WASHINGTON-A California lawmaker said she may seek to write into law a bill of rights for telecom consumers, following yesterday’s Public Utilities Commission vote to suspend a major rule that creates a slew of new regulations for mobile-phone carriers in the state.
“The PUC is clearly more interested in protecting the wireless phone companies than it is in protecting the millions of Californians who use cell phones,” said Sen. Debra Bowen (D). “The notion that competition will somehow protect phone users from misleading advertising, poor service, reception that comes and goes with the wind, and inaccurate billing practices doesn’t even pass the straight face test. The latest issue of Consumer Reports found only 45 percent of people are satisfied with their wireless service, yet this PUC seems to think the wireless companies have nothing but their customers’ best interests at heart.”
As such, Bowen said she is “seriously considering” re-introducing a bill to write a bill-of-rights law that could be more expansive than the one the CPUC voted 3-1 to put on hold. The CPUC vowed to issue a revised bill of rights by the end of the year.
Bowen, who has sponsored bills to curb teenage driver cell-phone use and to protect consumer privacy in radio-frequency identification system deployment, sits on the Rules Committee. That panel is charged with recommending whether the GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s two CPUC appointees-Republican Steve Poizner, who has yet to be sworn in, and Democrat Dian Grueneich, who has been sworn in and voted Thursday to delay the implementation of the telecom consumer bill of rights-should be confirmed to their positions on the CPUC.
Consumer groups loudly criticized the CPUC’s decision to stay the bill of rights, while the mobile-phone industry applauded the agency’s action.
“In May, the CPUC implemented a set of misconceived telecommunications rules that placed a number of wireless consumer benefits in great jeopardy. The rules would have set California on a path toward higher prices, fewer choices and less information for consumers,” said Steve Largent, president of CTIA, the national trade association of cell-phone operators.
