To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to monitor complaints regarding the quality of wireless telephone service.

April 4, 2001

Mr. WEINER (for himself, Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. STARK, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. LANTOS, Ms. MCKINNEY, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. LAFALCE, and Mr. HILL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to monitor complaints regarding the quality of wireless telephone service.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Cell Phone Service Disclosure Act of 2001'.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

The Congress finds that--

(1) wireless telephone use in the United States has expanded dramatically in recent years;

(2) numerous consumer complaints regarding wireless telephone service describe communities plagued by dead spots in such service, frequent premature termination of calls, and calls that do not go through because of overcrowding of the service frequencies;

(3) no single Federal, State, or local agency is required by law to compile complaints regarding wireless telephone service; and

(4) currently no measurement exists of acceptable wireless telephone service.

SEC. 3. MONITORING OF COMPLAINTS REGARDING QUALITY OF COMMERCIAL MOBILE SERVICE.

Section 332(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(9) QUALITY OF COMMERCIAL MOBILE SERVICES-

`(A) COMPLAINT SYSTEM- The Commission shall, by regulation, establish, and shall administer, a system that makes available a procedure for any subscriber of any commercial mobile service to register a complaint with the Commission regarding the quality or performance of such service regarding connection, reception, billing practices, and such other aspects of service as the Commission considers appropriate.

`(B) TOLL-FREE NUMBER- Such system shall include establishment of a toll-free number applicable to commercial mobile services for reporting a complaint. The Commission and any agency or entity to which the Commission has delegated authority under section 251(e) shall designate `#FCC' as such number and shall provide appropriate transition periods for areas in which such number is otherwise in use as of the date of the enactment of the Cell Phone Service Disclosure Act of 2001.

`(C) RECORDS- The Commission shall maintain a record of each complaint made under the system established pursuant to this paragraph.

`(D) NOTICE- The Commission shall require each provider of commercial mobile service (or the billing agent for such provider) to include, in each subscriber's bill for such service, a statement informing the subscriber that a complaint regarding the quality or performance of the service may be registered with the Commission and providing the toll-free number under subparagraph (B) and an address for mailing a complaint. The Commission shall take such other actions as may be appropriate to publicize the availability of the complaint system to subscribers of commercial mobile services.

`(E) REPORTING OF COMPLAINTS TO CONGRESS- Not less often than once every 6 months, the Commission shall submit a report to the Congress regarding complaints received under the complaint system required under this paragraph, which shall indicate, for each metropolitan statistical area and such other areas (not included within a metropolitan statistical area) as the Commission considers appropriate--

`(i) the number of complaints received, during the period for which the report is made, regarding each provider of a commercial mobile service for which a complaint is made; and

`(ii) for each such provider, the number of each type of complaint received during such period, which shall include complaints regarding dead spots, dropped calls, network busy signals, and improper billing practices.

Upon submission to the Congress of each report under this subparagraph, the Commission shall make such report publicly available by providing access to the report through a World Wide Web site of the Commission.'.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE AND REGULATIONS.

(a) EFFECTIVE DATE- The amendment made by section 3 shall take effect upon the expiration of the 6-month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.

(b) REGULATIONS- The Commission shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the amendment made by section 3. Such regulations shall be issued not later than, and shall take effect upon, the effective date under subsection (a).

END