BILL ANALYSIS
AB 870
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Date of Hearing: April 16, 2001
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Roderick D. Wright, Chair
AB 870 (Wesson) - As Introduced: February 22, 2001
SUBJECT : Public utilities: automatic calling equipment.
SUMMARY : This measure prohibits use of certain types of
automatic calling devices for specified unsolicited
telemarketing purposes. Specifically, this bill : prohibits the
use of automatic calling devices which are capable of
sequentially or randomly calling telephone numbers with no
person or prerecorded message available for the person called.
EXISTING LAW authorizes the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) to control or regulate the use of automatic
calling devices and specifies the hours during which the devices
may not be operated.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : This measure addresses the proliferation in automatic
calling devices as means of effecting unsolicited and intrusive
telemarketing calls. AB 870 acknowledges that there is a need
to balance individual privacy and public safety concerns with
commercial free speech rights. Thus, this measure very narrowly
addresses the portion of these calls which are abandoned, or
which result in no person or prerecorded message being available
to the called party. This measure notes that consumer outrage
extends beyond abandoned calls.
A similar measure was introduced in 2000 by Assemblymember
Wesson, but the earlier bill, AB 2721, included a prohibition
against unsolicited prerecorded calls with no live person on the
line. AB 870 restricts use of sequential or random dialing that
results in abandoned calls. The measure allows CPUC to require
person operating automatic dialing announcing devices to
maintain records of telephone connections made for which no
person or recorded message was available to the called party.
This measure also allows CPUC to establish an acceptable error
rate for such dialing devices.
Prerecorded Sales Calls and Automatic Dialing/Announcing
Devices:
AB 870
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For those individuals whose evenings, weekends and other free
time is increasingly interrupted by the nuisance of a call with
no person on the other end but instead some recorded speech
about some product or service, this measure may not go far
enough. Individuals prize their privacy and many express
growing outrage over the use of recorded devices by some company
not even willing to invest in live people to sell its products
or services. Recently a record number of customers of a
particular local phone company have expressed outrage that not
only are they called by recorded devices, but when they call
another person and the line is busy, they get an unsolicited
recorded message advising them about purchasing a product which
can try to complete the call for them until the line is free.
Given the difficulties experienced with AB 2721 last session, it
appears it is extremely difficult to restrict the proliferation
of unsolicited commercial speech transiting the public switched
telephone network. Oddly, though the privacy and safety issues
of someone knocking at your door are more acute than of someone
calling into your home, each such instance involves the personal
right to privacy and the right not to be disturbed. Individuals
hang "no solicitors" signs on their doors and much unwanted
commercial foot trade is avoided. Technology provides us with
devices to selectively block incoming calls into our homes, to
keep calls out which are unidentified, and to make all sorts of
complicated connections with other phones and multiple phones at
once. Ironically, no telephone company has presented a service
that allows customers to filter out unsolicited sales calls,
prerecorded messages or other such marketing ploys. The trusted
answering machine, volume turned up, seems to be the weapon of
last resort to screen out this type of nuisance. Such a process
is of little comfort when waiting on an important call, running
from the shower across a hallway full of sharp children's toys,
and picking up the phone to dead air because an announcement
device didn't operate properly. More than that, answering
machines can't prevent these phantom calls from arriving over
and over again.
Staff recommends:
At the very minimum, a prohibition against use of devices which
end up abandoning a number of calls can be effected through this
measure. There is no commercial speech involved in any such
abandoned call, and so it is only the privacy of the individual
AB 870
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called which is impacted. There is no argument to be
successfully made for the need for abandoned calls, and no
company's sales or free speech are impeded if such calls are
prohibited. This measure will eliminate one of the most
avoidable annoyances presented by unsolicited telemarketing.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
The Utility Reform Network
Utility Consumer Action Network
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Kelly Boyd / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083