NARUC Faces Video Franchise Reform, Wireless Preemption At Summer Meeting
NARUC was scheduled to open its summer meeting in San Francisco Sun. with video franchising, wireless preemption and caller ID spoofing resolutions on the Telecom Committee’s agenda. Also on the agenda is a speech Tues. morning by AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre.
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A resolution would support state video franchising and urge Congress, in any national video franchising framework, to grandfather state video franchising laws enacted by this year. Ind., Kan., N.C., S.C., Tex. and Va. passed franchising laws, and bills are pending in Cal., Mass., Mich., N.J., N.Y., Pa. and Tenn. The draft resolution would urge Congress to support video franchising solutions that preserve state sovereignty while streamlining franchising.
A wireless preemption resolution would adopt a white paper on consumer effects if Congress preempts all state regulation of wireless service. The report says that federal consumer regulations should be a floor, not a ceiling, and states must retain the ability to halt unjust and unreasonable wireless business practices, such as cryptic or inaccurate billing and inadequate consumer disclosure. The paper asserts the wireless industry, despite recent improvements, is still “the single most complained about industry in the American economy.” The white paper concludes that if Congress preempts states’ authority to enforce their consumer protection laws with respect to wireless and newly emerging telecom services like VoIP, individual consumers won’t have any effective recourse if they're not satisfied with a carrier’s complaint resolution.
A related Telecom Committee wireless preemption resolution, which also will be taken up by NARUC’s Consumer Affairs Committee, would urge states to consider effects of any potential federal wireless preemption when designating wireless providers’ local services as eligible for federal universal service subsidies. It also would call for a NARUC study on likely consumer effects if states lost all power over “other terms and conditions” of wireless service and over novel wireless consumer issues that may arise. Last, the Telecom and Consumer Affairs panels proposed a resolution supporting a House bill (HR 5126) to make caller ID spoofing a crime. The resolution also would commit both NARUC committees to work with Congress and the FCC on comprehensive approaches for protecting consumers from deliberately misleading caller ID information.
Other scheduled events include panels Sun. and Mon. afternoons discussing the Missoula Plan for intercarrier compensation reform filed with the FCC last week; a Tues. afternoon panel on policy and business considerations for nonrural companies that serve rural areas; and Wed. morning panels on new technologies that make possible provision of broadband over natural-gas lines and the future of state retail phone rate regulation.