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RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina's top consumer advocate on utility issues said Thursday he no longer opposes an effort to end state regulation of the prices consumers pay for landline telephone service.

Robert Gruber, executive director of the state Utilities Commission's Public Staff, said he's satisfied by the consumer safeguards in legislation that allows AT&T and 15 smaller providers operating in North Carolina to cut loose from regulations setting the rates, terms, and quality of their landline services.

"We would have preferred to have the commission continue to regulate the service, but now that the Legislature has put consumer safeguards into the bill, we don't oppose it," Gruber said. The measure was approved Thursday by the first of two Senate committees to review it before a vote by the entire Senate. An earlier version passed the House two weeks ago.

Landline telephone providers want the option to drop out of Utilities Commission price-setting oversight of household service because cable, Internet and wireless rivals aren't similarly regulated. Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Nevada have passed similar legislation.

The legislation would allow phone companies to set their own prices, except for stand-alone basic residential service. Rate increases for the basic service would be limited to inflation adjustments. Rural customers must be charged a price comparable to urban customers for basic service.

The state Utilities Commission does not know how many households use only basic telephone service. AT&T, by far the largest landline telephone provider with 1.5 million lines, considers that confidential business information and does not share it with regulators or the public, company spokesman Clifton Metcalf said.

Utilities Commission figures show that telephone companies lost 1.7 million access lines in North Carolina from 2001 to the end of 2008, a drop of nearly 35 percent. AT&T was the biggest loser, with a 41 percent fall in the number of wired phone lines over the eight-year period.

At the same time, the number of telephone connections of all types grew by more than 70 percent as more people carried mobile phones or added extra household lines. Wired telephone lines now number about 3.2 million, the Utilities Commission said. Wireless phone lines more than doubled in that time to more than 7 million, while telephone service over broadband cable multiplied 14 times.

The bill leaves the Public Staff as the place that tries to resolve consumer complaints about their landline phone service.

Competition on service as well as price will keep phone companies on their toes without state regulation, Metcalf said.

"We don't want to have a dissatisfied customer. Customers have choices. If we don't meet their needs and satisfy their expectations, they're going to vote with their wallets," he said.