[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1642 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1642

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 3, 2003

  Mr. Weiner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    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 
2003''.

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 
                2003.
                    ``(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).
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