Order Instituting Rulemaking Proceeding to Consider Amendments to General Order 133 (Service Quality) (R.22-03-016)
BACKGROUND
California’s service quality standards have not kept pace with the services Californians currently use for a wide range of daily activities, including for their jobs and schoolwork. The current standards exist only for wireline landlines and there are no service quality standards for communications services such as broadband service, interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and wireless services.
The California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) General Order 133-D, rules governing telecommunication services, applies to public utility and telephone corporations, including rural telephone companies that are regulated under rate-of-return regulations (commonly known as GRC ILECs), as well as incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). GO 133D has rules for installation times and commitments, response to customer service requests, out-of-service time periods, reporting requirements for major service interruption, and the amount of time it takes for a service representative to pick up when a customer calls to complain. GO 133D also requires landline telephone providers to submit reports every three months.
The CPUC opened proceeding R.22-03-016 to examine service quality standards for telecommunications services, including landline telephone, facilities-based interconnected VoIP service , cellphone/wireless phone, and internet/broadband services. The goal is to ensure all Californians have adequate access to public safety and emergency services, public health, educational resources, as well as the many other benefits these services provide when offered in a reliable manner.
PUBLIC ADVOCATES OFFICE POSITION
Broadband and voice services such as wireless and interconnected VoIP are essential communications services necessary to participate in today’s economy and society. It is a matter of public health and safety to establish minimum service quality standards for today’s essential communications services to protect customers in times of emergency when they need these services the most. Individuals who pay for these communications services expect that they work in moments of greatest need. By opening this Rulemaking, the Commission has acknowledged the importance of service quality for the safety of customers in California. In addition to adopting new service quality standards for broadband, wireless, and interconnected VoIP service, the Commission should:
- expand the existing General Order 133-D (GO 133-D) service quality metrics to broadband and interconnected VoIP service, and expand the Customer Trouble Report standard and the Answer Time standard to wireless service;
- update the Customer Trouble Report standard to reduce the target number of Trouble Reports and the Answer Time standard and to increase the number of communications service providers subject to the standard by removing the 10,000 access line requirement;
- update its enforcement mechanisms to hold communications service providers accountable for keeping people connected and providing reliable service;
- adopt new network service quality metrics for wireless service measuring cell site outages and wireless voice quality; and
- consider customer service quality metrics to wireline broadband service, service quality metrics for network technical quality, and explore appropriate benchmarks to measure wireless network technical quality by examining what metrics wireless service providers track to determine the performance of wireless networks.
These updates and additions to GO 133-D will help California customers get the baseline level of service they expect, pay for, and deserve from communications service providers.
Contact Us
Mary Flannelly, Policy & Communications
Mary.Flannelly@cpuc.ca.gov
General Support & Questions
PublicAdvocatesOffice@cpuc.ca.gov