AT&T has to pay a $3.75 million fine because of its “pattern of obfuscation, delay, and deception” in dealing with the California Public Utilities Commission, and the “inaccuracy, evasion, omission, and contradiction” in its description of its 911 service. The core issue was whether AT&T is required to file particular paperwork regarding next generation 911 services. The answer from the CPUC is an emphatic yes. AT&T’s refusal to do so and the manner in which it refused earned it the multimillion dollar fine.
The CPUC’s unanimous vote upholds a ruling earlier this year by an administrative law judge. AT&T appealed to the commission, claiming it had done no wrong because it merely slipped through legal loopholes created by differences in technology.
It’s a claim AT&T continues to make, most recently when it objected to new CPUC disaster readiness rules. That argument was debunked by the commission’s decision, which reiterated that 911 service is 911 service, regardless of how it’s provided or what network segment of the 911 system is being provided…
The Commission seeks to protect Californians who need safe energy delivery and reliable communications through the natural and man-made disasters to which California is increasingly prone. The Commission’s need for “accurate information from the utility in order to, among other things, ensure that it is providing just, reasonable and safe service” is acute, given the inherent information asymmetry between regulator and regulated entity. AT&T has not provided accurate information pertaining to the issues before us…
Emergency service tariff violations are not garden-variety regulatory misfeasance. The transport of emergency communications is a life and death matter. The difference between transport that guarantees 98%, 99.9% or 99.999% availability for a given trunk line can well mean the difference of an ambulance or fire truck that arrives on time and one that does not.
If anything, the decision said, the $3.75 million fine “may even be too modest” because of AT&T’s “financial resources” and the severity of its violation of “the public trust attendant on the utility services it provides”.
Commissioners made one significant change to the penalty. Originally, AT&T would have been given 30 days to file the necessary paperwork, and if it didn’t, the fine would have doubled to $7.5 million. Instead, AT&T will be fined $15,000 for every day it’s late.