To: Editors, News Directors	Date: January 31, 2005
For: Immediate Release

Commissioners and Attorney General Endorse
Truth in Billing Legislation

Call on Legislators to Pass SB 1213 and HB 2468

PHOENIX – Declaring that phone customers deserve “Truth in Billing,” Corporation Commission Chairman Jeff Hatch-Miller and fellow Commissioners Marc Spitzer and Kris Mayes today called on the legislature to support Senate Bill 1213 and House Bill 2468.  Attorney General Terry Goddard and bill sponsors Senators Gabrielle Giffords and John Huppenthal joined in today’s bipartisan call for better consumer protections.

Both bills seek to amend language so the Arizona Corporation Commission will have authority to resolve complaints about wireless telephone service.

“We aim to give wireless phone customers the same consumer protections currently available to customers of wireline companies,” Chairman Hatch-Miller said.  “It is our hope that Arizona legislators will hear the pleas of phone customers who want – and deserve – fairness and truth in billing, regardless of whether there is a copper wire connected to their phone.”

“If a customer has a problem with their household phone service, our Consumer Services staff is there to help resolve the problem or explain the situation,” Commissioner Spitzer said.  “What do we do when a wireless customer calls with a problem?  Now we have to send them to Washington, to the Federal Communications Commission.”

“Arizona residents want basic consumer protections against unauthorized billing or unauthorized charges,” Commissioner Kris Mayes said.  “And they want freedom from the hassle of having to resolve their complaints with some distant office in Washington.”

This legislation would allow the Arizona Corporation Commission to establish rules protecting consumers from having their wireless provider changed or having unwanted services added to their bills without their knowledge.  The same provisions already apply to traditional wireline companies like Qwest, Frontier Communications, Cox Communications and others.

Statement from Commissioner Bill Mundell
(Mundell could not attend the press conference due to illness.)

“We have a trained and capable staff that has helped countless wireline customers.  We’ve held comment sessions in Mesa, Sun City, Bisbee, Willcox, Sierra Vista, Prescott and other locations – we’ve heard phone customers demanding Truth in Billing legislation,” Commissioner Mundell said.