9th Circuit to T-Mobile: Your Mandatory Arbitration Agreement is Unconscionable

On January 22, 2008, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision that T-Mobile’s arbitration agreement in its Washington State wireless contracts is tainted by substantive unconscionability and is not enforceable.

From the court:

“The issues on appeal are whether the arbitration provisions in Defendant T-Mobile’s service agreements with two of its customers are enforceable under Washington state law and, if not, whether the state law is preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. §§ 1-16. After two consumers of T-Mobile’s cellular phone service brought a class action against T-Mobile in state court for breach of contract and violation if the Washington Consumer Protection Act (the “CPA”), Wash. Rev. Code § 19.86.010-19.86.920, T-Mobile removed the case to federal district court and moved to compel arbitration per its service agreements. The district court denied T-Mobile’s motion to compel arbitration, holding that the arbitration agreements were tainted by substantive unconscionability and thus were unenforceable. We conclude that the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision in Scott v. Cingular Wireless, 161 P.3d 1000 (Wash. 2007), establishes that T-Mobile’s arbitration provision is substantively unconscionable and unenforceable under Washington state law, and that there is no federal preemption in light of our decision in Shroyer v. New Cingular Wireless Servs., Inc., 498 F.3d 976 (9th Cir. 2007). We therefore affirm.”

Full Decision in Louden v. T-Mobile USA

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Town of Manchester, Maine asks residents to approve wireless consent agreement and tower moratorium

The Town of Manchester, Maine will hold an open town hall meeting on January 29, 2008 to decide whether to settle a law suit brought against it by MCF Communications and also whether to adopt a “Tower Moratorium Ordinance” for six months.

The interesting feature of this story is that the elected officials are asking the community’s eligible voters to decide whether to settle the suit, rather than deciding it themselves on behalf of the Town. In an editorial published by an area newspaper, The Kennebec Journal, the editors recount the history of the suit, and talk about a proposed settlement:

“All could have ended right there, peacefully and relatively quietly. Manchester selectmen could have approved the consent agreement, the cellphone folks would have paid a portion of the town’s legal fees and other expenses and life would have gone on. A new cellphone ordinance could have been proposed and adopted.

Instead, town officials took a duck…”

…when the town decided to let the residents decide the issue.

Interesting reading, to be sure.

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US Cellular sues Alton, Illinois

According to a published report:

11/20/2007: Alton, Illinois Planning Commission votes to approve 90 foot “stealth tower.”

11/28/2007: Alton’s City Council approves resolution in favor of tower.

12/19/2007: Alton’s City Council votes to deny application.

01/18/2008: US Cellular files suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois (Pacer Case No: 3:08-cv-00041-JPG-DGW)

Click Here to read the Complaint filed in federal court

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T-Mobile Proposes PCS Bell Tower at Florida Church

T-Mobile is proposing a stylish new stand-alone Bell Tower to hide a new cell site at the Duncan Road Baptist Church. 430 N.E. Duncan Rd, in Blue Springs, Florida.

The Examiner newpaper in Eastern Jackson County has a story on the proposed site, and an interesting elevation illustration (artist’s rendering) of the proposed bell tower. Click here to read the story and see the illustration.

It’s common practice for wireless carriers to construct attached or detached bell towers to camouflage cell sites. The CellularPCS Gallery has many examples you can see by clicking here.

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15-story Manatee (cell tower…that is)

The Heard Tribune in central Florida has a story about a 150 foot tall cellular flagpole proposed by Vertex Development LLC to be placed at a residential subdivision in East Manatee, Florida. Here’s a link to the story: Manatee facing a 15-story cell tower…masquerade.

While the story is nicely balanced, it omits an interesting point: The U.S. Flag Code requires that flags allowed to fly at night be illuminated. Since the proposed flag is to be 375 square feet, that’s going to take a heck of a lot of light. I’ll be interesting to see whether local private pilots show up to the hearing to complain about the lights that will have to shine to the sky.

There are many, many examples of cellular flags in the gallery here. To see some of them, CLICK HERE

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NextG Networks Sues Huntington Beach, California

NextG Networks of California, Inc, a provider of Distributed Antenna Site (DAS) wireless sites has sued the City of Huntington Beach. The suit, filed on December 27, 2007 in the Central District of California (Santa Ana district) bears case number SACV07-1471. The hearing is scheduled for February 7, 2008.

If you don’t have access to Pacer and would like a copy of the complaint, minus exhibits, please contact me using this form:

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Wireless 101 Presentation to the City of Oceanside, California

On January 24, 2008 I had the pleasure of presenting my Wireless 101 lecture to the Planning Commission of the City of Oceanside, California. The lecture covers fundamentals of cell tower siting in a non-technical manner. I also use dozens of high-resolution photographs to illustrate the technology. No, I don’t shy away from dealing with the question of RF safety, and how local governments can review the issue within the boundaries established by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.

Perhaps the best part of the lecture is a photographic review of “The Good; The Bad; and The Silly” of cell siting.

If you’d like to have me present the Wireless 101 lecture to your government agency meeting, please feel free to contact me.

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