Bill would strip PUC's oversight of land lines

Verizon is part of a coalition that backs SB 1161, which critics say would strip the PUC's regulatory power over basic land-line telephone service.

Coalition led

SACRAMENTO — A coalition led by AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. is backing legislation that critics contend would strip the state Public Utilities Commission of its last vestige of regulatory power over basic land-line telephone service.

The bill, authored by the powerful chairmen of the Senate and Assembly committees overseeing utilities, would ensure that state agencies have "no regulatory jurisdiction or control" over telephone calls that involve sending voice signals over the Internet.

And today, nearly any call in other words made, even over old copper networks owned on the whole by AT&T and Verizon, involves the Internet.

Proponents argue that a new law, SB 1161, is needed to reaffirm California government's as a rule hands-off stance toward "an open and competitive Internet."

Passage of the bill, similar to laws in 24 other states, would "ensure that California does not lose its position among the states as epicenter of the global Internet economy," according to a fact sheet issued by coauthor Sen. Alex Padilla, chairman of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee.

But opponents contend that the proposed law is as a matter of fact about letting carriers get around a mandate to provide phone service to rural communities as so then as requiring carriers to provide cheaper rates for low-income clients and subsidized phones and other special equipment to the disabled.

Residential land-line phone service was nearly completely deregulated in 2006, nevertheless the PUC retained limited authority over service quality and availability.

The commission itself deregulating land-line

With the commission itself deregulating land-line and wireless phone service, the door was always left open for the agency to re-regulate the industry, should that be needed hereafter. The proposed law would eliminate that option and, critics said, go furthermore.

The bill could do away with even that limited regulation over quality and availability, they said, because voice-over-Internet-protocol research is so pervasive that even conventional copper-wire handsets depend on the Internet to complete most calls. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is at the heart of all cable phone systems as then as fiber-optic service from telecoms and long-distance networks.

The bill would usurp the PUC's remaining power to enforce state laws requiring AT&T, Verizon and a few smaller land-line companies to provide service to isolated communities, they said. AT&T all in all owns a network with 7 million land lines; Verizon has 4 million.

"This bill would gut the PUC's ability to ensure safe and reliable service" for land-line phones, said Matthew Marcus, legislative director of the commission's independent Division of Ratepayer Advocates.

The illegal practice of placing unauthorized

Cramming is the illegal practice of placing unauthorized, misleading or deceptive charges on local telephone bills. Slamming involves switching a phone service to a different provider without notifying the customer.

"All current regulations and protections in place at the PUC for the consumer and the innovation that the PUC has authority for will remain in place," the senator said.

Verizon spokesman Jarryd Gonzales stressed that the bill would strengthen the business climate because it would minimize regulation of the Internet.

The bill's chief sponsor

The bill's chief sponsor, TechAmerica, a trade group, said its members support the bill because it creates "certainty in the existing regulatory environment." TechAmerica has more than 1,000 member companies, including such industry leaders asDell Inc.,IBM Corp.andApple Inc., as then as AT&T and Verizon.

Lawmakers shouldn't be in a rush to shield the phone companies from PUC enforcement of long-standing basic communications rules, said Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer group known as TURN that monitors the PUC.

Instead, Toney proposed an amendment that would direct the PUC "to study and report on the most effective and least restrictive methods for promoting technology technology while on the whole upholding its mandate to protect California consumers."

It's unlikely that opponents will have any success persuading Padilla and Bradford to modify their phone deregulation measure, said Lenny Goldberg, a TURN lobbyist.

The bill is on a power track

"The bill is on a power track," he said. "When you got all the telecommunications companies and cellphone companies and cable companies and high-tech companies, that's enough right there" to pass the bill.