WASHINGTON-The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote May 27 on three bills of rights for telecom consumers, with the issuance late yesterday of two alternative proposals written by Commissioners Susan Kennedy and Geoffrey Brown.
The state regulatory proceeding, on which the mobile-phone industry has spent nearly $600,000 in lobbying, has huge implications for the wireless carriers in California and the rest of the country.
The two new proposals, which would govern certain mobile-phone business practices and give consumers avenues to seek redress for grievances, come in response to the original bill of rights authored by Commissioner Carl Wood.
Of the three initiatives, Wood’s is the most regulatory and consumer friendly. Kennedy’s alternative is the most deregulatory, while Brown’s approach represents a compromise of sorts between the two that the commissioner said can withstand legal challenge.
Until recently, Brown was working with Wood, who also had the backing of Commissioner Loretta Lynch. That gave Wood enough votes to win approval of his bill of rights by the five-member agency. But it all fell apart two weeks ago when Brown decided to go his own way, stripping out advertising regulation and controversial privacy provisions.
Kennedy’s plan covers wireline and wireless carriers, a change from her previous intention to exempt mobile-phone operators from any new rules.
“The single most important tool a consumer can have to protect himself or herself is the power to say ‘No,’ ” Kennedy said. “These rules are designed to empower consumers to protect themselves.”
Many requirements in Kennedy’s bill of rights are included in industry’s voluntary code of conduct for mobile-phone companies.
Any bill of rights adopted will have to survive scrutiny of the two new commissioners that GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will appoint next year.
