WASHINGTON-Saying he was responding to constituent complaints about non-itemized billing, Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) recently introduced legislation requiring all commercial mobile radio service providers to itemize customer bills.
This itemization is to include: the date, origination time, origination and destination numbers, length of call, charge for each call, separate listings for local and long-distance calls, additional charges for calls made outside a local service area, and any government-imposed fees and taxes. The last item also would include which government agency imposed the charges.
Payne introduced the bill Aug. 6, just as Congress was adjourning for the August recess. It has been referred to the House Committee on Commerce.
Kerry McKenney, Payne’s legislative director and press secretary, said the congressman introduced the bill after receiving complaints that Cellular One charges $3 for itemized bills. “[Payne] thought [this practice] was unfair. It seems like this should be included as part of basic service,” McKenney said.
But which Cellular One is charging for this service?
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. operates wireless service in Payne’s district of Newark. However, AT&T said it always has provided free itemized bills, unless the customer stated otherwise.
Comcast Cellular Communications Inc. doesn’t offer service in Payne’s congressional district, according to spokesman Joe Divis. Some of Comcast’s old calling plans required a service fee to receive itemized billing, Divis explained, but current calling plans offer itemized billing for free. Ironically, Divis said, some customers complain about too much detail on their bills.
Bell Atlantic Mobile, which does business in New Jersey, itemizes its bills, said spokeswoman Andrea Linskey. The only time customers do not receive an itemized bill is when they sign up for BAM’s prepaid plan.
The CMRS industry is a competitive market, said Steven K. Berry, senior vice president for congressional affairs for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. “If someone doesn’t like being charged for itemized billing, then hopefully they have choices,” Berry said.
CTIA plans to share some of its concerns about the legislation with Payne and his staff when Congress returns in September. “We will share with Mr. Payne that there are unintended consequences [to his legislation] … this reflects a desire to legislate a solution in the wireless industry … this reflects old-thinking” of regulated monopoly telephone companies, Berry said.
Demanding that items, including taxes, be itemized on telephone bills follows a trend by some in Congress that fees should be spelled out for programs like the universal service one levied by the Federal Communications Commission.
For years, customers in urban areas have subsidized telephone service in high-cost rural areas through access charges paid by long-distance companies to local exchange carriers. The universal service program allowed basic calling plans to cost about the same anywhere in the nation.
With the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, universal service was expanded to include connections to the Information Superhighway by schools, libraries and rural health-care centers. With the expansion of universal service, all telecommunications carriers were required to pay into the Universal Service Fund. Carriers also were allowed to pass these charges to customers but there is some debate whether the FCC wanted the carriers to separately list these charges.
Long-distance companies, which feel they have to pay twice into the USF, began to list the charges separately. Since access charges are not reflected in the USF payment, long-distance carriers chose to alert customers to the money specifically ear-marked for USF. Payne’s bill apparently would extend this as an obligation to CMRS providers.
Kennard has called for what he calls “truth in billing,” which would reflect payments made into the USF and any reduction in access charges paid by long-distance carriers. Wireless carriers could be included in this legislation, FCC officials have said. This requirement would only help the wireless industry, one FCC official said, noting the wireless industry has a good story to tell about prices going down.
“As competition increases, consumers need a clear understanding so they can shop around. Consumers may not shop around if they can’t understand their bills,” said one FCC official.
CTIA is concerned about truth in billing concepts because they may be technically difficult to comply with, said Berry. “We have one company that has 19,000 taxing entities in its market, how would you list all of that on one bill. It would be 25-pages long,” he said.
