I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1642

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to monitor complaints regarding the quality of 

wireless telephone service. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 3, 2003

Mr. WEINER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the 

Federal Communications Commission to monitor complaints regarding the quality of wireless telephone service.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cell Phone Service Dis5 closure Act of 2003’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) wireless telephone use in the United States 

2 has expanded dramatically in recent years; 

3 (2) numerous consumer complaints regarding 

4 wireless telephone service describe communities 

5 plagued by dead spots in such service, frequent pre6 mature termination of calls, and calls that do not go 

7 through because of overcrowding of the service fre8 quencies; 

9 (3) no single Federal, State, or local agency is 

10 required by law to compile complaints regarding 

11 wireless telephone service; and 

12 (4) currently no measurement exists of accept13 able wireless telephone service. 

14 SEC. 3. MONITORING OF COMPLAINTS REGARDING QUAL15 ITY OF COMMERCIAL MOBILE SERVICE. 

16 Section 332(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 

17 (47 U.S.C. 332) is amended by adding at the end the fol18 lowing new paragraph: 

19 ‘‘(9) QUALITY OF COMMERCIAL MOBILE SERV20 ICES.—

21 ‘‘(A) COMPLAINT SYSTEM.—The Commis22 sion shall, by regulation, establish, and shall ad23 minister, a system that makes available a proce24 dure for any subscriber of any commercial mo25 bile service to register a complaint with the 
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1 Commission regarding the quality or perform2 ance of such service regarding connection, re3 ception, billing practices, and such other as4 pects of service as the Commission considers 

5 appropriate. 

6 ‘‘(B) TOLL-FREE NUMBER.—Such system 

7 shall include establishment of a toll-free number 

8 applicable to commercial mobile services for re9 porting a complaint. The Commission and any 

10 agency or entity to which the Commission has 

11 delegated authority under section 251(e) shall 

12 designate ‘#FCC’ as such number and shall 

13 provide appropriate transition periods for areas 

14 in which such number is otherwise in use as of 

15 the date of the enactment of the Cell Phone 

16 Service Disclosure Act of 2003. 

17 ‘‘(C) RECORDS.—The Commission shall 

18 maintain a record of each complaint made 

19 under the system established pursuant to this 

20 paragraph. 

21 ‘‘(D) NOTICE.—The Commission shall re22 quire each provider of commercial mobile serv23 ice (or the billing agent for such provider) to in24 clude, in each subscriber’s bill for such service, 

25 a statement informing the subscriber that a 
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1 complaint regarding the quality or performance 

2 of the service may be registered with the Com3 mission and providing the toll-free number 

4 under subparagraph (B) and an address for 

5 mailing a complaint. The Commission shall take 

6 such other actions as may be appropriate to 

7 publicize the availability of the complaint sys8 tem to subscribers of commercial mobile serv9 ices. 

10 ‘‘(E) REPORTING OF COMPLAINTS TO CON11 GRESS.—Not less often than once every 6 

12 months, the Commission shall submit a report 

13 to the Congress regarding complaints received 

14 under the complaint system required under this 

15 paragraph, which shall indicate, for each metro16 politan statistical area and such other areas 

17 (not included within a metropolitan statistical 

18 area) as the Commission considers appro19 priate—

20 ‘‘(i) the number of complaints re21 ceived, during the period for which the re22 port is made, regarding each provider of a 

23 commercial mobile service for which a com24 plaint is made; and 
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1 ‘‘(ii) for each such provider, the num2 ber of each type of complaint received dur3 ing such period, which shall include com4 plaints regarding dead spots, dropped calls, 

5 network busy signals, and improper billing 

6 practices. 

7 Upon submission to the Congress of each report 

8 under this subparagraph, the Commission shall 

9 make such report publicly available by providing 

10 access to the report through a World Wide Web 

11 site of the Commission.’’. 

12 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE AND REGULATIONS. 

13 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

14 section 3 shall take effect upon the expiration of the 6-

15 month period beginning on the date of the enactment of 

16 this Act. 

17 (b) REGULATIONS.—The Commission shall prescribe 

18 such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the 

19 amendment made by section 3. Such regulations shall be 

20 issued not later than, and shall take effect upon, the effec21 tive date under subsection (a).

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