The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners wrot...
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners wrote late last week to various stakeholders inviting their “insights and ideas” on national wireless consumer protection standards that it plans to ask Congress to approve when they are finished. The letter…
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included an online survey to be answered after interested groups consulted with their members. In July, NARUC approved a resolution asking Congress to create a state- federal task force on national consumer protection standards. NARUC decided the task force should include five state regulators, three members of the FCC, a representative of the State Attorneys General, a consumer advocate and an industry official. Vermont Commissioner John Burke, chairman of the NARUC ad hoc committee developing the standards, told us Friday the group will propose a “fairly high-level set of standards” once it confers with stakeholders. NARUC hopes to address industry concerns about a “patchwork” of state regulations on wireless standards, Burke said. But he’s not sure the extent to which wireless carriers will back NARUC’s efforts. One question, Burke said, is carriers’ comfort with NARUC’s decision that each state must choose how to enforce the standards, rather than putting state attorneys general in charge in each case. “I don’t know whether they're happy or not,” he said. “I haven’t gotten any pushback and there’s a direct outreach to them.” State commissioners will take their finished proposal to Congress, Burke said. “Congress has to look at this and decide it wants to implement such a plan.”