Calif. regulators OK wireless protection program

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A divided California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday adopted measures to protect wireless telephone customers from abuses by the phone industry.

The commission, which had been working for six years to come up with a set of rules for cell phone companies, voted 3-to-2 to adopt a proposal by CPUC President Michael Peevey.

It called for more consumer education, tougher enforcement of existing laws, creation of a telecommunications consumer fraud unit, and an expanded CPUC phone "hotline" for consumer complaints.

The CPUC turned down an alternate "consumer bill of rights" that was based on rules adopted by the commission in 2004, including requirements that non-English speaking consumers get services in their language and that customers get 30 days to cancel a new service contract without penalty.

The 2004 plan, however, was put aside last year by the CPUC in order to give phone companies more time to change billing, computer systems and service contracts.

Peevey said his plan "is a prime example of the Commission's desire to use the power of market forces whenever possible in lieu of Commission edict."

Commissioner Dian Grueneich, who offered the alternate plan, said "a new multimillion dollar statewide education campaign is not the best use of ratepayer dollars given the lack of enforceable rules on which to educate customers."

California Democratic state Sen. Debra Bowen, who co-authored a bill last year to protect phone customers, said the CPUC's plan is "a bill of rights for the phone companies, not for the millions of California phone users who are tired of being ripped off."

The bill was approved in the Senate but defeated in the state Assembly.

Bowen said she and Sen. Martha Escutia, a Democrat, are considering reviving the consumer legislation.

Jack Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, welcomed the commission's decision, saying it "endorsed an approach to telecommunications regulation that protects consumer choice by encouraging continued market competition."