in Las Vegas and have served more than 30 cities in Nevada, including the northern cities of Reno, Sparks, Pahrump and Carson City, as well as parts of Southern Nevada, for more than 90 years.

Don Soderberg, chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission, said the entrance into Las Vegas of a competitor to Sprint and several smaller local carriers will be good for competition.

Soderberg said at the last round of consumer hearings on utility issues, there were a lot of consumers who complained about service problems with their carriers.

He said the addition of a major competitor in the market will give people more options.

Cable TV provider Cox Communications has also tossed around the idea of entering the telephone market in Las Vegas. That move would allow the dominant Las Vegas-area cable television provider to offer telephone service over its broadband Internet network.

Britton said SBC will begin an aggressive marketing campaign to let consumers know about the new communications option.