Carriers, Advocates Clash on Proposed CPUC Service Quality Order
Industry and public interest groups disagreed on a proposed California Public Utilities Commission decision that would set service quality standards for telecom. Their comments about the proposed decision, which Commissioner Darcie Houck wrote in April, were posted Monday (docket 22-03-016).
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The proposed decision's requirements are "unsupported by any factual findings in the record" and are beyond the commission's authority, said USTelecom. It called the requirements "unworkable," saying they "do nothing to better the communications experience of Californians."
USTelecom also questioned the proposed enforcement of legacy providers as the state attempts to "modernize how networks in California are governed." Tightening enforcement "is contrary to the state's goals," it said, noting that legacy providers are "using their own capital to overbuild their own legacy networks with next generation fiber."
Consolidated Communications called the proposed decision a "misguided" and "prescriptive approach" that "includes onerous requirements, rigid compliance standards, and a punitive enforcement framework." The carrier warned that the proposed enforcement and penalties will "distort the competitive market and increase the costs and difficulties of providing service to customers in California."
Consumer groups and smaller carriers welcomed the proposed decision, seeking minor changes. "Customers' reliance on VoIP and wireless services requires service quality metrics to ensure that those services function reliably," said the Utility Reform Network and Center for Accessible Technology in joint comments. The groups asked that the commission allow for the option of adopting further metrics for wireless and VoIP call quality if reporting under the new standards or consumer complaints "indicates that call quality is poor."
The CPUC has "taken an important step toward strengthening consumer protections and addressing longstanding service disparities across California’s telecommunications landscape," the Small Business Utility Advocates said. The group asked that carriers be required to "explicitly incorporate small business-specific outage data" in the commission's standards.
A coalition of 40 rural California counties also supported the proposed decision, noting that service quality metrics "must be improved and extended beyond" plain old telephone service (POTS). "The marketplace is changing," it said: "The deliberate degradation and obsolescence of the POTS network illustrate the dangers with these voice alternatives, especially as consumer reliance on them for critical emergency access grows in the absence of enforceable standards." The coalition called the item a "pivotal and long-overdue step."