Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell phone hearing on hold

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 20:31:58 -0500

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News

Cell phone hearing on hold

Telecom companies under state scrutiny for customer billing method

By Ceil Abbott

JEFFERSON CITY - A hearing in a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, against two cell phone companies has been delayed while judges weigh the ramifications of pleadings and counter pleadings by the opposing sides.

The hearing was filed to stop telecommunications companies Nextel and Sprint from listing charges on consumer bills in what Nixon is calling a "misleading and deceptive manner."

Nixon asked the St. Louis County Circuit Court to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanent injunctions against the two nationwide cell phone companies to force them to quit listing an approved rate increase as increases in state and federal taxes.

According to Nixon's office, Nextel is listing the rate increase as unit taxes and assessments under a category titled federal programs cost recovery. Sprint is calling the charges USA regulatory obligations and fees under a category called other surcharges and fees.

Nixon says consumers are being mislead into believing that they are paying a tax or government telecommunications fee when they are actually paying overhead cost the companies incur by complying with government regulations.

"Nextel and Sprint are understating their monthly rates by deceptively listing this amount on the bills. Other cell phone companies are incorporating the overhead as part of their basic charge and these two companies need to do so as well," Nixon said.

According to Nixon, Nextel charged a 55-cent per month rate increase under the heading Federal Programs Cost Recovery from January to September 2002, then raised that amount to $1.55 in October. Nixon says no one is exactly sure of the monthly increase Sprint charges, but he says the amount of that increase has never been revealed to cell phone customers.

The hearing on Nixon's lawsuit, scheduled for last Thursday, never came about because a circuit court judge granted a petition by Nextel and Sprint lawyers to have the case moved to the U.S. District Court, Eastern Division, in St. Louis.

Yesterday, Nixon filed a petition in the federal court asking Judge Charles Shaw to bump the case back down to circuit court because it specifically pertains to bills sent to Nextel and Sprint customers who reside in Missouri.

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