Subject: [NEXTEL-1] [NEWS ALERT] CPUC Passes Sweeping Rules; CTIA Vows Challenge

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 16:13:46 -0400

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Wireless Week
Breaking News Alert from news@2direct
May 27, 2004
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CPUC Passes Sweeping Rules; CTIA Vows Challenge
By By Mark Rockwell

After sometimes bitter arguments, the California Public Utility
Commission (CPUC) approved a new set of restrictive rules aimed at
wireless and other telecom carriers.

Minutes after the meeting in San Francisco ended this afternoon, CTIA
said it would challenge the new rules, but didn't specify how.

After four years, thousands of pages of comments and dozens of
industry level meetings, the CPUC in a 3-2 vote adopted a compromise
proposal written by Commissioner Geoffrey Brown that sought to
moderate an earlier, more controversial, proposal backed by
Commissioner Carl Wood.

The new rules would take effect in 180 days, or by Nov. 27, according
to Brown. Under the rules, carriers would be punished for making false
and misleading statements in advertising and marketing materials.
Customers also would get a 30-day right to opt out of a contract and
be allowed to make  "routine" changes to it. Carriers would have to
provide disclosure of all terms and conditions of the contract to a
consumer within seven days of signing. In a nod to carriers, Brown's
rules would allow them to include supplemental information such as
brochures explaining services to become part of contracts.

Wood's more restrictive proposal wouldn't have allowed any changes to
contracts, would have imposed a ban on the use of private customer
information by carriers and would have imposed restrictive language
and print requirements on carriers. Ultimately, the perception of
Wood's proposal as "anti-business" spawned Brown's alternate plan and
another backed by CPUC Commissioner Susan Kennedy that would have been
far more lenient with carriers.

"CTIA will consider all possible options to challenge the unnecessary
and sweeping rules on wireless communications adopted today by the
California Public Utilities Commission," CTIA President and CEO Steve
Largent said in a statement.

"The CPUC threw together at the 11th hour three competing proposals
with more than 500 pages of rules and related paperwork," he said.
"Then it passed a set of rules without any idea what kind of negative
impact it might have on consumers ' bills." Largent added that the
rules were "a leap to judgement" in the face of a vibrant competitive
market.

The CPUC's Brown didn't see it that way. "My rules don't tell carriers
how to compete. They tell them how to compete fairly," he said during
the meeting today. Brown was skeptical that wireless carriers didn't
need to be reined in a bit, even though their market is competitive.
He pointed to wireless carriers not apologizing for using translucent
paper with tiny type for contracts that were "illegible" as evidence
the commission needed to step in.

Wireless carriers have lobbied heavily against the effort to create a
consumer "bill of rights" at the CPUC for years, saying the effort
would have significant, unintended consequences, such as vastly more
expensive advertising, slower response to consumers' requests and
reduction in competition.

Consumer groups hailed the vote but had hoped for Wood's more
restrictive rules. "The CPUC has taken a significant step forward,"
said Janee Breisemeister, spokeswoman for the Consumers Union. The
30-day trial period, deemed incredibly important by consumers the
group polled recently, was left intact, as was the 7-day disclosure
requirement, she said.

Wireless Week
http://www.wirelessweek.com

The Wireless Authority

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