Lloyd Overlock never had much reason to think about his telephone. The 85-year-old Hermon resident just paid his bills and knew the service was there if he needed it.
But Overlock, who for five decades has been paying a monthly fee to lease his phone, found out recently that the arrangement is a pricey, outmoded throwback to the days of telephone industry monopoly.
Wayne Jortner, an attorney with the Maine Public Advocate’s Office, said Friday that Overlock’s situation is not unique. Before 1984, when a federal court determined that AT&T’s lock on the nation’s telephone industry constituted an illegal monopoly, most consumers were required to lease their phones, he said. The forced restructuring of the industry included opening up the manufacturing of telephones, and people began purchasing their own instruments.
The lease program is not illegal, he said, but consumer advocates faulted the company for some of its practices.
clipped from: www.bangordailynews.com 