BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | |
| | AB 535 |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 535
Author: Reyes (D)
Amended: 8/17/99 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U.&C. COMMITTEE : 9-0, 7/13/99
AYES: Bowen, Alarcon, Baca, Brulte, Kelley, Peace, Solis,
Speier, Vasconcellos
NOT VOTING: Hughes, Mountjoy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 43-28, 5/20/99 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Telecommunications: services
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires telephone service providers
to provide customers with information about pay-per-use
features and blocking options. The bill provides that
customers are entitled to a one-time waiver of charges for
the inadvertent or unauthorized activation of such
services.
ANALYSIS : Current law subjects telecommunications
corporations to the oversight of the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC).
This bill requires providers of local telephone service who
offer and charge for pay-per-use features that don't
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require an access code for activation to provide new
residential customers with information about those features
and blocking options.
This bill also requires those providers to notify all
existing residential customers about these features and
blocking options by May 1, 2000.
This bill provides that customers are entitled to a
one-time waiver of charges for the inadvertent or
unauthorized activation of those services.
Background
Several of the local telephone companies (i.e. Pacific
Bell, GTE) have begun offering a service known as 3-way
calling. This service permits a customer to conveniently
establish a call between him or herself and two other
parties at different telephone numbers for $0.75, plus the
cost of the calls. Unlike all other telephone services,
activating the 3-way calling service does not require a
subscription (which is required for services like call
waiting) or require the user to dial an access code (i.e.
*89, or 10-10-789) to activate the service. Instead, the
3-way calling service is activated by briefly hanging up
the telephone, dialing a second number, and briefly hanging
up the telephone again. The fact that the service is so
easy to inadvertently activate has led to numerous consumer
complaints about being charged for a service they didn't
use and never intended to activate.
This bill attempts to deal with the problem of inadvertent
activation of the 3-way calling service by forcing
telephone companies to notify customers about the service
and waive the charge for the service the first time it's
inadvertently activated by a customer.
Comments
In an effort to make 3-way calling easy to use, and thereby
earn $0.75 from casual users, telephone companies deviated
from their normal practice of having pay-per-use services
activated only by entering an access code (e.g. to activate
the "call return" service, the caller must enter *69). The
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service is so easy to inadvertently activate that according
to the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA), there have been
hundreds of complaints.
The mistaken activation happens when people make a series
of calls back-to-back and don't hang up the phone for at
least five seconds between calls. (The swell of consumer
complaints may have had some effect - the advertising for
this service has been changed to tell callers about the
five-second hang-up requirement.) As it's difficult to
know if the service has been inadvertently activated, the
only way customers can protect themselves is to either (a)
block the service entirely, or (b) vigilantly examine their
telephone bill each month. By allowing phone companies to
offer 3-way calling in this manner, customers are reminded
that caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, is the operative
phrase for the telephone industry.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/23/99)
California Alliance for Consumer Protection
Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA)
TURN
UCAN
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Alquist, Aroner, Bock, Calderon, Cardenas, Cardoza,
Corbett, Correa, Davis, Ducheny, Dutra, Florez, Gallegos,
Havice, Hertzberg, Honda, Jackson, Keeley, Knox, Kuehl,
Lempert, Lowenthal, Machado, Migden, Nakano, Papan,
Pescetti, Reyes, Romero, Scott, Shelley, Soto, Steinberg,
Strom-Martin, Thomson, Torlakson, Washington, Wayne,
Wesson, Wiggins, Wildman, Wright, Villaraigosa
NOES: Ackerman, Ashburn, Baldwin, Battin, Baugh, Brewer,
Briggs, Cox, Cunneen, Floyd, Frusetta, Granlund, House,
Kaloogian, Leach, Leonard, Maddox, Maldonado, Margett,
McClintock, Olberg, Oller, Robert Pacheco, Rod Pacheco,
Runner, Strickland, Thompson, Zettel
NOT VOTING: Aanestad, Bates, Campbell, Cedillo, Dickerson,
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Firebaugh, Longville, Mazzoni, Vincent
NC:sl 8/24/99 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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