LITTLE ROCK — A House committee signed off on a bill Wednesday that would require wireless-telephone customers to help pay for equipment to assist the hearing-impaired.
Rep. Buddy Lovell, DMarked Tree, sponsor of House Bill 1062, told the House Insurance and Commerce Committee that landline customers currently pay a fee of 3 cents a month per line while wireless customers pay nothing.
The bill allows the Public Service Commission to apply that same rate to wireless customers.
The surcharges would be collected by the phone companies and remitted to the Department of Finance and Administration to support the Telecommunications Equipment Fund.
Lovell said the fund buys equipment to help the hearing-impaired communicate by telephone. The fund’s budget is about $500,000 a year, he said, which is adequately serving hearing-impaired people in the state.
Some committee members said they were confused. If the fund has plenty of money, why is a change needed, they wondered.
Lovell said the change isneeded to balance the fees among landline and wireless customers.
He said the Public Service Commission has indicated to him that it will reduce thefees on landline customers to 1 cent per month if wireless customers are added and pay the same amount.
HB1062 next goes to the House.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 02/03/2011