The Arizona Corporation Commission is going to court over the state attorney general’s refusal to accept rules on wireless telephone service.

The proposed rules from the commission are designed to sanction wireless telephone companies that change a customer’s phone service without authorization, a practice known as “slamming,” and for billing a customer for unauthorized charges, known as “cramming.”

Robert D. Myers, Attorney General Terry Goddard’s chief assistant, stated in a letter to the Corporation Commission that there’s a good reason his boss won’t certify the commission’s proposed regulations.

“Despite this office’s strong support of pro-consumer regulations, we can only certify commission rules that are within your legal authority,” Mr. Myers stated in the July 30 letter. “The proposed rules as to wireless communication clearly exceed your authority and could not be certified.”

Mr. Myers wrote the two-page letter the same day the commission announced its intention to ask the state Supreme Court to review the attorney general’s refusal to certify the proposed rules. The Attorney General is required by law to review all Corporation Commission rule changes.

“Even if you assume there are legitimate arguments on both sides of the law, I think you have to come down on the side of protecting the consumer,” Commissioner Bill Mundell said in a statement released July 30.

Mr. Myers contends that the Corporation Commission doesn’t have the same statutory authority to regulate wireless communications the way that it does with traditional telephone service. —