Rehearing Sought on CPUC Service Quality Fines, Confidentiality Rulings
The California Public Utilities Commission received a flurry of rehearing requests last week from telecom companies and consumer groups on two recent decisions. Thursday, Cox Communications and the California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies (CalTel) submitted separate applications to rehear…
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a decision in docket R.11-12-001 to charge telcos automatic daily fines of up to $25,000 for failure to meet service quality measures (see 1608180060). The agency adopted the automatic penalties “without adequate factual, legal or policy support,” Cox said in its petition. The company also objected to requiring VoIP providers to submit copies of outage reports they provide the FCC. CalTel also requested rehearing Thursday, largely echoing its concerns about fining CLECs from an Aug. 30 petition for modification (see 1609060044), and sent a separate letter asking that CLECs be exempt from fines until the commission addresses either of its requests. Meanwhile, the Office of Ratepayer Advocates, The Utility Reform Network and other consumer groups asked for rehearing because they said the commission created “a loophole for chronic service quality violators to avoid paying a penalty.” Under the alleged loophole, a company can suspend a fine if it “purports to invest twice the amount of that fine,” but that rule isn't supported by the record, they said. Also, the order closed the proceeding without addressing several topics, including service quality standards for wireless and interconnected VoIP providers, an ongoing network study and several matters referred from other proceedings, the consumer groups said. Earlier, the CPUC received rehearing requests from CTIA and a group of small wireline companies on an order in docket R.14-11-001 to enhance public access to public records under the California Public Records Act. Both protested the CPUC delegating to staff the authority to decide whether a utility document is confidential, with the small telco application threatening a court challenge. “The Commission’s new process for public disclosure of confidential documents unlawfully delegates to Staff the authority to make final discretionary determinations and unconstitutionally empowers Staff to act on such determinations without notice to the affected public utility or the opportunity to be heard regarding the determination,” CTIA said in its request.