I. Background
On August 25, 2008, the Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN) filed this complaint against Sprint Telephony PCS, L.P dba Sprint PCS aka Sprint Nextel, aka Wireless L.P. (Sprint) alleging that Sprint's Pioneer Program violated numerous provisions of California law and the Commission's rules and regulations.
On November 2, 2008, Sprint filed its answer to the complaint and stated that it had identified billing and service errors with regard to the Pioneer Program and that it was working diligently to correct these errors.
On December 17, 2008, the assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) convened a prehearing conference where the parties committed to work toward a mutually acceptable resolution of the complaint and requested that the Chief ALJ assign another ALJ to provide any Alternative Dispute Resolution services required by the parties. Although such an assignment was made by ruling on January 15, 2009, the parties were able to resolve the matter among themselves.
On January 16, 2009, UCAN filed and served its Notice of Intent to Claim Intervenor Compensation for its work in this proceeding.
On June 12, 2009, the parties submitted a joint status report wherein they reported that they have been engaged in active discussions for settlement of the proceeding. The parties found these efforts to be productive but were not yet complete. They, therefore, requested and were granted an extension until September 15, 2009, to continue their efforts and submit a status report.1
On July 30, 2009, the Commission issued Decision (D.) 09-07-046 extending the statutory deadline for resolving this proceeding to August 25, 2010.
On December 18, 2009, UCAN and Sprint submitted their joint motion for approval of settlement agreement, and on January 14, 2010, the parties jointly submitted an amended settlement agreement. The amended settlement agreement reflects five minor revisions to the original settlement agreement and is Attachment A. All references in today's decision refer to the amended settlement agreement.
The parties state that the settlement agreement is "the result of extensive and creative settlement discussions" where the interests of the customers "were made paramount."
As set forth in the settlement agreement, Sprint agrees to address various billing errors that occurred for its Pioneer Plan customers by:
1. correcting the errors,
2. crediting or refunding those customers who received unauthorized charges due to billing errors, with total estimated credits and refunds estimated at $521,281.67,
3. providing notice to customers of the corrections,
4. offering customers an opportunity to reactivate accounts that were terminated, and
5. allowing dissatisfied customers to change or terminate plans without incurring an early termination fee.
The parties request that the Commission's decision approving the settlement agreement become effective 30 days after the date of the decision. The purpose of the delay is to allow Sprint to prepare to comply with the decision.
1 At the joint request of the parties, the deadline for completing the settlement negotiations was subsequently extended by the assigned ALJ.
