California Bill to Ban Phone Fees for Unlisted Numbers Fails

Telephone companies heavily lobbied members of the California legislature to block a bill that would ban fees for having a unlisted telephone number in the state.

Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills)

Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) recognized her bill lacked enough votes, so she put the bill “on hold” for the remainder of this year.  Pavley’s bill would prohibit telephone companies in the state from charging a fee for an unlisted phone number.

Pavley blamed telecommunications industry lobbyists for the bill’s failure, complaining that lobbyists spend a great deal of time with members to keep consumer-friendly bills from becoming law.

California telephone companies routinely charge between $1.25-1.50 a month for an unlisted number.  Pavley claims such fees are unwarranted and inhibit the right for customers to maintain privacy by choosing not to have their contact information published in the White Pages.  She also suggests revenue-hungry telephone companies could follow the trend in some other states to increase the price for the service.  Some phone companies charge up to $5.50 a month for unlisted numbers.

Telephone companies countered that providing free unlisted numbers would lead to more consumers choosing this option, diminishing the value of the White Pages, potentially costing jobs, and a loss in revenue ranging from $50 million a year for AT&T, the largest phone company in the state, to approximately $1 million a year for Frontier Communications, primarily providing service in suburbs around Sacramento.

Pavley promises to launch a public awareness campaign and reintroduce her bill next year.

“To level the playing field,” she said, “you need to get the public to pay attention.”

AT&T & iPhone Customers Complain About Delayed Voicemail

Some iPhone owners and other customers of AT&T Mobility have complained to PC World about voicemail messages being delayed, sometimes for days.

“I have had this happen on a number of occasions,” wrote one AT&T customer in response to my item posted yesterday. “I’ve been growing tired of AT&T’s issues for quite a while now. I look forward to the iPhone being available through Verizon sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Another wrote: “AT&T’s Voice mail on iPhone 3G is sometimes slower than snail mail. If they didn’t have a strangle hold monopoly on the iPhone in the USA – they couldn’t get away with such poor service!”

I cannot independently confirm the reports, but have had similar experiences on my iPhone, when old messages appeared in visual voicemail days after they’d been left for me.

According to the user who first reported the trouble, AT&T says it is aware of the situation, but offers no cure. The best workaround being for users to manually check their voice messages by calling themselves, which pretty much negates the usefulness of a visual display of voicemail messages, an important iPhone feature.

AT&T has had problems with capacity on their mobile network in the past due to unprecedented demand from iPhone customers.  AT&T retains an exclusive agreement with Apple to provide service for iPhone owners in the United States.

Missouri AT&T Customers Can Say Goodbye to White Pages

The end of automatic delivery of White Pages for AT&T Customers in Missouri is here.

AT&T has announced it is planning to discontinue automatic distribution of the White Pages telephone directory, claiming they are a legacy of the past and no longer necessary.  The proposal, which requires approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission, would impact AT&T customers in metropolitan Kansas City and St. Louis.

AT&T last year stopped automatic delivery of the phone book in Atlanta, with the promise of giving one to any customer who still wanted it. By April, only one percent of its customers had asked for one.

Dropping automatic delivery is “an idea whose time has come,” said Kerry Hibbs, an AT&T spokesman.

Customers can still request a directory, and Yellow Pages will continue to be delivered as always, but AT&T expects most people will obtain telephone listings from the Internet and do not expect high demand for the White Pages.

AT&T claims that as many customers switch to wireless phone service, the completeness of the directory is compromised.  Wireless phone numbers are unlisted.  In other metropolitan areas, AT&T has already obtained permission to stop directory service, including the city of Austin, and has regulatory approval to stop automatic delivery in Ohio.  Approval is also pending in North Carolina and Florida.

The Missouri Public Service Commission has received more than 120 comments or letters on the proposal, with about 80 percent against it.

An elderly couple who didn’t have a computer for using online directories told regulators, “If we do not have the White Pages we cannot find anything.”

Environmentally, despite the fact directories are printed on recycled paper, the amount of paper consumed by phone directory printing is substantial.

At this time, no reduction in rates is proposed to cover the savings anticipated by AT&T from no longer printing millions of White Pages for customers.