ALJ/CMW/jt2 Date of Issuance 5/15/2009
Decision 09-05-004 May 7, 2009
BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Utility Consumer's Action Network (UCAN), Complainant, vs. AT&T Mobility LLC dba New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC, fka Cingular Wireless and related entities collectively "AT&T", U3060C, Defendant. |
Case 07-08-033 (Filed August 31, 2007) |
DECISION APPROVING SETTLEMENT
1. Summary
This decision approves a Settlement Agreement between the Utility Consumers' Cingular Wireless (AT&T) and dismisses this complaint with prejudice. In this complaint, UCAN charges AT&T with (1) imposing unauthorized international roaming charges on customers who had not affirmatively enabled the service nor received adequate notice that AT&T was enabling the service in violation of Public Utilities Code Section 2890(a), (2) charging customers for calls never placed while traveling abroad in violation of Section 2890(a), (3) violating General Order 168 (GO 168) by not resolving customer complaints within 30 days, and (4) violating GO 168 by refusing to cease collection actions while conducting an investigation into a charge disputed by its customer.1
Under the Settlement Agreement, attached hereto as Attachment A, AT&T agrees to provide its customers affirmative notification when it activates the pay-per-use International Roaming service on a subscriber's account, to implement new procedures to allow residential customers to opt-out or block the service, and to affirmatively manage their usage.2 In addition, customers will be informed that under the service, AT&T can charge them for incoming phone calls that go directly to voicemail when their phone is turned on in a foreign country.
Finally, the two residential customers UCAN discusses in the complaint have both had their accounts credited in full. The Settlement is effective on the date it is approved by the Commission and will terminate one year following AT&T's implementation of on-line usage notification or July 1, 2012, whichever is earlier.
1 UCAN cites to two customers in its complaint. One customer was billed over $20,000 and the other customer over $8,000 for thousands of calls while they were on short visits to Ethiopia. UCAN asserts that neither customer was aware it had international roaming or had made a phone call while in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian phone company is an affiliate of AT&T.
2 International Roaming is defined in the Settlement Agreement as voice calls made and/or received while outside of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This AT&T service is included in most customers' rate plans but is usually not activated by AT&T until after a customer has established a satisfactory payment history. The service does not have recurring monthly fees; it is a pay-per-usage service.
