WASHINGTON—Telecom-reform legislation likely won’t pass this year, much to the delight of consumer advocates who urged lawmakers to remove language from the bill that would pre-empt states from regulating wireless services.
“If you pass this, you will hurt the consumers you are trying to protect,” warned Billy Jack Gregg, director of the consumer-advocate division of the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
Following a consumers-issues briefing Friday, key staff from both the House and Senate Commerce Committees participated in a panel discussion sponsored by the legislative committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association.
Panelists stopped short of saying a telecom-reform bill would not pass this year.
However, it’s unlikely that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has the 60 votes needed to break the expected filibuster on the legislation. Stevens is working to get 60 senators to vote against a filibuster threatened by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Wyden doesn’t like the bill because he doesn’t think it contains a strong network-neutrality provision.
Lisa Sutherland, committee staff director for the Senate Commerce Committee, could not confirm that Stevens has 60 votes. She would only say that Stevens has started talking one-on-one with senators to gauge their support and concerns. Many in industry believe that Stevens has 55 votes.
Panelists also did not discuss chances for the telecom-reform bill when Congress convenes in January.
At the consumers briefing, Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, said the argument large carriers are making against network neutrality is the same argument that can be made against the telecom-reform bill’s wireless pre-emption language.
“The very folks that are coming to you are affiliates of the same companies that are saying there is no problem with network neutrality and that it is a solution in search of a problem. If anything is a solution in search of a problem, it is pre-emption of state laws because we haven’t seen a problem,” said Kenney.
The wireless industry has consistently complained that a patchwork of state regulation is costly and burdensome. But consumers’ groups lobbying the Hill said those rules are meant to curb carrier abuses in the areas of excessive early termination fees, billing practices and deceptive advertising about coverage areas.
Wireless trade association CTIA’s advocacy wing, mywireless.org, has run an advertising campaign urging Congress to implement “a national framework” for wireless. Currently, states are precluded from regulating the prices that wireless customers pay, but are allowed to regulate the “terms and conditions” of service.
Although the wireless industry has exploded over the years, it still leads all industries in the number of complaints received, said the consumer advocates.
