CPUC throws carriers for a curve

The CPUC is pitching a set of wireless-industry regulations and Verizon is crying foul

In baseball, it’s called a donnybrook; an all-out fight where both teams empty the benches and pour onto the field. That’s what the fight over proposed regulations for the wireless industry by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is shaping up to be.

In baseball, it usually starts with a bean ball that comes a little too close to be a simple brush-back. It’s more like the pitcher aiming at the batter. Well, to hear Verizon tell it, the CPUC is aiming, if not for the head, certainly for the heart of Verizon’s business with rules that will knock the company out of the box. In other words, the rules will make it impossible for wireless carriers to conduct a profitable business in California and, if state PUCs across the country catch wireless-regulation fever, throughout the United States.

Among the 15 proposed rules, Michael Bagley, director of public policy for the west area at Verizon, finds a few requirements particularly onerous.

According to Bagley, one of the regulations — although for the life of me, after reading all 15, I couldn’t figure out which one — would require that every advertisement contain full disclosure of setup charges, fees, limitations, and so forth.

“We can’t put all the information they will require into a 20-second radio or TV spot,” Bagley said.

Objectionable rule No. 2: All marketing solicitations — that means print ads — must be printed in the equivalent of 10-point type. This column is in 9-point. Bagley says that’s the equivalent of telling Pepsi or Coke that their cans of soda must be in a certain color.

Finally, there are two requirements about contractual obligations for the customer that really have Bagley concerned. One says verbal contracts are not binding. This means that if a customer calls his or her provider and asks to add or change a service, the verbal agreement is not binding. Instead, the carrier will have to provide the customer with a new contract, about 60 pages long, according to Bagley. Then the customer will have to get it back to the service provider. A real pain to both parties and costly to process.

The second requirement says that if a customer does not initial every part of a contract, it is not binding. So if a customer signs up for a one-year or two-year service agreement in order to get a cell phone for practically nothing, then changes his or mind and drops the service completely, the carrier is left eating the cost of a handset it likely subsidized.

I also spoke with the commissioner of the CPUC, Carl Wood. He sees it a little differently. “What’s at stake is the ability of the state to protect consumers, not the ability of this industry to function profitably. That is not at stake,” Wood said.

Go to www.cpuc.ca.gov to learn more.

Good bye Wireless World, hello Reality Check

In order for me to broaden my myopic wireless vision and to see new horizons, starting April 28, my column will be renamed Reality Check. For more details about what’s happening with InfoWorld, read Kevin McKean’sAbove the Noise.