Wireless carriers voice doubts on consumer bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wireless phone carriers have serious concerns about a proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives to set nationwide consumer protection rules for wireless customers, the carriers' chief lobbyist in Washington said on Wednesday.

Steve Largent, president of The Wireless Association, or CTIA, told lawmakers that while carriers support the concept of a "national consumer protection framework" for mobile phone customers, the industry's chief trade group has reservations about some of the provisions in the proposal.

Largent was testifying before the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet.

The panel is considering draft legislation by the panel's chairman, Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, that would create a set of national consumer protection rules to pre-empt the growing number of state laws being passed by state legislatures around the country.

Markey's draft bill would require carriers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T to give customers more information about rates and services. It would give state governments the authority to enforce the rules.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.

The draft bill also would task regulators at the Federal Communications Commission with setting standards for the controversial fees that carriers charge to customers who terminate service before their contracts expire.

Wireless carriers say the early-termination fees are needed because they heavily subsidize the cost of the handsets that customers get under the service plans most customers choose.

Markey's draft legislation would require carriers to offer customers no-frills service plans, including one with no termination fee.

Largent told lawmakers at the hearing that wireless carriers favor a single set of federal rules rather than a patchwork of state laws.

But the industry fears that, as the bill is written, it would give state officials enforcing the rules too much leeway in interpreting them, Largent said.

He also expressed concerns that the bill would put the FCC in the position of micro-managing carriers' early-termination fees.

"We still want to work with them in getting it to where it is palatable," Largent said during a break in the hearing.

(Editing by John Wallace)