AT&T to ignore sanctions

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/20/6 | David Lazarus

[SmithL]

Five years ago, AT&T was fined millions of dollars and was required to adopt strict disclosure requirements after state regulators determined that the company had engaged in misleading marketing practices.

Last week, AT&T told the California Public Utilities Commission in a regulatory filing that it will no longer follow those requirements.

The telecom giant is taking advantage of new rules that allow California phone companies to unilaterally change certain regulatory provisions without prior approval from state officials.

AT&T says the disclosure requirements, which forced the company to always reveal to new customers its cheapest service first and to seek permission before making marketing pitches, made it too difficult to interact with consumers.

"We felt this wasn't fair to customers," said Gordon Diamond, an AT&T spokesman. "We wanted to streamline the process to make it faster and easier for people to sign up for new service."

But consumer advocates and at least one member of the PUC counter that the disclosure requirements were imposed for a reason -- because AT&T had deliberately misled people by steering them into costlier service packages.

They say the company shouldn't be able to do away with those requirements without first demonstrating to regulators that it has learned from past mistakes and changed its ways.

"This is a regulatory Pearl Harbor," PUC member Jeff Brown said of AT&T's surprise filing last week. "We set up a gold standard for disclosure by a utility and they've just tossed it away."

[SmithL]

Clash of the Titans: Big Government vs Big Business

[Hydroshock]

And we are caught in the middle

[P-40]

because AT&T had deliberately misled people by steering them into costlier service packages.

Can't 'the people' do their own research?

[em2vn]

How do you suggest doing that. AT&T doesn't publish the cost of all services available, nor should it.

[P-40]

AT&T doesn't publish the cost of all services available

They will tell the consumer what a given service will cost them per month if they are asked. The consumer can then ask other companies for the same information and then do a comparison.

[Uncle Hal]

Lazarus is the SF Chronicle's excuse for a business columnist. He is a lefty and every column of his bashes business. He never has a good thing to say about any corporation.