AT&T takes fed pre-emption to Supreme Court, too

AT&T joined T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a $12 million fine levied by the California Public Utilities Commission against it in 2004. The move comes after California's Supreme Court denied the carrier's request for a review. AT&T petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court by stressing that "pre-emption of state regulation is critical to the federal regulatory framework for wireless communications, and the reach of [the 1993 pre-emption statute] constitutes an issue of great public importance."

The original ruling proposed the $12 million fine against Cingular Wireless for allegedly charging early termination fees and prohibiting refunds during a period of heavy marketing with little disclosure of network problems. Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA are petitioning the court to review a lower ruling that tossed out an FCC decision to pre-empt states from regulating line-item charges on mobile phone bills.

For more on the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile Supreme Court case:
- see this article from RCR