WASHINGTON-The California Public Utilities Commission has just passed a landmark bill of rights for telecom consumers, resoundingly rejecting an alternate plan that was highly deregulatory and largely favorable to the mobile-phone industry.
The CPUC voted 3-to-2 to approve a bill of rights sponsored by Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, the swing vote on the commission. Brown’s initiative was less regulatory than the one penned by Commissioner Carl Wood-the original bill of rights author-while offering more consumer safeguards than the proposal offered by Commissioner Susan Kennedy.
Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association President Steve Largent said CTIA will consider all possible options to challenge the “unnecessary and sweeping rules on wireless communications.”
“Existing laws and the industry’s own voluntary Consumer Code clearly provide consumers with adequate protections,” said Largent. “The tiny wireless complaint rate of 0.03 percent at the CPUC is an indication of the high level of consumer satisfaction with the wireless industry.”
