AB 2797: Telephone corporations: carriers of last resort: tariffs.

Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state, including telephone corporations, and to fix just and reasonable rates and charges for public utilities. Existing law requires the commission, on or before February 1, 1995, to issue an order initiating an investigation and open a proceeding to examine the current and future definitions of universal service in telecommunications. Pursuant to that provision, the commission issued a decision involving carriers of last resort, including the withdrawal process for carriers of last resort, defined as a carrier who provides local exchange service and stands ready to provide basic service to any customer requesting such service within a specified area.

This bill would no longer require a telephone corporation seeking relief from carrier of last resort obligations to be a carrier of last resort or to have any carrier of last resort obligations if the telephone corporation submits a notice containing certain information to the commission and modifies and removes its commission tariffs. The bill requires telephone corporations to identify, as part of the notice, (1) a census block of the telephone corporations service territory where there is no population or where the company has no basic exchange telephone service customers, or (2) a census block designated as urban where 2 or more different service providers offer alternative voice services, as defined, to customers, or both. The bill would also require the telephone corporation to acknowledge in the notice that it will not discontinue basic exchange telephone service until certain federal requirements are satisfied. The bill would require these telephone corporations to provide certain public benefits commitments, including, among things, by providing education to affected customers to explain the benefits and advantages of transitioning to modern networks and services.

Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill are within the act, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.