BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                              1
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                SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
                                 ALEX PADILLA, CHAIR
          

          SB 1375 -  Price                                  Hearing Date:   
          April 20, 2010             S
          As Introduced                      FISCAL                B

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                                      DESCRIPTION
           
           Current law  requires all landline telephone corporations, to the  
          extent permitted by existing technology or facilities, to  
          provide every telephone connection with access to 911 emergency  
          service regardless of whether an account has been established or  
          regular service has been disconnected for nonpayment.

           This bill  would require all landline telephone corporations, to  
          the extent permitted by existing technology or facilities, to  
          provide every existing and newly installed residential telephone  
          connection with a connection that has the capacity to place a  
          911 call regardless of whether an account has been or  
          established or regular service has been disconnected for  
          nonpayment.


                                      BACKGROUND
           
          According to the author, this bill aims to update the  
          requirement that all California residences have access to 911  
          emergency service in recognition of the increase in telephone  
          subscribers who are abandoning landline service in favor of  
          wireless or other technologies.

          Access to 911 - Current law enacted in 1994 requires all  
          landline telephone corporations, to the extent permitted by  
          existing technology or facilities, to provide every residential  
          telephone connection with access to 911 emergency service  
          regardless of whether an account has been established.  The law  












          prohibits any corporation from terminating this "warm line"  
          service for nonpayment of any delinquent account.  The intent of  
          this law is to ensure that people can always call 911 from their  
          home even when they just move in and regular phone service has  
          not started yet or when regular service has been discontinued  
          because they cannot afford to pay their telephone bill. The law  
          also requires telephone corporations to inform subscribers of  
          the availability of warm line service in a manner determined by  
          the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).  

          Benefit and Cost of Warm Line Service - While the warm line  
          requirement is intended to enhance public safety, no data or  
          reports of actual emergency calls being placed on warm lines  
          have been identified.  Telephone corporations, 911 service  
          administrators, the CPUC, and the State of California 911  
          Emergency Communications Office have been asked to provide this  
          information, including any data or reports related to an  
          apparent surge in false or "phantom" 911 calls in southern  
          California that peaked in early 2009.  

          Telephone corporations (and their ratepayers) incur the cost of  
          maintaining the facilities for warm lines and the telephone  
          number associated with each line that registers at the local  
          Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) if a 911 call is  
          transmitted on the line.  The companies claim that these costs  
          have increased because of rapid growth in the number of warm  
          lines as subscribers discontinue landline service and transfer  
          to wireless, cable, or VoIP service.  The CPUC reports that the  
          total number of landline access lines in California has  
          decreased from 24.77 million in 2001 to 20.25 million in 2008.   
          When customers abandon wireline service, the wire to the  
          residence remains as a warm line.  AT&T claims that it now has 2  
          million warm lines statewide, up from 150,000 in 2005.  

          AT&T Complaint Case - Current law generally requires telephone  
          corporations to maintain warm lines indefinitely.  In 2005, the  
          Utility Consumers' Action Network filed a complaint with the  
          CPUC challenging AT&T's then-existing policy of providing warm  
          line service for only180 days after billed service was  
          discontinued.  The CPUC found that AT&T's policy violated the  
          warm line requirement and imposed a penalty of about $1.7  
          million.  AT&T's appeal of the decision is pending before the  
          California Court of Appeal.  












          "Phantom" 911 Calls - Telephone corporations and the 911 County  
          Coordinator Task Force report that PSAPs sometimes receive 911  
          calls that are triggered by damaged or aging lines, weather, or  
          other causes.  Not knowing whether there is a real emergency,  
          public safety officials respond to the homes where these calls  
          originate, thereby draining local government resources and  
          making those responders unavailable for other public safety  
          duties.  They claim that the incidence of phantom 911 calls is  
          increasing as customers abandon landline service and the number  
          of existing warm lines continues to grow.  


                                       COMMENTS
           

              1)   Do Warm Lines Serve Intended Purpose  ?  A warm line can  
               serve its intended purpose of enabling access to 911 in an  
               emergency only if (1) the person in the emergency knows  
               warm line service is available, (2) the person has a  
               telephone to plug into a jack connected to a warm line, and  
               (3) all wiring on the warm line is functional so that the  
               call can go through to the PSAP.  Regarding the first  
               requirement, it is unclear what information the CPUC and  
               telephone corporations have used to meet the law's  
               requirement to inform subscribers about warm line service.   
               Anecdotal evidence suggests that the average person does  
               not know that warm line service is available.  Regarding  
               the third requirement, telephone companies claim that,  
               short of a site visit to each premise, they do not know if  
               a warm line is functional when a subscriber switches to  
               another provider because they no longer have contact with  
               that subscriber.  Subscribers would likely determine  
               whether a warm line is functional only when trying to place  
               a 911 call.  The telephone companies also claim that, with  
               competition in the local exchange market, warm lines are  
               sometimes cut in a way that makes them nonfunctional when a  
               new provider connects the subscriber to its facilities.   
               These issues highlight the need for more data on whether  
               warm lines have been used successfully to call 911 in real  
               emergencies in the 15 years that they have been required. 

              2)   Ongoing Negotiations  .  The current language in this bill  











               makes no significant change in the requirement to provide  
               warm line service.  However, the author represents that  
               telephone companies, 911 public safety officials, and the  
               911 County Coordinator Task Force have been engaged in  
               negotiations to modify the 911 warm line requirement to  
               account for changes in the telecommunications marketplace  
               yet still preserve the public safety purpose of warm lines.  
                The concepts under negotiation include eliminating the  
               requirement to provide a warm line when a subscriber  
               voluntarily switches to another provider, modifying the  
               requirement when a subscriber is disconnected from regular  
               service for nonpayment, and requiring more customer  
               education of low-cost service options that include 911  
               access.  While no language has been provided at this time,  
               these concepts raise issues addressed in the following  
               comments.

              3)   Voluntary Disconnection  .  Eliminating the requirement to  
               provide a warm line when a subscriber voluntarily chooses  
               to switch to another service provider would not deprive the  
               subscriber of the ability to call 911 in an emergency  if   
               the new service includes 911 access.  This proposal would  
               relieve the incumbent telephone corporation losing  
               subscribers to competitors of the cost of maintaining warm  
               lines.  Reducing the number of warm lines also would reduce  
               the chance for phantom 911 calls to PSAPs.  

              4)   Disconnection for Nonpayment .  The stakeholders are  
               considering whether to reduce the warm line requirement  
               from being of indefinite duration to a limited period of  
               time, perhaps 60 days, after a subscriber is disconnected  
               for nonpayment of service charges.  The goal is to give  
               subscribers a sufficient amount of time to re-establish  
               service, which could be Lifeline service at 50% of the cost  
               of basic service, or a measured Lifeline service at an even  
               lower rate, both of which would enable 911 access.   
               However, discontinuing warm line service after a specified  
               period carries the risk that the subscriber will not have  
               re-established regular service and would not be able to  
               place a 911 call in an emergency.  Despite the lack of hard  
               data that warm lines have enabled 911 calls in real  
               emergencies, the possibility of even one customer being  
               unable to call 911 in a life-threatening situation may be  











               too great a risk.

              5)   Customer Education  .  To minimize the possibility of a  
               person ever being without 911 access, the stakeholders are  
               considering an improved customer education program so that  
               a subscriber facing disconnect for nonpayment would be  
               informed of all service options, including service from  
               other providers.  Because of the competitive market, one  
               idea being considered is to require the CPUC to adopt a  
               customer education program that the telephone corporation  
               would use to describe services from other providers.  This  
               proposal, if effectively implemented, could further the  
               goal of ensuring that all subscribers maintain service that  
               includes 911 access.  



                                       POSITIONS
           
           Sponsor:
           
          AT&T, Verizon, and Frontier

           Support:
           
          AT&T
          CalCom
          CalTel
          Frontier
          SureWest
          Verizon
          911 County Coordinator Task Force

           Oppose:
           
          None on file.



          Jackie Kinney 
          SB 1375 Analysis
          Hearing Date:  April 20, 2010