WASHINGTON-Mobile-phone carriers filed an emergency motion with the California Public Utilities Commission, asking the agency to overrule Commissioner Carl Wood’s denial of industry’s request for additional time to comment on two new plans for a statewide telecom consumer bill of rights.
“To evaluate the impact of these all-encompassing rules on the entire telecommunications industry is not a task to be undertaken lightly, and the two new [proposals] must be evaluated with all the care and attention given the previous draft decisions,” wireless carriers told the CPUC.
The emergency motion was filed yesterday after Wood-whose rejection of industry’s filing extension request keeps on track a May 27 vote-revised his bill of rights to restore consumer safeguards that had been dropped in negotiations with others.
Last week, Commissioners Susan Kennedy and Geoffrey Brown issued alternate bill-of-rights proposals. Kennedy asked for comments on her proposed rules by May 20 and reply comments by May 25. Brown is seeking comment on his draft by May 20. Mobile-phone firms responded immediately by petitioning the CPUC to extend the comment and reply comment deadlines on the two new plans to June 14 and June 24, respectively.
It is unclear whether there are enough votes to overturn the Wood filing extension ruling. At one time, Wood had enough votes to win passage of a bill of rights. However, pressure from GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his staff prompted other commissioners to water down the Wood plan and sabotage his three-vote majority.
