CPUC commissioner asserts “a significant role” over broadband affordability and essential service

12 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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Rechtschaffen 2 20may2019

In a ruling issued on Friday, CPUC commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen ended any doubt over whether an inquiry into the affordability of utility services includes the cost and quality of broadband access: it does. The decision puts wind in the sails of an analysis of broadband pricing and service speeds prepared by California Public Utilities Commission staff, and meets strident objections from AT&T, Comcast, Charter Communications and other monopoly model incumbents head on…

This amended scoping memo confirms that communications services, such as broadband internet access, are included within the scope of this proceeding. This amended scoping memo finds that [California Public Utilities] Code Sections 709, 280, 281, 275.6, and the Moore Act all demonstrate that the Legislature contemplated a significant role for the Commission in closing the digital divide in California and bringing advanced communications services, including broadband internet access, to all Californians. This proceeding may assist in that goal.

The California Cable and Telecommunications Association, which is a Sacramento lobbying front organisation for Comcast, Charter and other cable companies, argued that the CPUC shouldn’t look into the affordability of broadband service because it is “an interstate service governed by federal law, and defined as an “information service” and not a “telecommunications service”. In reply comments, AT&T agreed, saying “broadband is not a public utility service”. A joint filing by small rural telephone companies said much the same thing.

Unfortunately for them, the primary legal basis for their objections – the Federal Communications Commission’s blanket preemption of state broadband regulations was overturned by a federal appeals court. So long as the FCC says that broadband is an information service, it can’t wield its telecommunications authority as a magic weed whacker to chop down state regulations.

In his ruling, Rechtschaffen also set next June as the deadline for CPUC action on affordability and service standards for broadband and other utilities, including electricity, water, gas and voice services.

Collected documents from the CPUC’s investigation into essential service and affordability metrics for utilities are here.