Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell Phone Companies Get Fee Case Moved To Federal Court

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 02:17:19 -0500

Cell Phone Companies Get Fee Case Moved To Federal Court
Source: St. Louis Post - Dispatch
Publication date: 2002-12-07

* Missouri Attorney General Nixon had been poised to seek temporary
restraining order against Nextel, Sprint.

Nextel and Sprint did an end-run Friday around Missouri Attorney General
Jay Nixon, who is suing to stop the two cell phone companies from adding
fees to customer bills that he says look like taxes but aren't.

Just before Nixon's attorneys went into state court to get a temporary
restraining order against the companies, Nextel and Sprint went across the
street to federal court and got the case moved there.

The result: No judge will hear the merits of Nixon's suit for some time while
lawyers argue over jurisdiction.

The same thing happened to a group of lawyers in Jefferson City who filed a
class-action suit against Nextel in August. Before a state judge could act,
Nextel got the case moved to federal court in Kansas City. Nothing has
happened in that case.

"We're regrouping," said Rex M. Burlison, an assistant Missouri attorney
general. He spoke after the hearing before Judge Thomas Grady in St. Louis
Circuit Court was canceled. Grady said he never got a chance to look at the
case.

Both Nixon's suit and the class action by private attorneys accuse the cell
companies of deceptive billing and advertising. At issue are added fees for
emergency 911 services. Customers of both Nextel and Sprint say the fees
look like taxes.

The companies insist they have taken pains to tell customers that the fees
aren't taxes.

Nextel said Friday that it has no plans to change its billing practices while
the cases wind their way through the courts.

"We feel very strongly that what we are doing is not deceptive in any way,"
said Nextel spokeswoman Leigh Horner.

Earlier, Nextel offered to cancel the contract of any customer who did not
want to pay the extra fee, if the customer complained within 30 days after
the fees began.

In October, Nextel raised the fee to $1.55 per month from 55 cents. That
covers 911 and two other government-mandated services.

But local Nextel customers complain that the cell company's
representatives say they are not even aware of such an offer.

Horner said Nextel will talk to customer service representatives this
weekend. "We do stand by that policy," she said.

Sprint issued a statement saying it has spent "millions of dollars" to comply
with federal 911 requirements and two other federal requirements.

Sprint says the government allows cell companies to recover those costs
through surcharges on customer bills. The company added: "The surcharge
is labeled a surcharge on Sprint customer bills."

Nixon's suit notes that on its bills, Sprint describes the surcharge as "USA
regulatory obligations fee."

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