BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    1
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   SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
                  DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN


AB 617 -  Campbell                                Hearing  
Date:  June 22, 1999                 A
As Amended: June 16 , 1999              FISCAL           B
                                                             
  
                                                             
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                         DESCRIPTION
  
  Current law  shields local and long distance telephone  
companies and radiotelephone utilities from any civil  
action resulting from their "good faith" compliance with  
terms of a state or federal court warrant, order, or  
subpoena.

  This bill  replaces the term "radiotelephone utility" with  
the term "commercial mobile radio service provider,"  
effectively extending the shield provisions to the new  
wireless telephone service providers such as Sprint  
Personal Communications Service (PCS) and Pacific Bell PCS.

                          BACKGROUND
  
Since 1994, California law has shielded most  
telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits if they  
disclose customer information in good faith compliance with  
a court warrant or order or administrative subpoena issued  
at the request of a law enforcement official or other  
federal, state, or local governmental agency for law  
enforcement purposes.  The protection was extended to  
exempt the industry from certain privacy laws requiring  
companies to keep individual customer information  
confidential 












The term "radiotelephone utility" has been replaced in  
federal law by "commercial mobile service provider."  This  
term has always included paging services and now also  
encompasses the new wireless technology known as Personal  
Communications Service (PCS), which is marketed by Sprint  
and Pacific Bell as a competitor to cellular telephone  
service.

                           COMMENTS

Leveling That Playing Field  .  This bill updates existing  
statute to re-include paging service and to include - for  
the first time - PCS service under the definition of  
"commercial mobile service provider."    Since PCS service  
providers compete directly  with traditional cellular  
telephone service providers that enjoy the limited  
protection against civil lawsuits, it arguably makes sense  
to extend that protection to PCS providers so the two will  
enjoy identical protections and compete - as they say - on  
a level playing field.

                        ASSEMBLY VOTES
  
Assembly U&C Committee             (11-0)
Assembly Appropriations Committee  (21-0)
Assembly Floor                     (76-0)

                          POSITIONS
  
  Support:
  Allied Personal Communications Industries Association of  
California (Sponsor).
GTE California Inc.
Office of Ratepayer Advocates

  Oppose:
  None reported to Committee.


Randy Chinn 
AB 617 Analysis
Hearing Date:  June 22, 1999