The Nation - News from July 7, 1986

Congressional auditors question whether the Federal Communications Commission is getting enough information to carry out its duty to ensure that adequate residential telephone service is available all over the nation at reasonable rates. The General Accounting Office study found that the data being used to monitor phone service “does not provide insight into conditions at the local level, particularly in rural areas,” and that the government has no figures to indicate whether people in poverty regions are going without telephones because they cannot afford them.