CPUC Takes More Time on High-Cost Fund Revamp
The California Public Utilities Commission extended by two months the deadline for a rulemaking to revamp the California High Cost Fund-A program, which provides subsidies to 13 small rural LECs for basic phone service. The public utility code requires quasi-legislative…
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cases to be resolved with 18 months but allows the CPUC to extend it by 60 days at most. The new deadline is Oct. 7. The CPUC seeks to update the program in response to market, regulatory and technological changes since the fund was established in 1987, it said in an order issued Friday. “Due to the complexity of this proceeding, a second phase will be required.” Second-phase topics include the applicability of rate of return as a regulatory framework for RLECs, alternative forms of regulation including one based on incentives, whether competition tests should include all technologies and a review of the commission’s preliminary conclusion not to open areas served by the small RLECs to competition, the state commission said.