The FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs (CGA) Bureau has made sig...

complaints, a 750% increase over the previous year. He said 36 states now had enforced slamming rules, “a great example” of how states deal with slamming. However, Snowden said complaint activity within the top categories as a group rose in the 3rd quarter, spurred by sharp increases in Wireless and Wireline complaints. He said the Bureau released a “Report of Informal Consumer Inquiries and Complaints” for the 3rd quarter showing that wireless complaints increased 52.5%, and wireline complaints 28.2%. Snowden stressed that complaints didn’t necessarily indicate wrongdoing by a company as the FCC received many informal complaints that didn’t involve violations of the Communications Act or Commission rules. He said the rise in complaints could be partly explained by the increased number of subscribers. The report said billing and rate complaints accounted for more than half of the rises in the Wireless and Wireline categories, and subcategories were expanded to enhance coverage of evolving trends. The Bureau said increases in contract issues, such as early termination and service quality complaints, also contributed to the rise in wireless complaints, while the increase in slamming and TCPA (Telecom Consumer Protection Act) complaints pushed wireline complaints higher. The Bureau said composite inquiry activity was marginally higher due mainly to rises in wireless, radio and broadcast inquiries, which increased 301.8% and 9.7%, respectively. It said 4 new categories -- electrical interference, amateur license, land mobile license and general mobile radio service license -- made the top wireless categories for the first time and accounted for the huge increase in wireless problems. Composite wireline inquiries were virtually unchanged from last quarter despite a 15.7% drop in inquiries related to TCPA. Complaints within the cable and radio and TV broadcasting categories remained “relatively modest” in the 3rd quarter, the FCC said. However, there was a twenty-fold increase in radio and broadcast disability complaints, which the agency attributed to an organized campaign to protest an alleged lack of closed-captioning during a flooding emergency in San Antonio in late July 2002. The FCC said that caused radio and broadcast complaints to more than double, despite a decline in indecency and obscenity complaints. Cable complaints rose 61%, “but on very light volume,” the FCC said. Also in the broadcasting category, the Commission received a number of inquiries on a rumor that the self-proclaimed atheist Madalyn O'Hair had proposed the FCC consider limiting or banning religious programming. The FCC said that was only a rumor. O'Hair and her son were murdered some years ago. For the quarter, there were a total of 369 complaints on radio and TV, 245 of them on disability issues and 93 on indecency and obscenity. For cable, there were a total 56 complaints, 25 of them on disability issues.