Prepaid Calling Card Consumer Protection Act Hearing Delayed

With all of the recent uproar from local officials about the deceptive practices in the phone card industry, it looked like the issue was finally going to reach the federal level, with scheduled hearings to be conducted by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Senator Bill Nelson's (D-FL) proposed bill S. 2998. However, it looks like that hearing has been postponed with no new date given leaving us to wonder if the calling card persecution movement is truly dying down?

It was commonly known that IDT had been the lead lobbyist for reforms in the business, utilizing heavy political contributions and insider CEO Jim Courter's connections to help push these initiatives along. However, with Jim Courter's recently being forced to step down from John McCain's fund raising committee due to the scandal behind a shady IDT and Telco Haiti deal, the movement may have lost it's conductor.

It's my personal opinion that the worst of the witch hunt against the phone card industry for the last few months may be behind us. It will never completely go away, but I think the process has run it's course, with lot's of positive changes in the industry like a higher percentage of cleaner cards, clearer advertising and most of all more legitamate overall business practices.