WASHINGTON-A newly configured California Public Utilities Commission next week is set to vote on a proposal by Commissioner Susan Kennedy to suspend the bill of rights for telecom consumers, a move that comes as mobile-phone carriers fight the rule in court and try to buy time to comply with new state guidelines.
Kennedy, a pro-business Democrat, last year fought unsuccessfully to water down the bill of rights. Last May, the CPUC approved a bill of rights-creating scores of new rules for wireless carriers-penned by Commissioner Geoffrey Brown. The 3-2 vote approving the bill of rights angered California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the wireless industry, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on California lobbyists in hopes of derailing an initiative they claimed would hurt the state’s economy and mobile-phone subscribers. With California moving aggressively on the consumer front, there have been fears other states may try to enact their own wireless regulations based on the California model.
In December, Schwarzenegger replaced outgoing Democratic commissioners Carl Wood and Loretta Lynch. Wood, original author of the bill of rights, joined Lynch and Brown in winning passage of the measure last year. Wood and Lynch are being replaced by Republican Steve Poizner and Democrat Dian Grueneich. Poizner is the former chief executive officer of Snap Track Inc., which was sold to Qualcomm Inc. in 2000.
The two Schwarzenegger appointees will be sworn in next Tuesday and can vote on CPUC matters for a year, while they await Senate confirmation.
The CPUC vote on the Kennedy motion to suspend the bill of rights is scheduled for next Thursday. If Kennedy wins backing from the two new commissioners, the next step likely will be an attempt to gut the bill of rights.
“I think it [Kennedy’s move] is out of order, irregular and illegitimate,” said Brown.
