BILL ANALYSIS
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 870
Author: Wesson (D), et al
Amended: 9/4/01 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U.&C. COMMITTEE : 8-0, 6/26/01
AYES: Bowen, Morrow, Alarcon, Murray, Sher, Speier,
Vasconcellos, Vincent
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 71-2, 5/24/01 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Public utilities: automatic calling equipment
SOURCE : Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
The Utility Reform Network
Utility Consumer Action Network
DIGEST : This bill prohibits use of certain types of
automatic calling devices capable of storing and calling
random numbers under certain circumstances.
Senate Floor Amendments of 9/4/01 correct a grammatical
error in the bill.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/28/01 correct a technical
error in the bill by removing a reference to pre-recorded
messages which could be interpreted to contradict a
prohibition in current law.
CONTINUED
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ANALYSIS : Current law prohibits, with specified
exemptions, the use of automatic dialing-announcing devices
(e.g., automated dialers broadcasting pre-recorded
announcements) between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m.
Current law requires when such devices are used, the person
receiving the call must be greeted by a live operator who
must ask whether the called party will give his or her
consent to hear the pre-recorded announcement.
This bill prohibits, effective July 1, 2002, any person or
company operating an automatic dialing-announcing device
from making telephone connections where no live person is
available to greet the person called.
This bill authorizes the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) to establish, by July 2002, an acceptable
error rate, if any, for telephone connections made in
violation of the bill.
This bill authorizes the CPUC to require a person or
company operating an automatic dialing device to maintain
records of telephone connections made for which no live
person was available to greet the person called.
Background
An "abandoned telephone call" is a phenomenon that occurs
when computers dial telephone calls quicker than the live
operators can pick them up in order to comply with the law
requiring phone call recipients to be greeted by a live
voice. Such calls are the consequence of "predictive
dialers," a form of automated dialing where a computer
dials telephone numbers from a database while telemarketers
talk with other potential customers. Predictive dialers
dial based on a statistical average of how long the average
telemarketer conversation will last and the likelihood a
person will answer his or her telephone. Because the
system is based on a "statistical average," inevitably some
called parties are greeted by silence.
Telemarketing has long been the subject of legislation and
is often associated with solicitations for long-distance
telephone service. In recent years, a number of bills have
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been introduced in the Legislature to limit telemarketing,
but none of them have been successful -- with the exception
of a "do-not-call" list for the solicitation of electric
service (SB 477 [Peace], Chapter 275, Statutes of 1997).
Current federal law generally conditions the use of
automatic dialing-announcing devices in ways similar to
California law. In addition, federal law gives consumers
the right to tell individual telemarketers who call to put
them on the company's "do not call" list, which every
company is required to maintain by law. However, that
option is of no help to people who receive calls which have
been abandoned by automatic dialing devices before a person
has a chance to ask to be placed on a "do not call" list.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/28/01)
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (co-source)
The Utility Reform Network (co-source)
Utility Consumer Action Network (co-source)
American Association of Retired Persons, California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : This bill eliminates a
particularly obnoxious and abusive practice in the
telemarketing industry. Most consumers are unaware that
"hang-up" calls are in fact computer-generated predictive
dialers in which the computer has connected with a phone
but there are no people at the other end.
These calls are at minimum a nuisance and an invasion of
privacy. Worse, they bring an element of fear to
vulnerable people who may think that someone is casing
their house for criminal activity, and calling to see if
someone is home, or otherwise hanging up because the wrong
person answers. We have heard from many consumers who are
concerned about these hang-up calls.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR
AYES: Aanestad, Alquist, Aroner, Ashburn, Bates, Bogh,
Calderon, Bill Campbell, John Campbell, Canciamilla,
Cardenas, Cardoza, Cedillo, Chan, Chavez, Chu, Cohn,
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Correa, Cox, Daucher, Diaz, Dickerson, Dutra, Firebaugh,
Frommer, Goldberg, Havice, Horton, Jackson, Keeley,
Kehoe, Kelley, Koretz, La Suer, Leach, Leslie, Liu,
Longville, Lowenthal, Maddox, Maldonado, Matthews,
Migden, Mountjoy, Nakano, Nation, Negrete McLeod,
Oropeza, Robert Pacheco, Papan, Pavley, Pescetti, Reyes,
Richman, Runner, Salinas, Shelley, Simitian, Steinberg,
Strickland, Strom-Martin, Thomson, Vargas, Washington,
Wayne, Wesson, Wiggins, Wright, Wyman, Zettel, Hertzberg
NOES: Briggs, Rod Pacheco
NC:kb 9/4/01 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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