WASHINGTON-The House of Representatives joined the Senate in introducing legislation that would criminalize pretexting-the practice of impersonating a customer to get their call records.
Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced the bill, which is similar to the Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006 introduced last month by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Both Blackburn and Inslee are members of the House Commerce Committee, which is scheduled to hold a hearing later today on the cell-phone records scandal.
Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless is refusing to make public its certification showing that it protects customers’ call records.
Zipperstein said he was not intending to stall the process, but just being cautious about what the statute actually requires. Verizon said it plans to comply with the FCC’s request to file its certification with the agency.
“We are not about to share publicly how we thwart this behavior,” Steve Zipperstein, Verizon Wireless’ general counsel, told reporters Tuesday afternoon at his quarterly press roundtable.
Verizon Wireless is the only nationwide carrier to not make its certification public. T-Mobile USA Inc.’s certification was made available this morning.
The certifications became important after the House Commerce Committee asked the Federal Communications Commission for the certifications for the largest five wireless and wireline carriers. AT&T Inc.-formerly SBC Communications Inc.-and Alltel Corp. have not responded to the request. The FCC proposed fining each company $100,000 for not providing their certifications.
Proposed fines become effective in 30 days unless a settlement is reached.
In a separate action, the commission asked all telecommunications carriers to file their certifications with the agency by Feb. 6.
Each year carriers must certify that they are protecting Customer Proprietary Network Information, or CPNI. However, the certifications are not filed with the FCC; instead, each carrier must make it available upon request.
The filings are part of a cell-phone records scandal has been escalating since the CBS Evening News broadcast a Jan. 12 report critical of the wireless industry and the apparent theft and sale of customer-call records.
In addition to the House hearing this afternoon, the Senate Commerce consumer-affairs subcommittee is scheduled to examine the issue next week.
