Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

Bill would ease rules on cell phone contracts

A House committee passed legislation Wednesday that would make it easier for service members to cancel cell phone, cable and utility contracts if they are deployed or move to a new duty station.

The legislation also would let deployed troops keep their phone numbers when they return and reactivate their accounts.

Under provisions of HR 6225, a bill amending the legal and financial protections of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act, a service member could terminate or suspend a contract for a cell or regular phone, cable or Internet service, and utilities such as electricity, gas, oil or water if they are deployed for 90 days or longer in support of a contingency operation, or are ordered to make a permanent reassignment move to a new location.

Service members could not be charged fees for early termination of a contract, but could be charged if they have company equipment, such as a cable box. If there is a fee, payment could be deferred until the deployment has ended.

Canceling a contract would be easy, under the bill. A service member could deliver a cancellation notice, including a copy of their military orders, by hand, private messenger service, fax or mail, as long as they used an envelope with sufficient postage and request a receipt to prove the message was received. Termination or suspension of service would take effect on the date the notice is delivered.

A company that fails to suspend a contract under those terms would face misdemeanor penalties of up to $5,000 per person or $10,000 per organization.

A service member also would have the right to sue for damages, with courts allowed to grant up to three times the amount of damages, plus attorney fees, to the member.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., said the ability to cancel a contract in the face of deployment is important so that service members are not paying for something they cannot use, and the provision allowing them to keep the same number when they return from deployment is equally important to help them pick up where they left off.

Keeping the same phone number is not guaranteed under the proposal. The bill merely calls for that “to the extent practicable.”

The bill is called the Improving SCRA and USERRA Protections Act of 2008, which refers to the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act and the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act.

Also in the bill is extra relief for service members whose college educations are disrupted by military duties, including a requirement that schools refund tuition and fees if a service member does not receive academic credit for courses they had to drop because of military orders; and changes in military spouse residency rules to allow them to keep the same state of legal residence as their service member, regardless of where the family may live. The rules would apply to such issues as income taxes, car registration, driver’s licenses and voter registration.

The bill, passed by voice vote, is expected to be voted on by the full House of Representatives this summer. The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee has been working on similar legislation.