II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1825

To empower telephone consumers, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 28, 1999

Mr. ROCKEFELLER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

A BILL

To empower telephone consumers, and for other purposes.

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 ‘‘Phone Bill Fairness

5 Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSE.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find8 ings:

9 (1) Customer bills for telecommunications serv10 ices are unreasonably complicated, and many Ameri11 cans are unable to understand the nature of services
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1 provided to them and the charges for which they are

2 responsible.

3 (2) One of the purposes of the Telecommuni4 cations Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–104) was to

5 unleash competitive and market forces for tele6 communications services.

7 (3) Unless customers can understand their tele8 communications bills they cannot take advantage of

9 the newly competitive market for telecommunications

10 services.

11 (4) Confusing telecommunications bills allow a

12 small minority of providers of telecommunications

13 services to commit fraud more easily. The best de14 fense against telecommunications fraud is a well in15 formed consumer. Consumers cannot be well in16 formed when their telecommunications bills are in17 comprehensible.

18 (5) Certain providers of telecommunications

19 services have established new, specific charges on

20 customer bills commonly known as ‘‘line-item

21 charges’’.

22 (6) These line-item charges have proliferated

23 and are often described with inaccurate and con24 fusing names.
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1 (7) These line-item charges have generated sig2 nificant confusion among customers regarding the

3 nature and scope of universal service and of the fees

4 associated with universal service.

5 (8) The National Association of Regulatory

6 Utility Commissioners adopted a resolution in Feb7 ruary 1998 supporting action by the Federal Com8 munications Commission to require interstate tele9 communications carriers to provide accurate cus10 tomer notice regarding the implementation and pur11 pose of end-user charges for telecommunications

12 services.

13 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to re14 quire the Federal Communications Commission and the

15 Federal Trade Commission to protect and empower con16 sumers of telecommunications services by assuring that

17 telecommunications bills, including line-item charges,

18 issued by telecommunications carriers nationwide are both

19 accurate and comprehensible.

20 SEC. 3. INVESTIGATION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS CAR21 RIER BILLING PRACTICES.

22 (a) INVESTIGATION.—

23 (1) REQUIREMENT.—The Federal Communica24 tions Commission and the Federal Trade Commis-
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1 sion shall jointly conduct an investigation of the bill2 ing practices of telecommunications carriers.

3 (2) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the investiga4 tion is to determine whether the bills sent by tele5 communications carriers to their customers accu6 rately assess and correctly characterize the services

7 received and fees charged for such services, includ8 ing any fees imposed as line-item charges.

9 (b) DETERMINATIONS.—In carrying out the inves10 tigation under subsection (a), the Federal Communica11 tions Commission and the Federal Trade Commission

12 shall determine the following:

13 (1) The prevalence of incomprehensible or con14 fusing telecommunications bills.

15 (2) The most frequent causes for confusion on

16 telecommunications bills.

17 (3) Whether or not any best practices exist,

18 which, if utilized as an industry standard, would re19 duce confusion and improve comprehension of tele20 communications bills.

21 (4) Whether or not telecommunications bills

22 that impose fees through line-item charges charac23 terize correctly the nature and basis of such fees, in24 cluding, in particular, whether or not such fees are
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1 required by the Federal Government or State gov2 ernments.

3 (c) REVIEW OF RECORDS.—

4 (1) AUTHORITY.—For purposes of the inves5 tigation under subsection (a), the Federal Commu6 nications Commission and the Federal Trade Com7 mission may obtain from any telecommunications

8 carrier any record of such carrier that is relevant to

9 the investigation, including any record supporting

10 such carrier’s basis for setting fee levels or percent11 ages.

12 (2) USE.—The Federal Communications Com13 mission and the Federal Trade Commission may use

14 records obtained under this subsection only for pur15 poses of the investigation.

16 (d) DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS.—

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—If the Federal Communica18 tions Commission or the Federal Trade Commission

19 determines as a result of the investigation under

20 subsection (a) that the bills sent by a telecommuni21 cations carrier to its customers do not accurately as22 sess or correctly characterize any service or fee con23 tained in such bills, the Federal Communications

24 Commission or the Federal Trade Commission, as

25 the case may be, may take such action against such
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1 carrier as such Commission is authorized to take

2 under law.

3 (2) CHARACTERIZATION OF FEES.—If the Fed4 eral Communications Commission or the Federal

5 Trade Commission determines as a result of the in6 vestigation under subsection (a) that a telecommuni7 cations carrier has characterized a fee on bills sent

8 to its customers as mandated or otherwise required

9 by the Federal Government or a State and that such

10 characterization is incorrect, the Federal Commu11 nications Commission or the Federal Trade Commis12 sion, as the case may be, may require the carrier to

13 discontinue such characterization.

14 (3) ADDITIONAL ACTIONS.—If the Federal

15 Communications Commission or the Federal Trade

16 Commission determines that such Commission does

17 not have authority under law to take actions under

18 paragraph (1) that would be appropriate in light of

19 a determination described in paragraph (1), the

20 Federal Communications Commission or the Federal

21 Trade Commission, as the case may be, shall notify

22 Congress of the determination under this paragraph

23 in the report under subsection (e).

24 (e) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date

25 of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Communications
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1 Commission and the Federal Trade Commissions shall

2 jointly submit to Congress a report on the results of the

3 investigation under subsection (a). The report shall in4 clude the determination, if any, of either Commission

5 under subsection (d)(3) and any recommendations for fur6 ther legislative action that such Commissions consider ap7 propriate.

8 SEC. 4. TREATMENT OF MISLEADING TELECOMMUNI9 CATIONS BILLS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

10 RATE PLANS.

11 (a) FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION.—The Federal

12 Trade Commission shall treat any telecommunications bill13 ing practice or telecommunications rate plan that the

14 Commission determines to be intentionally misleading as

15 an unfair business practice under the Federal Trade Com16 mission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.).

17 (b) FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION.—The

18 Federal Communications Commission shall, upon finding

19 that any holder of a license under the Commission has

20 repeatedly and intentionally engaged in a telephone billing

21 practice, or has repeatedly and intentionally utilized a tele22 phone rate plan, that is misleading, treat such holder as

23 acting against the public interest for purposes of the Com24 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.).
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1 SEC. 5. REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL BILLS FOR TELE2 COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.

3 (a) AVERAGE PER MINUTE RATE CALCULATION.—

4 Each telecommunications carrier shall display on the first

5 page of each customer bill for telecommunications services

6 the average per-minute charge of telecommunications serv7 ices of such customer for the billing period covered by such

8 bill.

9 (b) CALLING PATTERNS.—Each telecommunications

10 carrier shall display on the first page of each customer

11 bill for telecommunications services the percentage of the

12 total number of telephone calls of such customer for the

13 billing period covered by such bill as follows:

14 (1) That began on a weekday.

15 (2) That began on a weekend.

16 (3) That began from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

17 (4) That began from 8:01 p.m. to 7:59 a.m.

18 (5) That were billed to a calling card.

19 (c) AVERAGE PER-MINUTE CHARGE DEFINED.—In

20 this section, the term ‘‘average per-minute charge’’, in the

21 case of a bill of a customer for a billing period, means—

22 (1) the sum of—

23 (A) the aggregate amount of monthly or

24 other recurring charges, if any, for tele25 communications services imposed on the cus26 tomer by the bill for the billing period; and
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1 (B) the total amount of all per-minute

2 charges for telecommunications services im3 posed on the customer by the bill for the billing

4 period; divided by

5 (2) the total number of minutes of tele6 communications services provided to the customer

7 during the billing period and covered by the bill.

8 SEC. 6. REQUIREMENTS FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS CAR9 RIERS IMPOSING CERTAIN CHARGES FOR

10 SERVICES.

11 (a) BILLING REQUIREMENTS.—Any telecommuni12 cations carrier shall include on the bills for telecommuni13 cations services sent to its customers the following:

14 (1) An accurate name and description of any

15 covered charge.

16 (2) The recipient or class of recipients of the

17 monies collected through each such charge.

18 (3) A statement whether each such charge is re19 quired by law or collected pursuant to a requirement

20 imposed by a governmental entity under its discre21 tionary authority.

22 (4) A specific explanation of any reduction in

23 charges or fees to customers, and the class of tele24 phone customer that such reduction, that are related

25 to each such charge.
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1 (b) UNIVERSAL SERVICE CONTRIBUTIONS AND RE2 CEIPTS.—Not later than January 31 each year, each tele3 communications carrier required to contribute to universal

4 service during the previous year under section 254(d) of

5 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254(d)) shall

6 submit to the Federal Communications Commission a re7 port on following:

8 (1) The total contributions of the carrier to the

9 universal service fund during the previous year.

10 (2) The total receipts from customers during

11 such year designed to recover contributions to the

12 fund.

13 (c) ACTION ON UNIVERSAL SERVICE CONTRIBUTIONS

14 AND RECEIPTS DATA.—

15 (1) REVIEW.—The Federal Communications

16 Commission shall review the reports submitted to

17 the Commission under subsection (b) in order to de18 termine whether or not the amount of the contribu19 tions of a telecommunications carrier to the uni20 versal service fund in any year is equal to the

21 amount of the receipts of the telecommunications

22 carrier from its customers in such year for purposes

23 of contributions to the fund.

24 (2) ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS.—If the Com25 mission determines as a result of a review under
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1 paragraph (1) that the amount of the receipts of a

2 telecommunications carrier from its customers in a

3 year for purposes of contributions to the universal

4 service fund exceeded the amount contributed by the

5 carrier in such year to the fund, the Commission

6 shall have the authority to require the carrier to de7 posit in the fund an amount equal to the amount of

8 such excess.

9 (d) COVERED CHARGES.—For purposes of subsection

10 (a), a covered charge shall include any charge on a bill

11 for telecommunications services that is separate from a

12 per-minute rate charge, including a universal service

13 charge, a subscriber line charge, and a presubscribed

14 interexchange carrier charge.

15 SEC. 7. TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER DEFINED.

16 In this Act, the term ‘‘telecommunications carrier’’

17 has the meaning given that term in section 3(44) of the

18 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153(44)).

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