Industry cheers alternative to consumer-protection bill

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) introduced industry-backed legislation that would establish a national regulatory framework for the wireless industry and fully pre-empt state oversight of mobile-phone carriers.
The Pryor bill, unveiled during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing today, would effectively compete with a wireless consumer bill championed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.).
“We definitely support the Pryor bill,” said Joe Farren, a spokesman for cellphone industry association CTIA. National mobile-phone carriers and Republican lawmakers oppose the Klobuchar-Rockefeller legislation, viewing it as unnecessary and possibly harmful to the most competitive sector in the telecom industry.
The Pryor bill would be far less regulatory than the Klobuchar-Rockefeller measure, putting the Federal Communications Commission in the position of policing uniform national customer service and consumer protection rules for wireless subscribers. Under current law, states are banned from regulating wireless rates and market entry but still retain some jurisdiction over mobile-phone business practices.
“I don’t want to get too hung up on the numbers [of complaints]. The bottom line is there are a number of consumers who are dissatisfied with their service for various reasons. Some of those things I think we need to address in federal law,” Pryor stated. “The uniform wireless consumer rules must be comprehensive and they should address, in my view, a broad range of issues including disclosures of contract terms and conditions, service-area maps, trial periods, early termination fees and we could add more to the list if you wanted to.”
While the Pryor bill is not apt to attract support from other Democrats who collectively control the House and Senate, and will likely invite strong opposition from states, the legislation could force Klobuchar and Rockefeller to make concessions on their bill. The legislation may also complicate matters enough so that no measure gets out of Congress.
The nation’s top consumer group is not keen on the notion of putting the FCC in charge of wireless consumer protection.
“I don’t trust the FCC to come up with a comprehensive set of regulations,” Chris Murray, senior counsel for Consumers Union, told Senate lawmakers.