CTIA CITES ‘TREMENDOUS’ PROGRESS IN ITS CONSUMER CODE PROGRAM
Several weeks after CTIA announced its wireless industry voluntary consumer code program and the seal of wireless quality (CD Sept 10 p2), there has been “tremendous” progress in wireless carriers’ seeking to use the seal, CTIA Asst. Gen. Counsel Andrea Williams said Thurs. Addressing the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee, she said the seal had become “a competitive issue for [carriers]. So, having the impact that we hoped it would, this is going to be an area where [members] are going to be competing for consumers.”
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The CTIA code program recently has been “recognized on a federal level for doing something good for consumers and carriers,” Williams said. She said a carrier seeking designation as an eligible telecom carrier (ETC) to receive federal universal service support now had to “pass the code” first.
To ensure that code program members stayed in compliance after they were awarded the seal, Williams said CTIA had established an annual certification process handled by its legal department. She said that to keep the seal the company had to: (1) Adhere to all 10 points of the consumer code. (2) Certify in writing to CTIA its adoption and full implementation of the code through its operations. “Usually, that requires a signature of a senior manager,” she said. Williams said it was important that customers looked for the seal when choosing their wireless provider because “not everyone gets to use the seal.”
Getting word out to consumers is important for development of the program, Williams said. She said CTIA would be “delighted to come and talk” with consumer advocacy groups in states about improving wireless service. National Consumers League (NCL) Vp-Public Policy Susan Grant said the NCL had a “Going Wireless” brochure, which is being revised because of wireless local number portability (LNP) and translated into Spanish: “If that’s something your members would be interested in using as an educational tool for consumers, we'd like to talk to you about that.”
Asked what obligation retailers had to provide consumers with information on the code, Williams said it was “up to the carriers” how they disclosed those terms and conditions. For example, she said Cingular had such information available on its Web site and displayed in its retail stores and advertisements: “We wanted… to make the seal flexible so that [carriers] can use it in their advertising [and] marketing. The goal was to make it strong enough so that everyone can use it. That was quite a challenge.”
However, despite industry efforts to improve quality of service, a quarterly report on consumer complaints released by the FCC Thurs. showed that complaints in the 3rd quarter increased in all 5 top wireless categories, with the largest percentage on service quality and equipment. In total, the report said, wireless complaint volume rose to 4,825 this quarter from 3,901 last quarter. However, it said inquiry activity fell in all major areas in the quarter, with wireless inquiries dropping to 11,828 from 13,983, due largely to sharp declines in electrical interference and amateur license inquiries.
Wireline complaints edged up to 11,093 from 10,418 due to a rise in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) complaints, the report said. However, it said, cramming complaints fell more than 50%, tempering an increase in composite wireline complaints. It said slamming and cramming accounted for most of the decrease in wireline inquiries, which fell to 44,550 from 50,249. Announcing the report, FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Dane Snowden said while the number of slamming complaints in the first 10 months of 2003 dropped 20.6% from the same 2002 period, the closures of complaints by the FCC increased 45.7%. The Commission again stressed that it had received many informal complaints that did “not involve violations of the Communications Act or a rule or order of the Commission. The existence of a complaint does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing by the company at issue.”
On wireless LNP, CTIA’s Williams said 4 days before its implementation, the major challenges for the wireless industry remained: (1) Uncertainty in FCC rules on wireline- to-wireless porting. Because of the newness of “the FCC order on wireline-to-wireless porting, it has not been fully tested and we need some guidance from the FCC… What do you consider ‘local’ in terms of rate centers? That’s the issue that hopefully the FCC is going to resolve for us by Monday,” she said. However, she stressed: “We will help any customer who will come to us with a wireline number.” (2) Fringe counties in top 100 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs): “There are various definitions floating around in terms of what constitutes the top 100 MSAs.”
(3) Managing consumer expectations. Williams said with 15-20 million porting requests expected in the first 10 months after LNP went into effect, “the concern is especially within the next week, how many of [those] 15-to-20 million numbers will be moving.” To help consumers through the porting process, Williams said the CTIA had opened a www.easyporting.com Web site offering tips and guidelines on what users should do to port their numbers. (4) Implementation during the busiest time of year for service activations and volume of traffic on wireless networks. (5) Retail variations. For example, she said, different retail stores might not always offer the same terms, such as a trial period, for their customers.