DEREGULATION, ONLINE PORN AMONG 2004'S STATE LEGISLATIVE ISSUES

Verizon in Va. is drafting telecom deregulation legislation for the 2004 legislature that would: (1) Allow basic dial-tone rates to rise 10% annually and deregulate rates for all other telecom services. (2) Allow carriers to introduce, delete and bundle services as market conditions dictated, without regulatory approval. (3) Require parity for all Va. telecom carriers in other regulation such as consumer protection and dispute resolution rules. Verizon said the increasing competition in all segments of the telecom market required that all carriers be on an equal regulatory footing. It cited FCC statistics that 640,000 of the 4 million Va. access lines (16%) were served by competitive carriers. Verizon said competitors such as wireless carriers and VoIP providers weren’t state regulated. But William Irby, dir. of the Va. Corporation Commission’s Telecom Div., said the legislation was unnecessary because Verizon already had the legal right to petition for deregulation of competitive services.

Minn. Attorney Gen. Mike Hatch (D.) and Democratic legislative leaders are planning a bill to curtail cramming by 3rd-party providers. Current laws require explicit customer authorization before telecom providers add nontelecom services to bills, but those laws don’t apply to 3rd parties that bill through carriers. Hatch said cramming by 3rd-party providers of Internet and other services had been increasing and it was time to close the loophole. The legislation would require written or verified oral customer authorization before any 3rd-party could put its charges on a user’s telephone bill. In another consumer protection effort, Hatch is proposing a bill that would require that long distance carriers cancel presubscription arrangements with local telcos when a customer cancelled the long distance service. Currently, customers are responsible for notifying their local exchange provider to cancel presubscription.

A telemarketing bill in the N.J. Assembly (AB-3971) would require that telemarketers obtain explicit written consent from people whose numbers were on the state no-call list before they could contact them for marketing purposes. The bill would close a loophole in the no-call law being exploited by solicitors that sent unrelated surveys to customers that had language in fine print saying that by responding to the survey the customer was giving consent to be contacted by telemarketers. The bill would require that any such consent language be displayed prominently and require a separate signature.

A 911 bill in S.C. would reauthorize the CMRS Emergency Telephone Services Advisory Committee for 3 years, through 2007, and would remove the 2-term limit on appointees to that agency, which advises localities on wireless E911 matters. In N.J., the legislature passed another bill (AB-3390) to establish a 15-member Public Safety Interoperable Communications Council to develop a plan for coordinating wireless public safety communications among state and local agencies that would address interoperability and technical issues.

A bill in N.H. (HB-1221) would call for creation of a 6- member legislative committee to study reform or repeal of the state universal service program. The panel would include 3 appointed members from each legislative chamber and would report its findings and recommendations by Nov. 1, 2004. Another N.H. bill (HB-1230) would direct the N.H. PUC to establish rules for designating “public interest” payphones necessary for the public’s safety and welfare. The bill would create a special state fund, from abandoned deposits held by telecom carriers, to subsidize providers of those public interest payphones.

An S.C. competition bill (HB-4473) would give the PSC 120 days to resolve complaints by service providers on anticompetitive pricing that would bar a carrier from entering a market or would drive a carrier out. The bill also would bar the PSC from imposing any regulations on service bundles that weren’t placed on the individual services.

A prefiled Ark. bill (HB-1036) would authorize the state Education Dept. to develop a grant program to help K-12 schools acquire equipment and telecom services for distance learning programs. The grants would be intended to supplement funds from the federal E-rate discount program but wouldn’t be tied to receipt of E-rate subsidies.

A new Pa. online porn bill (HB-2262) would require schools and libraries to develop policies and methods for preventing any person from using their computers and communications links for sending, receiving or viewing pornographic material. They also would have to install blocking software or subscribe to an ISP that would block access to pornographic content. Libraries that didn’t conform could lose their state funding. An online porn bill in N.J. (AB-3964) would require ISPs to remove obscene and defamatory materials posted to host sites by their customers if users complained. ISPs also would be required to develop and publish their policies on removal of objectionable materials.