LANSING – The Senate unanimously passed a major rewrite of Michigan’s telecommunications law on Tuesday, effectively eliminating state regulation on most phone rate decisions but also creating new controls on cellular phones.But the 38-0 approval of SB 754 doesn’t mean there isn’t some interference on the line.

The bill passed with some parliamentary maneuvering to avoid what Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) said was going to be an attempt by Democrats to make political points on the measure.

Sikkema had majority Republicans pull an end run on Democrats by adopting all their amendments to the bill in one vote – including many amendments that had been rejected earlier on general orders – and then voted on the bill with no debate.

The sudden, surprising end to what had been a marathon day for the Senate, in session better than five hours, even engendered a rare public outburst by Sikkema. When Senate Minority Floor Leader Sen. Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) protested Sikkema’s characterization of Democratic amendments on the bill, as the Republican was talking to reporters, Sikkema said he had been told by Democrats that they were offering the amendments for political purposes.

“Don’t play games with me,” Sikkema snapped at Schauer before storming off the floor.

The bill, with amendments putting a variety of regulations on cellular phone providers and new controls on essential services, now goes to the House, which has been taking testimony on its own version of the telecommunications law in HB 5237.

Sikkema said a conference committee between the House and Senate will now almost assuredly be needed to enact a bill before the current law expires on December 31.

Independently of the other, both Sikkema and Schauer said that up until the last moments of discussion and action on the bill, the discussion had been based on policy. Schauer said it had been one of the best policy-related sessions the Senate had had.

The bill had come out of the Technology and Energy Committee on a 7-1 vote. And Sikkema singled out an amendment brought by Sen. Dennis Olshove (D-Warren), who voted for the bill in committee, as an effort to entrap Republicans.

The amendment would have established that all carriers would have to offer an essential phone service in all places in the state – which bill supporters said was guaranteed anyway in the measure – and would have required any changes in the essential service rate to be approved by the Public Service Commission.

A spokesperson for Sikkema said that amendment would have prevented deregulation of any telephone services in the state.

Leading up to the Senate action, critics of the bill had been encouraging consumers to challenge the measure, saying it would eliminate most of the state’s competitive protections.

But up to 300 employees of SBC, the state’s largest telephone company, were also expected in the Capitol to help push the Senate to pass the bill.

Outside of essential basic local exchange service, which the bill sets at 200 calls a month, the bill effectively deregulates the ability of the state to set telephone rates.

The bill does get rid of one controversial item that has lasted through several telecommunications bills: the end-user charge. That provision, created as an option for phone companies to recoup potential lost revenues, has become a monthly feature of phone bills and an annoyance to critics of the largest phone companies, who have charged it is millions of dollars in revenues for no good reason. Under an amendment from Sikkema, if a company wants an end-user charge, it will have to demonstrate the need to the Public Service Commission.

Sikkema also won approval of an amendment that would allow companies to use alternative technologies, such as cell phones, to provide the basic essential service so long as it remains under PSC regulation.

The amendments that were adopted by the Senate en masse also include provisions that require PSC oversight of cellular telephone contracts, require toll-free customer service lines, and require a $20 cap on early termination fees for getting out of cell phone contracts.

The Telecommunications Association of Michigan called the bill that passed the Senate a major reversal of the committee version that would re-regulate much of the telecommunications business in the state.

Scott Stevenson, president of the group, said the measure that passed would put more regulations on telephone companies than in virtually any other state in the nation.

Companies will consider locating to other states besides Michigan if the bill passed becomes law, Stevenson said.

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