Pacific Bell to Release Names, Addresses of Providers : PUC Rules on Toll Message Companies

The state Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday gave Pacific Bell permission to release the names and addresses of companies that charge callers for recorded messages, including those from Santa Claus.

The recorded items offered through the Information Access Service include stock market information, horoscopes, dial-a-porn services and messages from Santa Claus that are aimed at youngsters.

Dial-a-Santa and similar services are the center of a $50-million lawsuit.

The PUC, citing commission rules, emphasized that the agency itself would not be releasing the IAS information but that the phone company could start releasing it June 10.

The PUC said it started an investigation into IAS because of complaints about children-oriented programs.

The commission said the probe sought to discover whether the service “is a valid and proper type of business for the phone company to pursue.”

Pacific Bell said that, when it filed its request April 29 to release names and addresses, the company also notified the providers.

“One protested,” the utility said, “claiming that release of the information would subject (the) provider to ‘harassment and possible personal jeopardy.’ ”

As a result, the provider agreed to “establish a separate business telephone service and mail address where Pacific (Bell) can refer customer complaints.”

The commission said the substitute arrangements were acceptable “as long as the provider acknowledges and is responsive to customer inquiries and complaints.”

At a May 22 meeting of the PUC, a lawyer said the commission should let parents block such services, known as 976 calls because the services use that prefix, rather than letting children run up big bills dialing Santa Claus.

A Pacific Bell spokesman responded that it wasn’t that easy, and a representative of a company who aimed its phone messages at children accused the lawyer, Robert Gnaizda, of blackmail.

“They’re trying to shut down a service that’s generated 40 million calls in the last year and a half and maybe a couple hundred complaints,” said John Bremner of Megaphone Co., which provides one of the “Dial-a-Santa” programs--the focus of Gnaizda’s attack.

“It’s part of a legal blackmail scheme for Gnaizda’s group to extort a legal fee from Pacific Bell,” he said.

The reference was to a new Pacific Bell report saying that only 138 residents and five businesses have disputed their bills for 976 calls during the investigation.

Gnaizda’s Public Advocates group, claiming to represent 100,000 children statewide, has sued Pacific Bell for $50 million for allegedly deceptive advertising of Dial-a-Santa and similar programs.

Gnaizda brought about 50 children from local elementary schools to the meeting, along with people dressed in costumes as Kermit the Frog, Santa Claus and the Cookie Monster. He said the utility, at virtually no cost, could enable 60% of its customers now, and all in a year or two, to block 976 calls from their phones.

Company representatives said they weren’t sure about the availability or practicability of “blocking” devices.