Industry heads to Supreme Court over pre-emption

WASHINGTON-The mobile phone industry plans to take the line-item billing controversy to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay a final order reversing the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to pre-empt state regulation of line-items on mobile phone bills. The carriers are also preparing a filing that seeks relief from the nation’s high court. The industry must file for Supreme Court review of the 11th Circuit ruling by Feb. 27.
Both the wireless industry and FCC want the 11th Circuit to reconsider the court’s July 31 decision, which struck down the line-item pre-emption component of the FCC’s 2005 truth-in-billing ruling.
The stakes are high for the mobile phone industry, which has been hit with billing lawsuits in recent years and was unable to secure broader pre-emption relief in Congress this year because lawmakers did not pass a Republican-crafted telecom reform bill. The Senate version of the legislation would have eviscerated a provision of 1993 law giving states oversight of “other terms and conditions” of commercial wireless service. That law currently prohibits states from regulating rates and market entry of wireless carriers.