California Seeks Comments on New Proposal to Redefine Basic Service
California is a step closer to offering a new definition of residential basic phone service this month. Californians offered many public remarks in favor of overhauling the definition at Thursday’s California Public Utilities Commission meeting and stressed the importance of mobility for basic service. They referred to a longtime CPUC proceeding to redefine what basic telecom service means, how its requirements should apply to new technologies and what role reliability should play. The CPUC is gearing up for another vote on a new proposal, at its Oct. 25 meeting.
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The new California definition will be “technology neutral,” a revised Tuesday proposal from Commissioner Michel Florio said (http://xrl.us/bnto6d). The proposal noted new basic service considerations that would affect wireless calls. “A wireless carrier that offers residential basic telephone service must provide sufficient signal strength and coverage to maintain a voice-grade connection in at least one room of the customer’s residence,” the proposal said. Limitations of geography, weather, calling traffic and surrounding vegetation “should not excuse a wireless basic service provider from ensuring that its basic service customers can reliably send and receive calls” in at least one household room, said the Florio revision.
"It’s essential that the Commission maintain oversight over the provisioning of basic service,” the proposal said. All basic service providers should be subject to the complaint process, it said. California’s goals should include “availability of a minimum level of essential telecommunications services to virtually everyone in the state” and provisions of affordability and Lifeline support, the proposal said. The Florio proposal emphasizes reliability of service. “A technology-neutral definition does not mean settling for the lowest common denominator of service standards,” it said. The proposal explicitly disagrees with the assertion that “competitive forces” will ensure reliable basic service.
CPUC President Michael Peevey first introduced a proposal to redefine basic service in February, followed by an alternate proposal from Florio in July. The proposals received dozens of comments from industry stakeholders and consumer advocates throughout 2012. Tuesday, Florio submitted his revised version in anticipation of the upcoming meeting. Several comments on its first version proved “persuasive” and the CPUC has attempted “adding flexibility in several respects” in response, said the new version. The revisions try to address the wireless industry’s concerns about providing Lifeline, it said. The new version makes it easier for wireless providers to bundle basic service with other items. The comments showcased “tension that has been created by attempts to satisfy different, though related, goals in establishing basic service requirements,” the CPUC said.
It’s “a different era from 1996 and landlines,” said Asian Americans for Community Involvement Advocacy Associate Rabiah Khalid at the Thursday hearing, referring to the 1996 Telecom Act. “It’s time to improve that definition.” San Francisco Latino Democratic Club President Jim Salinas said an updated definition will help providers grant more choices. “Everyone in the working world uses cell phones these days,” he told the PUC, saying Peevey’s proposal for a new definition “just makes sense” and is “truly forward thinking.” Other speakers advocated for low-income individuals and their need to reach 911 and their doctors. “Cell phone service is basic service these days,” said Brian Webster, representing a workers’ resource center in San Francisco.
Basic service, as the latest California proposal defines it, would include “the ability to place and receive voice-grade calls over all distances utilizing the public switched telephone network,” affordability provisions and “one-time free blocking for information services, and one-time billing.” There would be “a flat rate option within a designated geographic area,” and access to Lifeline information and 911, toll-free, operator, relay and directory services. The CPUC proposal acknowledges that some service standards are still evolving, referring to FCC proceedings. “Until the Commission determines the extent to which service quality standards should be adopted for non-traditional technologies, a provider that offers basic service utilizing a technology other than exchange-based wireline technology must comply with service quality standards and requirements applicable to Uniform Regulatory Framework COLRs [carriers of last resort],” it said of the federal commission. The question of wireless basic quality standards continues in another CPUC proceeding, said the proposal.
The CPUC said it’s not required to go through more rounds of comments, but permitted one more round on Florio’s revised proposal, due next Tuesday. No replies will be allowed. “The comments should focus only on the revisions to the original alternate and any legal issues,” the CPUC said.