BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1375
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Steven Bradford, Chair
SB 1375 (Price) - As Amended: June 22, 2010
SENATE VOTE : 35-0
SUBJECT : Telephone corporations: residential telephone
service: "911" calls.
SUMMARY : Changes the requirements for telephone corporations
to provide 911 emergency service, instead of indefinitely
regardless of whether the residence is a land-line subscriber,
to 90 days after disconnection for nonpayment, or 90 days after
notice is provided to a customer with no customer account
attached to the line. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes a number of legislative findings and declarations,
including problems associated with leaving "warm lines" in
place, and identifies a warm line as a residential telephone
connection with no customer account attached.
2)States legislative intent to amend the statute in a manner
that continues to provide a public safety net in a competitive
telecommunications market, eliminates phantom 911 calls,
conserves energy for productive uses, and limits costs to the
state, local governments, and local telephone corporations.
3)Requires a local telephone corporation to provide access to
911 emergency services for at least 90 days after
disconnection of residential basic exchange service for
nonpayment of any delinquent account or indebtedness owed by
the subscriber, and requires the telephone corporation to
inform residential subscribers all of the following
information:
a) The availability of the 911 emergency service for 90
days after disconnection.
b) Options that may be available to avoid suspension or
disconnection of service.
c) Other options that may be available for obtaining access
to 911 service consistent with a customer education
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program, if adopted by the California Public Utilities
Commission (PUC).
4)Allows a telephone corporation to disconnect any line in
existence on January 1, 2011, that provides access to 911
emergency services with no customer account attached for that
line, if a 90-day notice is provided, and specifies the
information required to be included in the notice.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires all telephone corporations, excluding mobile
providers, to the extent permitted by existing technology or
facilities, to provide every existing and newly installed
residential telephone connection with access to 911 emergency
service regardless of whether an account has been established.
2)Prohibits a telephone corporation from terminating access to
911 emergency service for nonpayment of any delinquent account
or indebtedness owed by the subscriber to the telephone
corporation.
3)Requires the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to
require telephone corporations to inform subscribers of the
availability of 911 emergency services in a manner determined
by the PUC.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : According to the author, the purpose of the bill is
to relieve telephone corporations of the responsibility of
maintaining a residential telephone line with a connection that
has the capacity to place a 911 call, regardless of whether an
account has been established or regular service has been
disconnected for nonpayment. In addition, deterioration in
these lines can trigger false 911 calls, which redirects public
safety responders from true emergencies.
What is a warm line: 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
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this law was to ensure that people can always call 911 from
their home even when they have just moved 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 PUC.
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 PUC reports that the
total number of landline access lines in California has
decreased from 25 million in 2001 to 20 million in 2008. When
customers abandon wireline service, the wire to the residence
remains as a warm line.
According to a draft PUC staff analysis of problems related to
false 911 calls originating from warm lines, California
telephone corporations report about 1.5 million warm lines in
the state, which represents over 12 percent of active
residential telephone lines. The cost to maintain and energize
the existing warm lines is about $2.2 million annually. Most of
these costs are incurred by AT&T and Verizon, and their
customers. Due to the decrease in wire-line subscribers, the
number of warm lines is expected to grow at a rate of 400,000
lines annually. Current law generally requires telephone
corporations to maintain warm lines indefinitely.
In 2005, the Utility Consumers' Action Network filed a complaint
with the PUC challenging AT&T's then-existing policy of
providing warm line service for only 180 days after billed
service was discontinued. The PUC found that AT&T's policy
violated the warm line requirement and imposed a penalty of
about $1.7 million. AT&T appealed the PUC decision, and on May
24, a California Court of Appeal upheld the penalty and nearly
all of the PUC's findings. The court held that the PUC erred in
finding that AT&T violated the warm line requirement for new
residential units when there was no request for warm line
service. The court determined that the PUC also erred in
finding that AT&T violated customer notice requirements but
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concluded that these errors did not require any reduction in the
penalty.
Warm lines as a safety net : The PUC staff analysis estimates
that about 3 percent of 911 calls from warm lines required an
actual fire or emergency medical response, which equates to
about 270 calls during March 2009. The analysis discloses that
this number does not coincide with the total number of calls.
The 3 percent only represents the minimum number of emergency
calls from warm lines and it does not include calls dispatched
directly by primary PSAPs that are police and fire primary
PSAPs. In addition, the 3 percent estimate does not count the
police dispatches for emergencies that require law enforcement
presence.
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 PUC and telephone corporations have
used to meet the law's requirement to inform subscribers about
warm line service. Many Californians may 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.
Phantom 911 calls : Telephone corporations and the 911 County
Coordinator Task Force reports that public service access points
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.
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The PUC staff analysis studied State 911 call records for 911
calls originating from warm lines during the months of January
through April 2009, conducted interviews at PSAPs in Los Angeles
County, and evaluated trouble ticket investigations conducted by
AT&T and Verizon during July 2009 through September 2009. The
analysis found that an average of 9,346 calls per month
originated from warm lines statewide. When using repetitive
calls as a determinant of faulty wiring, the PUC estimated that
warm lines were generating almost 6,000 false calls to 911 per
month. (The analysis presented possible plausible reasons for
the difference between the total number of calls, and the
combined false and legitimate calls.)
How much does it cost to maintain the warm lines : The state 911
Office pays AT&T and Verizon, the 911 network providers in
California, for maintaining the telephone number and location
information in the 911 databases which are part of the 911
network. This payment comes out of the 911 surcharge monies
collected. The fund condition statement anticipates $107
million to be collected in the 2010-11 fiscal year.
However, the state 911 Office does not pay any local exchange
carrier for the cost of keeping a local loop energized and
maintained for warm line purposes. According to AT&T, this
amounts to about $2 million per year and growing as subscribers
switch to wireless.
No solution any time soon: This committee originally set this
bill to be heard on June 14, 2010. At that time, there were
numerous parties with different and very valid concerns that
were not reconciled. 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 while preserving 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.
This committee postponed this bill being heard until this last
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hearing of the Senate bills to allow the parties to devise a
compromise that would address the parties' concerns.
Communications among the divergent parties have been frustrated,
which has lead to this bill being recently amended to
accommodate the telecommunications companies' desire to halt the
required maintenance of the warm lines, while attempting to
accommodate public safety concerns by requiring the telephone
corporations to inform residential subscribers of other 911
alternatives. This may protect public safety if all subscribers
speak the same language fluently and can understand possibly
complex terms and conditions. However, California is a diverse
state and no perfect solutions have been presented.
Originally, some parties suggested an open public venue, such as
the PUC, to use an existing proceeding to allow for public
comment, develop a thorough record, and expect the PUC to devise
a workable solution while addressing all parties' concerns. The
telephone corporations averted the PUC venue. This could stem
from a pending issue when they had been fined once before over
their early disconnection of warm lines and are still in
appellate proceedings. They voiced concern that a PUC process
would take too long, and in the meantime, they are paying for
warm lines that are growing exponentially. The suggestion of a
sunset or a deadline for the PUC to render a decision was not
acceptable.
As such, this committee may wish to discuss whether extending
the requirement to provide warm line service for 120 days
instead of 90 days would be a viable compromise.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
AT&T
California Association of Competitive Telecommunications
Companies (CALTEL)
California Cable & Telecommunications Association (CCTA)
California Communications Association (CalCom)
California Professional Firefighters (CPF)
Charter Communications
Comcast
COX Communications
Frontier Communications
Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC)
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SureWest
Time Warner Cable
Verizon
Opposition
911 County Coordinator Task Force
Andre Harrison, Sr., Communications Operations Supervisor,
Mountain View Police Department
Beth Kafer, Communications Manager, San Benito County Sherrif's
Office
California Community Technology Police Group (CCTPG)
CALNENA
Charles Cullen, Director Technical Services, Palo Alto Police
Department
George W. Morris, Jr., Fire Chief, Butte County Fire/CAL FIRE
Lisa D. Krimsky, Benicia PSAP Supervisor, Benicia Police
Department
Margaret Mary Goulart, Police Support Services Manager,
Pleasanton Police Department
Perry L. Reniff, Interim Police Chief, Butte County
Sheriff/Coroner, Retd.
Shawndalyn Duncan, Lead Dispatcher, San Diego State University
Police Department
The Utility Reform Network (TURN)
Analysis Prepared by : Gina Adams / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083