California Bill aimed at phone deregulation passes state Senate panel

A drive to eliminate much of the last vestiges of conventional home telephone regulation by California won a key endorsement Tuesday from a Senate committee. Under the bill, state regulators would no longer analyze a proposed phone company merger to determine, for instance, if it is in the public interest or if part of the merger's savings should be returned to customers. Critics, including current and former regulators, complained that the proposal would make it harder for the California Public Utilities Commission to evaluate adequately phone-company requests for mergers.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-phones16apr16,1,19101...
(requires registration)