AB 396

Under current law, until April 30, 2013, a telecommunications provider who is

an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) under federal law was required to make

basic voice service available to all residential customers within the local exchange

area in which the telecommunications provider operated as an ILEC, and allowed an

ILEC to satisfy that requirement through an affiliate or through the use of any

available technology or mode. However, an ILEC was allowed to apply to the Public

Service Commission (PSC) for a waiver from compliance with that requirement and

the PSC was required to grant the waiver if certain requirements were satisfied.

Also, if the PSC failed to act on the application within specified deadlines, the waiver

was considered granted by operation of law. Current law specifies a sunset date of

April 30, 2013, on which all of the foregoing no longer apply.

This bill eliminates that sunset date. As a result, under the bill, except as

described as follows, the foregoing requirements apply to an ILEC. The bill also

makes the following changes to those requirements. First, instead of requiring an

ILEC to make basic voice service available to residential customers within a local

exchange area, the bill requires an ILEC to make such service effectively available

to such customers. Second, the bill eliminates the PSC's authority to grant waivers,

but exempts from the bill's requirements an ILEC that was granted a waiver before

that sunset date, or for whom a waiver was considered granted by operation of law

before that sunset date. Finally, the bill allows the PSC to investigate whether an

ILEC has complied with the bill's requirements and allows the PSC to order an ILEC

to comply through the use of any technology or mode that the PSC determines is

necessary to ensure that basic voice service is effectively available to all residential

customers in a local exchange area.