David Munaretto
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2002
- Messages
- 768
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Senator Obama,
You may not remember me, but we have met on a couple of occasions. I am the former co-chair of a subcommittee of Mayor Richard M. Daley's Council of Technology Advisors. I also served on the Gore 2000 host committee in Chicago, and was an active contributor to the Democratic Party during the last election.
I would like to suggest legislation that would be highly regarded by the people of the United States as well as frustrated constituents in the State of Illinois.
In today's economy, cellular phones are a prerequisite for successfully conducting business; and also a necessary convenience for connecting families. We pay good money -- at times hundreds of dollars -- for this tool. Constituents pay for this service expecting to be able to make and receive calls whenever and whereever it fits their needs. Instead they are met with unavailable networks, sporadic cellular coverage, dropped calls, distorting echoes that make conversations worthy of a third party translator, and a myriad of other issues.
When these issues occur, there is no recourse for the consumer. We are charged for minutes used on calls that fail due to a poor infrastructure, are locked into contracts with companies like T-Mobile whose metropolitan Chicago infrastructure is so poor that it is an unviable business tool, and have only two choices - live with it (or die by it), or pay exorbitant fees to cancel the contract.
I submit that the continuance of these issues are to the economic advantage of the service provider, resulting in increased profits and proliferating an attitude that things are "good enough" with respect to the infrastructure in place and services provided.
I hereby recommend legislation that exposes the extent of this issue, protects the consumer, and creates an incentive for these corporations to invest in improved technology.
My recommendation is to require:
1) Cellular phone service providers to report on monthly bills to consumers and businesses all minutes used in which a call was dropped, lost, failed, recieved a network unavaible error, or disconnected for any purpose other than the explicit action of the consumer to end the call.
2) Not charge for these minutes that were the result of the companies failure to provide service. Further, to reimburse consumers with plans based on an aggregate number of monthly minutes as a percentage of total minutes used versus the monthly cost of service.
3) Publicly available reports of dropped calls by metropolitan area, including at a minimum number of calls that failed, percent of calls that failed, and percent of customers who experience 1, 10, and more than 10 calls dropped on a monthly basis. This information should be available to protect the consumer and to ensure an informed decision by the consumer.
4) A worthy alternative would be the establishment of a federally mandated Service Level Agreement which mandates a certain percentage of calls and / or minutes successfully provided by the service provider which must be met or they can not charge anything for the month. This is a common practice in other industries.
The implications of a bill that mandated the above actions are significant.
For the consumer, it:
1)Represents the first time that a decision can be based on quality of service versus price, brand awareness, and product availability.
2) Provides a mechanism by which a consumer can fairly and impartially judge between alternative service providers.
3) Ensures that consumers are provided with an increasingly important service in our country, but pay fairly based on the quality of the service provided.
Further, I believe that a bill of this nature will result in significant investment by service providers; and further I submit that this bill will create value for service providers, including:
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You may not remember me, but we have met on a couple of occasions. I am the former co-chair of a subcommittee of Mayor Richard M. Daley's Council of Technology Advisors. I also served on the Gore 2000 host committee in Chicago, and was an active contributor to the Democratic Party during the last election.
I would like to suggest legislation that would be highly regarded by the people of the United States as well as frustrated constituents in the State of Illinois.
In today's economy, cellular phones are a prerequisite for successfully conducting business; and also a necessary convenience for connecting families. We pay good money -- at times hundreds of dollars -- for this tool. Constituents pay for this service expecting to be able to make and receive calls whenever and whereever it fits their needs. Instead they are met with unavailable networks, sporadic cellular coverage, dropped calls, distorting echoes that make conversations worthy of a third party translator, and a myriad of other issues.
When these issues occur, there is no recourse for the consumer. We are charged for minutes used on calls that fail due to a poor infrastructure, are locked into contracts with companies like T-Mobile whose metropolitan Chicago infrastructure is so poor that it is an unviable business tool, and have only two choices - live with it (or die by it), or pay exorbitant fees to cancel the contract.
I submit that the continuance of these issues are to the economic advantage of the service provider, resulting in increased profits and proliferating an attitude that things are "good enough" with respect to the infrastructure in place and services provided.
I hereby recommend legislation that exposes the extent of this issue, protects the consumer, and creates an incentive for these corporations to invest in improved technology.
My recommendation is to require:
1) Cellular phone service providers to report on monthly bills to consumers and businesses all minutes used in which a call was dropped, lost, failed, recieved a network unavaible error, or disconnected for any purpose other than the explicit action of the consumer to end the call.
2) Not charge for these minutes that were the result of the companies failure to provide service. Further, to reimburse consumers with plans based on an aggregate number of monthly minutes as a percentage of total minutes used versus the monthly cost of service.
3) Publicly available reports of dropped calls by metropolitan area, including at a minimum number of calls that failed, percent of calls that failed, and percent of customers who experience 1, 10, and more than 10 calls dropped on a monthly basis. This information should be available to protect the consumer and to ensure an informed decision by the consumer.
4) A worthy alternative would be the establishment of a federally mandated Service Level Agreement which mandates a certain percentage of calls and / or minutes successfully provided by the service provider which must be met or they can not charge anything for the month. This is a common practice in other industries.
The implications of a bill that mandated the above actions are significant.
For the consumer, it:
1)Represents the first time that a decision can be based on quality of service versus price, brand awareness, and product availability.
2) Provides a mechanism by which a consumer can fairly and impartially judge between alternative service providers.
3) Ensures that consumers are provided with an increasingly important service in our country, but pay fairly based on the quality of the service provided.
Further, I believe that a bill of this nature will result in significant investment by service providers; and further I submit that this bill will create value for service providers, including:
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