HR 971 CDS
101st CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 971
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 26 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 18), 1989
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation
October 1 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 10), 1990
Committee discharged
AN ACT
To require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe rules to
protect consumers from unfair practices in the provision of operator services,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,

089ab0b790900173308f6be5ee4af4ab800863e315c327fef36460eec0c02d9f

This Act may be cited as the `Telephone Operator Service Consumer Protection
Act of 1989'.

70e73233e31fb17373859d39826b7262142893822f2c04dda92415930ab2965f

The Congress hereby finds that--
(1) the divestiture of AT&T and decisions allowing open entry for competitors
in the telephone marketplace produced a variety of new services and many
new providers of existing telephone services;
(2) the growth of competition in the telecommunications market makes it
essential to ensure that safeguards are in place to assure fairness for
consumers and service providers alike;
(3) a variety of providers of operator services now compete to win
contracts to provide operator services to hotels, hospitals, airports,
and other aggregators of telephone business from consumers;
(4) the mere existence of a variety of service providers in the operator
services marketplace is significant in making that market competitive
only when consumers are able to make informed choices from among those
service providers;
(5) however, often customers have no choices in selecting a provider
of operator services, and often customers' attempts to reach their
preferred long distance carrier by a telephone billing card, credit card,
or prearranged access code number are blocked;
(6) a number of State regulatory authorities have taken action to protect
consumers using intrastate operator services;
(7) from January 1988 through February 1989, the Federal Communications
Commission received over 2,000 consumer complaints about operator services;
(8) these consumers have complained that they are denied access to the
interexchange carrier of their choice, that they are deceived about the
identity of the company servicing their calls and the rates being charged,
that they lack information on what they can do to complain about unfair
treatment by an operator service provider, and that they are, accordingly,
being deprived of the free choice essential to the operation of a competitive
market; and
(9) a combination of industry self-regulation and government regulation
is required to ensure that competitive operator services are provided in
a fair and reasonable manner.

f74aa780126fa061027ff5d6bbf66767bf13516bdec8d819048d1a4e6f8938fd

(a) INITIATION OF PROCEEDINGS- The Commission shall, within 30 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act, initiate a proceeding pursuant
to title II of the Act to establish regulations to protect consumers who
use operator services to place interstate telephone calls from unfair and
deceptive practices and to ensure that consumers have the opportunity to
make informed choices in making such calls.
(b) TIMING AND CONTENTS OF REGULATION- The regulation required by subsection
(a) shall--
(1) be prescribed not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of
this Act;
(2) contain provisions to implement each of the requirements of section 4(a);
(3) for purposes of administration and enforcement, be treated as regulations
prescribed by the Commission pursuant to title II of the Act; and
(4) take effect not later than 90 days after the date of issuance of
such regulations.

ae2d8d28c877efb5e8cf5b60e83a0116d703cdc958d5978f8d395a1adc37bbef

(a) REGULATION REQUIREMENTS- The regulations required by section 3 shall,
at a minimum--
(1) require that the provider of the operator services--
(A) identify itself, audibly and distinctly, to the consumer prior to the
consumer incurring any charges; and
(B) permit the consumer to terminate the telephone call at no charge;
(2) require that the provider of operator services ensure, by contract
or tariff, that each aggregator post on or near the telephone instrument,
in plain view of consumers--
(A) the name, address, and toll-free telephone number of the provider; and
(B) a written disclosure that consumers have a right to obtain access
to the interstate common carrier of their choice and may contact their
preferred interstate common carriers for information on accessing that
carrier's service using that telephone;
(3) require that the provider of operator services disclose immediately
to the consumer, upon request--
(A) a quote of its rates or charges for the call;
(B) the methods by which such rates or charges will be collected; and
(C) the methods by which complaints concerning such rates, charges, or
collection practices will be resolved;
(4) require that the provider of operator services--
(A) neither require nor participate in the blocking of any consumer's
access to the interstate common carrier of the consumer's choice; and
(B) assure, by contract or tariff, that its aggregators neither require nor
participate in the blocking of access to such interstate common carriers,
except that the Commission may grant limited, temporary waivers to particular
providers of operator services for a particular access code upon a showing
that such waiver is necessary to prevent fraud;
(5) require--
(A) that any equipment manufactured or imported more than 18 months after
the date of enactment of this Act and installed by any aggregator shall be
technologically capable of providing consumers with access to interstate
interexchange carriers through the use of access codes approved by the
Commission;
(B) that existing equipment used by aggregators be upgraded to comply with
the requirements imposed pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this paragraph,
except that the Commission may waive such requirements by rule or order with
respect to any class or category of equipment if the Commission determines
that the benefits of applying such requirements to such equipment do not
justify the cost; and
(C) any other actions or measures that the Commission considers necessary
to ensure that aggregators are not exposed to undue risk of fraud;
(6) establish requirements that--
(A) prohibit the provider of operator services from knowingly charging
for uncompleted telephone calls;
(B) prevent, after consideration of the advice of the carrier liaison
committee convened by the Commission by its order of February 27, 1989,
consumers from being charged for a distance that is more than the distance,
in a straight line, between the calling party's points of origination and
termination of the telephone call; and
(C) require that any consumer billing an interexchange telephone call on a
billing card which (i) is provided by an interstate interexchange common
carrier, and (ii) permits the identification of that carrier, is billed
at a rate not greater than the rate of that common carrier for that call,
unless the calling party requests a special service that is not available
under tariff from that common carrier or consents to a different charge;
(7) establish minimum standards for providers of operator services to use
in the routing and handling of emergency telephone calls; and
(8) establish a policy for requiring common carriers to make public
information about recent changes in operator services and choices available
to consumers in that market.
(b) CONSIDERATION OF COMPENSATION- In conducting the rulemaking required by
section 3, the Commission shall consider the need to prescribe compensation
(other than advance payment by consumers) for owners of competitive public
pay telephones for calls routed to carriers other than the designated
provider of operator services for such telephones.

e0fa925818360350f79aead3e8f509dbadf77e33b0b99379804855da2ca90b1b

(a) FILING OF INFORMATIONAL TARIFF- The Commission shall require each
provider of operator service to file, within 30 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, and to maintain and keep open for public inspection,
an informational tariff specifying rates, terms, and conditions, and
including commissions, surcharges, or other fees which are collected from
consumers, with respect to calls for which operator services are provided.
(b) REVIEW OF INFORMATIONAL TARIFFS- If the rates and charges filed by any
provider of operator services under subsection (a) appear upon review by the
Commission to be unjust or unreasonable, the Commission shall require such
provider of operator services to demonstrate that its rates and charges are
just and reasonable and reflect the reasonable costs of providing service,
plus a reasonable profit.
(c) PROCEEDING REQUIRED- (1) Within 30 days after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Commission shall initiate a proceeding--
(A) to monitor operator service rates;
(B) to determine the extent to which offerings made by operator service
providers are improvements, in terms of service quality, price, innovation,
and other factors, over those available before the entry of new operator
service providers into the market;
(C) to assess, both in the aggregate and by individual providers of operator
services, operator service rates, costs of service, incidences of service
complaints, and service offerings; and
(D) to consider the effect that commissions and surcharges have on the
overall rates charged to consumers.
(2) Not later than 9 months after the commencement of such proceeding,
the Commission shall report to Congress on findings and conclusions of such
proceeding. The Commission shall, during the pendency of such proceeding,
provide the Congress with quarterly interim reports on the activities and
progress to date.
(3) The requirement of subsection (d) shall not apply if, on the basis
of the proceeding under paragraph (1) of this subsection, the Commission
makes (and includes in the report required by paragraph (2)) a factual
determination that market forces are securing rates and charges that
are just and reasonable, as evidenced by rate levels, costs, complaints,
service quality, and other relevant factors.
(d) IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS- Unless the Commission makes the determination
described in subsection (c)(3), the Commission shall, within 90 days after
submission of the report required by subsection (c)(2), complete a proceeding
pursuant to title II of the Act to establish regulations for implementing
the requirements of such title (and subsections (a) and (b) of this section)
that rates and charges for operator services be just and reasonable.

a5014a027ab42612a7baf741c8e0b5cfd584ec7e898efedbb1d7b6d5851ddcad

As used in this Act:
(1) The term `Commission' means the Federal Communications Commission.
(2) The term `the Act' means the Communications Act of 1934.
(3) The term `consumer' means a person initiating any interstate telephone
call using operator services.
(4) The term `operator services' means any interstate telecommunications
service that includes, as a component, any automatic or live assistance to
a consumer to arrange for billing or completion, or both, of an interstate
telephone call through a method other than--
(A) automatic completion with billing to the telephone from which the call
originated; or
(B) completion through a carrier-specific access code number used by
the consumer, with billing to an account previously established with the
carrier by the consumer.
(5) The term `aggregator' means any person, that, in the ordinary course of
its operations, makes telephones available to the public or to transient
users of its premises for interstate telephone calls using a provider of
operator services.
Passed the House of Representatives September 25, 1989.
Attest:
DONNALD K. ANDERSON,
Clerk.

3207a18fdee8817efea10e0914875904d48653d2d9e457285316932f8d8a05b2

Telephone Operator Service Consumer Protection Act of 1989 — HR. 971

Other Sections

Want the full experience?