BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 870
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 16, 2001

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                              Carole Migden, Chairwoman

                    AB 870 (Wesson) - As Amended:  April 19, 2001 

          Policy Committee:                               
          UtilitiesVote:17-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill:  

          1)Prohibits, effective July 2002, the use of automatic calling  
            devices, which are capable of sequentially or randomly calling  
            telephone numbers, from making telephone connections where no  
            person or prerecorded message is available for the person  
            called. 

          2)Authorizes the PUC to require persons operating the automatic  
            dialing devices to maintain records of such connections. 

          3)Authorizes the PUC to establish, by July 2002, an acceptable  
            error rate for connections made in violation of this measure. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Minor absorbable special fund costs to the PUC to establish  
            the error rate and maintain records. 

          2)Potential absorbable costs, offset by fine revenue, to the PUC  
            and/or the Attorney General for enforcement.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  .  According to the author, this bill seeks to address  
            a growing problem in the telemarketing field relating to the  
            use of predictive dialers, in which a computer dials phone  
            numbers from a database while telemarketers converse with  
            potential customers.  Predictive dialers reach more people  
            than telemarketers actually speak with in order to reduce  








                                                                  AB 870
                                                                  Page  2

            telemarketer down time.  Sometimes the connection is made and  
            the telemarketer is not yet available, so when an individual  
            answers the telephone, there is no one on the other end.  This  
            bill prohibits this effective July 2, 2001, unless it is  
            within an acceptable error rate that the PUC may establish by  
            that time.  

           2)Prior Legislation  .  Last year, AB 2721 (Wesson), which  
            included the provisions of this bill, failed on the Senate  
            floor.  AB 2721 also included a provision regulating the use  
            of automatic dialing-announcing devices, which is not in AB  
            870.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)319-2081