Colorado Legislative Council Staff

NO FISCAL IMPACT

TITLE:            CONCERNING BILLING PRACTICES IN CONNECTION WITH LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONE SERVICE.

Summary of Assessment

            This bill makes changes to the current statutes regulating the billing practices of long-distance telephone service providers. The bill makes the following changes;

            •   requires long-distance telephone providers to notify each residential and small business customer, at least once per year, of the following: the identity of the provider; the billing plan that the customer is on; the amount the customer would have been charged during the preceding year under other plans offered by the provider; and the steps necessary to change plans;

            •   prohibits long-distance telephone providers from transferring a customer's calling card from one provider to another without either the written consent of the customer or without issuing the customer a new calling card that is conspicuously different from the customer's current calling card; and

            •   makes long-distance telephone providers, who violate the provisions of the bill, liable to the customer or the customer's local exchange provider for $250 or the amount of all charges and costs incurred by the customer as the result of the violation.

            The bill would become effective July 1, 1999.

            The provisions of the bill would be implemented by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Department of Regulatory Agencies, under their statutory authority to promulgate rules and regulations. The provisions of the bill would not have a significant impact on the routine workload of the PUC, or on any other state agency, or unit of local government. Therefore, this bill is assessed as having no fiscal impact.

Departments Contacted

            Regulatory Agencies