WASHINGTON-Legislation to make a bill of rights for telecom consumers a state law has moved forward in the California legislature, countering efforts by a state regulator to revise-and possibly overhaul-new mobile-phone carrier regulations approved last year but not yet effective.
The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee voted 7-3 Tuesday in favor of a consumer protection bill for cellular and landline telecom users. The bill is championed by Sen. Martha Escutia (D), who chairs the communications panel.
“Just last month the Federal Communications Commission noted that complaints about cellular telephone company billing and advertising increased significantly since 1999, demonstrating consumer confusion and dissatisfaction with current billing practices,” said Escutia. “We clearly need to establish in law a minimum standard of customer care for all providers of telecommunications service.”
The Escutia measure is based on the stalled CPUC bill of rights.
The bill, which goes before the Senate Appropriations Committee next month, mandates the following :
- A telephone corporation shall make no deceptive or misleading statement about its rates and services.
- A telephone corporation shall provide a customer with written confirmation of every order for service and a written copy of each contract. A customer may cancel any new service within 30 days without termination fees or penalties.
- Telephone corporations shall provide customer contracts and make required disclosures in the language used to advertise the product or service upon the customer’s request.
- Bills must be clearly organized and contain only charges authorized by the customer. Only government-imposed fees and taxes may be identified as government fees and taxes.
Meantime, CPUC Commissioner Susan Kennedy is pushing a proposal to review the bill of rights passed by the agency last May. In January, Kennedy succeeded in getting the CPUC to suspend the bill of rights while the rule is re-examined.
The mobile-phone industry and GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger oppose the bill of rights, arguing its many new requirements are too burdensome-especially for the competitive wireless industry.
On the opposing side are consumer groups, disability advocates and state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, all of whom support Escutia’s bill-of-rights legislation.
Today, Kennedy is presiding over a pre-hearing conference on her bill-of-rights review in San Francisco. The conference involves setting the scope of the proceeding, teeing up issues-and questions-to be addressed and establishing a filing schedule.
In a parallel effort, Kennedy is trying to win CPUC backing to comprehensively re-evaluate the state’s entire telecom regulatory framework.
Whether Kennedy has the votes to win passage of her telecom agenda is unclear due to continued uncertainty over Schwarzenegger’s Republican pick to fill a vacancy on the five-member CPUC. Steve Poizner, a multimillionaire and aspiring politician who sold SnapTrack Inc. to Qualcomm Inc. for $1 billion in 2000, has yet to be sworn in because of conflict-of-interest issues involving his telecom stock holdings. Sources say a resolution to the Poizner situation could be announced by the end of the week.
In the bill-of-rights battle, Poizner appears to be the swing vote.
Kennedy and CPUC President Michael Peevey voted against the bill of rights last year. Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, the author of the alternate bill of rights that was narrowly approved last May, opposes any effort to water down the bill of rights. The other Schwarzenegger selection to the CPUC, Democrat Dian Grueneich, voted by Kennedy and Peevey to put the bill of rights on hold earlier year. More recently, however, Grueneich has signaled she is not ready to toss out the bill of rights and publicly stated that some provisions of the rule can be reinstated in the near future.
