TracFone Wireless v. NEB. PUB. SERV. COM'N

778 N.W.2d 452, 279 Neb. 426
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 12, 2010
DocketS-08-1109
StatusPublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 778 N.W.2d 452 (TracFone Wireless v. NEB. PUB. SERV. COM'N) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
TracFone Wireless v. NEB. PUB. SERV. COM'N, 778 N.W.2d 452, 279 Neb. 426 (Neb. 2010).

Opinion

778 N.W.2d 452 (2010)
279 Neb. 426

TRACFONE WIRELESS, INC., appellant,
v.
NEBRASKA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, appellee.

No. S-08-1109.

Supreme Court of Nebraska.

February 12, 2010.

*455 Stephen M. Bruckner and Russell A. Westerhold, of Fraser Stryker, P.C., L.L.O., Omaha, and Mitchell F. Brecher, of Greenberg Traurig, L.L.P., for appellant.

Jon Bruning, Attorney General, and L. Jay Bartel, for appellee.

HEAVICAN, C.J., WRIGHT, CONNOLLY, GERRARD, STEPHAN, McCORMACK, and MILLER-LERMAN, JJ.

GERRARD, J.

I. NATURE OF CASE

The Enhanced Wireless 911 Services Act (911 Act)[1] requires wireless telecommunications carriers to collect a surcharge on wireless service for the purpose of implementing enhanced 911 emergency dispatch service, which can be loosely described as providing public safety agencies with identification and location information for wireless 911 callers.[2] The appellant, TracFone Wireless, Inc. (TracFone), is in the business of selling prepaid wireless service. At issue in this appeal is the method by which TracFone should be required to collect the 911 Act surcharge from its prepaid wireless customers.

II. BACKGROUND

The 911 Act expresses

the intent of the Legislature that . . . all users of prepaid wireless services pay an amount comparable to the amount paid by users of wireless services that are not prepaid in support of statewide wireless enhanced 911 service. It is also the intent of the Legislature that whenever possible such amounts be collected from the users of such prepaid wireless services.[3]

Under the 911 Act, the Nebraska Public Service Commission (Commission) is to establish surcharges for prepaid wireless service comparable to the surcharge assessed on other users of wireless services and develop methods for collection and remittance of surcharges from wireless carriers offering prepaid wireless services.[4] The Commission did so in a June 19, 2007, order, providing three preapproved methods that had been established by a previous version of the 911 Act:

a) The wireless carrier shall divide the total earned prepaid wireless telephone revenue received by the wireless carrier within the monthly reporting period by fifty dollars and multiply the quotient by the surcharge amount;
*456 b) The wireless carrier shall collect on a monthly basis the surcharge from each customer's active, prepaid account. A customer with two or more active, prepaid accounts shall be assessed a separate surcharge for each active, prepaid account; or
c) A wireless carrier shall remit the surcharge upon the activation of the active prepaid account and upon each replenishment of additional minutes purchased by the prepaid customer.[5]

The June 19 order also noted that "differences between various prepaid wireless carriers may require additional methods be made available," so it provided that "any prepaid wireless carrier wishing to utilize a method different than the three adopted herein, shall file with the Commission for approval a detailed description of the method it wishes to use."

TracFone filed such a request. TracFone explained that its services were entirely prepaid. Therefore, it proposed to collect a surcharge from each customer to whom it directly sold prepaid wireless service, in an amount equal to 1 percent of the purchase price. TracFone estimated that the average wireless customer spends approximately $50 per month on wireless service and pays a 50-cent surcharge[6]; therefore, a 1-percent surcharge on TracFone customers was, according to TracFone, comparable. TracFone explained that unlike other wireless service providers, TracFone could not deduct a surcharge directly from the customer's account balance, because the customer's prepaid account balance was stored in the customer's telephone, in the possession of the customer. TracFone also noted that it would be unable to collect a surcharge from customers who did not have a positive balance on the collection date, and that customers would be able to evade the surcharge by waiting until after the collection date to recharge their balances.

The Commission rejected TracFone's proposed alternative. The Commission noted that only 10 to 15 percent of TracFone's revenues are attributable to direct sales. The remaining sales of prepaid TracFone wireless service time are made by independent retail stores, such as Wal-Mart and Radio Shack. The Commission concluded that TracFone's proposal would not result in the remittance of surcharges comparable to those established for users of non-prepaid wireless service, because the surcharge would fall only on those users who purchased services directly from TracFone.

TracFone submitted a second proposal. This time, TracFone proposed to collect a 1-percent surcharge on every retail sale of TracFone service. TracFone would collect the surcharge on purchases made directly from it, and when service was purchased from an independent retail vendor, the vendor would collect the surcharge and give it to TracFone, which would in turn remit the surcharge to the 911 Act fund. But the Commission rejected TracFone's second proposal, reasoning that it did not have jurisdiction over retail vendors who were not telecommunications carriers. TracFone was ordered to use one of the three methods approved in the June 19, 2007, order or, if it wished to submit another alternative, use one of the three approved methods in the interim.

TracFone filed a petition for judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).[7] The district court agreed *457 with the Commission's rejection of TracFone's proposed methods of collection and found no merit to TracFone's argument that the Commission's established methods of surcharge collection treated prepaid and postpaid wireless carriers differently in violation of federal law. The court affirmed the decision of the Commission.

III. ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

TracFone assigns that the district court erred in

(1) determining that TracFone failed to demonstrate that it was impossible for it to collect the surcharge from users of its wireless service who purchase its service through independent retailers;

(2) determining that the 911 Act requires TracFone to pay the surcharge established by the act even though TracFone has no means to collect the surcharge directly from users of its wireless service who purchase its service through independent retailers;

(3) determining that TracFone's first alternative collection method did not comply with the 911 Act;

(4) determining that TracFone's second alternative collection method did not comply with the 911 Act;

(5) relying upon material not found in the record of the Commission to rule that TracFone's second alternative collection method did not comply with the 911 Act;

(6) determining that TracFone should be required to adopt one of the three established methods approved by the Commission for the collection of the 911 Act surcharge; and

(7) determining that the Commission's interpretation of the 911 Act was not preempted by federal law.

IV. STANDARD OF REVIEW

A judgment or final order rendered by a district court in a judicial review pursuant to the APA may be reversed, vacated, or modified by an appellate court for errors appearing on the record.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In re Application No. C-4981
27 Neb. Ct. App. 773 (Nebraska Court of Appeals, 2019)
Weyh v. Gottsch
303 Neb. 280 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 2019)
State v. Kennedy
299 Neb. 362 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 2018)
Klug v. Nebraska Dept. of Motor Vehicles
291 Neb. 235 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 2015)
Appeal of Bretton Woods Telephone Co.
56 A.3d 1266 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 2012)
T-Mobile v. Bonet, 1100107 (Ala. 12-2-2011)
85 So. 3d 963 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2011)
Commission on State Emergency Communications v. Tracfone Wireless, Inc.
343 S.W.3d 233 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)
In Re Estate of Fries
782 N.W.2d 596 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 2010)
Herrington v. PR VENTURES, LLC
781 N.W.2d 196 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
778 N.W.2d 452, 279 Neb. 426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tracfone-wireless-v-neb-pub-serv-comn-neb-2010.