FCC concluded certain wireless carrier practices, such as chargin...
FCC concluded certain wireless carrier practices, such as charging customers for dead time and for unanswered or unconnected calls, weren’t per se unjust or unreasonable under Sec. 201 of Communications Act. Commission responded to petition for declaratory ruling filed…
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by plaintiffs in class action complaint against GTE. At issue were practices of: (1) Charging customer for dead time, which includes “noncommunication” air time such as after party has ended call but before subscriber pushes “end” button. (2) Charging for unanswered or unconnected calls. (3) Measuring time of call from time “send” button is pushed. (4) Rounding up charges to next min. Class action suit in U.S. Dist. Court, Tampa, had charged violation of Fla. Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Court referred billing practice complaints to FCC for declaratory ruling and stayed rest of proceedings until Commission could act. While FCC denied plaintiff’s petition Fri., it didn’t rule out possibility that in certain cases “in the context of the related contractual services and marketing practices of the CMRS [Commercial Mobile Radio Service] provider, these practices may be found to be in violation of Section 201.” FCC agreed with carriers that charging “for the time a network is engaged but no actual conversation occurs is related to the costs associated with the network functions that occur even if a call is not completed.” Such costs can include those related to setting up trunk or interconnecting with LEC, order said. Agency acknowledged wireline carriers didn’t charge for unconnected calls when line was busy or unanswered nor for call setup time. For wireless service, on other hand, charges typically start from moment that “send” button is pressed. Commission said: “It appears that in this instance, a competitive, deregulated market has enabled carriers to adopt different types of services and billing practices.” In competitive market, consumers can factor in different practices carriers use for when call begins to make service decisions, it said. FCC said it already had found that practice of rounding up rates to next min. for completed calls was not per se unjust or unreasonable. Complaints against GTE, now part of Verizon Wireless, didn’t provide details that indicated rounding-up practices at issue were unjust or unreasonable, it said.