NASUCA Urges States to Pass Cramming Laws, Enforce Backup Power

State legislatures should pass bills prohibiting cramming, NASUCA said in a new resolution. The association of consumer advocates voted in favor of the resolution last week at its meeting in Seattle, one of three new telecom resolutions. The proposal follows NASUCA’s history of advocacy on the issue and spotlights unauthorized charges that appear on consumers’ phone bills. The association also adopted new policy resolutions asking regulators to ensure backup power and supporting cellphone unlocking.

"This resolution is intended to remind the states and hopefully convince the states they do have a role in consumer protection,” Craig Graziano, chair of the NASUCA consumer protection committee and responsible for drafting the resolution, told us. He highlighted the authentication measures pushed by industry that don’t actually work, which he called “quite appalling.” Graziano said the resolution isn’t meant to “disparage” the FCC and FTC’s work in resolving the problem on a national level. “The states are closer to the victims, they're closer to the sources of information as to what’s been causing the problems,” he said. Consumers also look to state authorities in resolving complaints, he added.

The cramming resolution described “widespread concern that the problem has been migrating to wireless telephone bills,” sometimes $9.99 or less but recurring monthly and without consumers’ knowledge. The resolution text favors “the enactment of state laws throughout the United States prohibiting the cramming of unauthorized charges onto consumer bills and authorizing the assessment of civil monetary penalties for violation, coupled with appropriate enforcement activity.” The proposed bill text calls for a $10,000 penalty per violation. “The telecommunications industry needs to develop processes that authenticate with a reasonable degree of reliability that the charges placed on telephone bills have in fact been authorized by the person to whom they are billed,” it said, noting the penalties “will encourage the industry to develop such adequate authentication processes and will help to curtail and eliminate the problem.” State public utility commissions or some “other appropriate jurisdiction” should levy these penalties and determine their size, it said, also encouraging these bodies to “take appropriate measures to educate the public regarding the placement of unauthorized charges on telephone bills, including publication of the number of consumer cramming complaints by third-party vendor name.”

The derecho and Superstorm Sandy inspired NASUCA to adopt a resolution on backup power, according to that resolution’s text. It described the millions of Verizon customers without access to 911 in the mid-Atlantic after last summer’s derecho and other communications problems. “NASUCA urges state and federal regulators to develop enforceable policies to ensure reliable wireline and wireless communications during public power outages, including enforceable policies related to ensuring that back-up power for telephone service is maintained during outages regardless of the technology used to provide the service.”

"The essential nature of communications has not changed,” NASUCA acting Telecom Chair Regina Costa told us of the importance of reliable networks. The backup power concern ties directly to discussions happening on the IP transition and the petition from AT&T, which Costa called “putting the cart before the horse.” The FCC moves on a “fast track” and may miss “broader ramifications” that could affect consumers, she said. Costa drafted this resolution and described natural disasters in different states across the country, from wildfires out west to storms in the east. “The backup power issue is just fundamental to this,” she said of the technological shifts. “As a committee, we view all these issues as being related ... This is an area that needs public oversight.”

In recent years, states have “shied away from taking a more active role," even in consumer protection, due to the efforts from industry to “restrict their authority,” Graziano said. At the NASUCA meeting, consumer advocates discussed the recent state laws limiting state regulation of Internet Protocol-enabled services and deregulating telcos. But “the FCC has not preempted states on VoIP,” Costa insisted, contrary to certain industry beliefs that it has. She said many states have not deregulated VoIP and that those that have -- more than half of all states -- can roll back that legislation. She moderated a panel on such deregulation issues at the midyear meeting.

NASUCA’s third resolution supported the idea that consumers should be able to unlock their wireless devices, whether tablets or cellphones (see related report in this issue). “Copyright of software should not be used to prevent customers from utilizing a wireless device that they own on their network of choice,” the text read. Costa also drafted this resolution and referred to “such a broad spectrum” of support for unlocking cellphones.

The resolutions will help give NASUCA a clear advocacy path, Costa said, saying the association has a “long history” with these issues. The resolutions serve as “fine tuning” its positions in response to what, in different ways, might be a “new wrinkle,” she said. NASUCA adopted the resolutions in Seattle with no real opposition among committee members: “I'm really pleased with the resolutions,” Costa said. “It wasn’t contentious -- it was good, honest discussion.” The association may take other actions to advocate for their newly resolved policy positions, such as in comments to the FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force, she said. The telecom committee members need to “catch our breath” and examine recent actions on Fire Island, where Verizon is replacing landline service with the fixed alternative known as Voice Link, she said.