2011 Regulatory and Legislative Initiatives

California PUC Proceedings

- CALTEL is participating in a new PUC rulemaking that will determine if and how interconnected VoIP providers should collect and remit surcharges to support California public purpose programs

- CALTEL looks forward to providing information to PUC staff working on updating its competitive analysis of the communications markets in California, and to participating in the PUC’s planned review of the state of competition and of the Commission’s findings in the Uniform Regulatory Framework (URF) proceeding

- CALTEL is also participating in PUC proceedings focused on business customer access to 911, statewide access to 211 information, and pole inspection and loading requirements 

FCC Proceedings 

- CALTEL plans to update the record in the FCC’s Small Business Broadband proceeding by providing new information about how service quality problems that surfaced during the December winter storms in California impacted competitive carriers and to describe related concerns about AT&T’s failure to maintain its copper infrastructure

Competitive Carrier or Small Business-Affecting Legislation 

- CALTEL looks forward to implementation of legislation that it sponsored in 2010 that raised awareness of the impact that AT&T Section 251 and 271 Forbearance Petitions will have on competitive carrier access to last-mile inputs, and robust participation by the California PUC in any FCC proceedings considering such petitions for Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) located in California

- CALTEL is testifying before the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee to provide new information about how service quality problems that surfaced during the December winter storms in California impacted competitive carriers and to describe related concerns about AT&T’s failure to maintain its copper infrastructure

 - CALTEL is continuing to work with industry coalitions and members of the legislature to advocate on behalf of its member companies and their customers