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Congress wants to ban states from charging new taxes on cell phones for the next five years. They want to federalize early termination fees. In essence, they want to take power away from the states in order to create (carrier-friendly) broad regulations. Not everyone agrees that this is the best path, though. In fact, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners wants states more involved, according to Wireless Week. The Commission wants states to have a big say in any kind of regulation proposed by Congress or the FCC.

“Many, many times, the state mechanisms are the first to pick up on the [carrier] abuses. It’s not unusual for the states to have done something about a new problem 2, 3, 4 years before the federal government gets around to it,” said Brad Ramsey, NARUC general counsel.

Carriers favor a more universal, national system. This creates less confusion for them.

While the two sides don’t exactly see eye to eye, they’ll have plenty of time to work things out. With the coming election season, and a number of issues already on the FCC’s plate, we might not get into this issue until this time next year. Still, it’s good to get all this out in the open now.

NARUC is also looking for a “task force” which will create a “set of national wireless consumer protection standards.” This idea has been floating around for quite some time, in the form of Wireless Bill of Rights. NARUC proposes that the task force comprise three FCC commissioners, five state commissioners, one industry representative, one state attorney general, and one consumer advocate.

Keeping states involved in wireless regulation and enforcement is an important protection for consumers. Ramsey nails it, really. They simply act faster than the federal government on issues like this.

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