Some cellphone carriers are fighting a bill in the S.C. Senate that Sen. Luke Rankin argues will level the playing field between land line and cellphone companies.

Rankin, R-Conway, co-sponsored Bill 277, also known as the State Telecom Equity in Funding Act, in January along with Sens. Thomas Alexander and Brad Hutto.

Currently, only land line customers pay a fee into the S.C. Universal Service Fund, which helps land line companies offset the cost of installation and maintenance of telephone lines in rural areas of the state. The new bill would add a similar fee for cellphone customers.

Rankin, who also runs a law practice, said businesses are the primary customers for land line carriers and they’re paying a disproportionately higher fee because cellphone customers aren’t paying anything.

“When the Universal Service Fund was created almost 20 years ago, the goal was for all citizens to have access to affordable service, and all who used the network would bear the cost,” Rankin said. “Now you’ve got 4 million or so wireless customers and a million-plus landline customers, which includes me, as a business, includes churches, schools, etc., and so we are paying for the lion’s share. In fact, we’re paying it all.”

He said when legislators passed the law in 1996, they recognized there would be a day when a new technology would require the law to be updated.

“We’re at that point now,” Rankin said.

If the bill is signed into law, S.C. Universal Service Fund fees for landline customers would likely go down as fees for cellphone customers would go up, according to Rankin, who said it’s fair because cellphone customers use landline networks. He estimates customers across the board will pay a fee of about 1.1% of their bill.

The fees will go into the fund, which is administered by the Office of Regulatory Staff, and then about two dozen telephone companies will be eligible to draw from the fund to build and maintain land lines.

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