TRACNotes

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• A Telecommunications Consumer Wish List for Bush's Second Term
• AT&T Charging $2 For Extra 20 Minutes
• SMSLocal An Interesting Alternative to Wireless 411

WASHINGTON WATCH

A Telecommunications Consumer Wish List for Bush's Second Term - With President Bush taking the oath of office for a second time this week and FCC Chairman Michael Powell announcing his resignation, we here at TRAC thought that this week would be a perfect time to make a telecommunications consumer wish list for the next four years. In the President's next term, we would like to see the Administration and the FCC:

• Support a Broadband Policy - Most American's don't have access to truly high speed internet. Other parts of the world are leapfrogging America by deploying fiber optic level technology. The FCC needs to adopt policies that give true incentives for the ubiquitous deployment of high speed technologies.
• Protect Consumers not Competitors: The FCC needs to focus on creating consumer protections, not competitor protections. Too much energy is wasted in inter-industry battles, while consumer abuses and rip-offs go unaddressed. Competitors will take care of themselves. Consumers need good information and enforceable rights to ensure that they are not ripped off. Among these protections, the FCC should:
  1. Promote better rate disclosures: The FCC should require all carriers - local, long distance, wireline, and wireless -- to have full and easy to understand disclosure of rates and terms of service. These should be readily available on the Internet, and organized in a way that "Google" type searches and questions can pull up relevant information.
  2. Advertise the real cost - Telecommunications providers must be able to recoup the costs of complying with government regulations. However, they shouldn't be allowed to do it "under the table" through various add-on fees, taxes, and surcharges. Currently, these additional costs can make up fifteen percent or more of the typical consumer's monthly telephone bill. These fees should be incorporated into the cost that is advertised to consumers so that they can make an informed buying decision.
  3. Outlaw cell phone locking - Consumers shouldn't be forced to buy a new wireless phone every time they switch carriers. While the advent of wireless number portability gave consumers new freedom to shop around for the best deal on wireless service, being forced to spend money on a new wireless phone is a de facto barrier to true competition in the industry.
  4. Enact sensible VoIP policies - Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is the new wave in telecommunications technology and should not be subject to the same regulations that have been built into the legacy telephone network over the past one hundred years. However, safeguarding consumer protections such as redundant power, true 9-1-1 access, and universal service should be at the top of the list of priorities for regulators.

BUCKS WATCH

AT&T Charging $2 For Extra 20 Minutes - AT&T is continuing to make life more costly for their long distance subscribers. Effective February 1, 2005, subscribers on the AT&T One Rate Savings plan will see their monthly recurring charge increase by two dollars from $12 to $14. This plan currently includes 120 minutes per month of state-to-state and in-state long distance calling. AT&T will be increasing to 140 minutes per month to coincide with the increase in the monthly service charge. While these extra minutes are nice, consumers who don't use their full monthly allotment of minutes will, in effect, be paying more per month for their long distance service. For more information on this fee increase, click hereⁱ.

WIRELESS WATCH

SMSLocal - An Interesting Alternative to Wireless 411 - A new service is available for wireless consumers who are on the go and need directory assistance quickly. It's called SMSLocal and it combines the ease of SMS text messaging with traditional directory assistance. Users of the service type a search term such as "parking near Central Park" into their text-messaging enabled wireless phone and send it to SMS shortcode L-O-C-A-L (56225). The service automatically searches for the information and sends it back in a reply text message. The service is free to use and the only charges incurred are the fees associated with sending and receiving a text message (typically around 10¢ per message sent or received). With traditional wireless 411 service costing anywhere from $1.25 to $1.40 per call with the major carriers, SMSLocal promises to be a bargain. A note of caution: SMSLocal is still in its beta testing phase, so they are still ironing out glitches. For example a quick search for "sushi near Arlington" turned up two sushi restaurants fifteen miles away in Fairfax, Virginia. Additionally, SMSLocal is currently only configured to work for customers of the Verizon Wireless and Nextel networks, though the company promises that other networks will soon be added. Until they get the kinks worked out, we would suggest that consumers consult the old-fashioned Yellow Pages or an online directory instead of using SMSLocal. That said, the service is an exciting new development for consumers and may one day soon provide a cheap alternative to wireless 411. For more information on SMSLocal, click hereⁱⁱ .

INTERESTING LINKS

FCC Main Page: http://www.fcc.gov

FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm

List of State Regulatory Commissions: http://www.naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=15

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©2004 Telecommunications Research and Action Center. TRAC grants unlimited rights to reproduce TRACNotes or any information contained in it provided attribution is given as follows: "Source: Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org"

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