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Industry and consumer advocates clash at Assembly hearing over carrier-of-last-resort reform
Summary
Industry witnesses urged modernizing networks and loosening COLR obligations; the CPUC public advocate, unions, consumer groups and many public commenters warned that deregulation risks abandoning rural, low-income and disabled Californians unless strict conditions and verified replacements are required.
At an Assembly informational hearing on carrier-of-last-resort (COLR) rules, industry and public-interest witnesses presented starkly different views about whether and how California should allow carriers to withdraw COLR obligations.
Jonathan Spalter, president of US Telecom (the Broadband Association), told the committee that COLR rules were written for a voice-only era and now force carriers to maintain aging copper networks. "Copper-based technology was considered innovative 150 years ago," Spalter said; he argued that shifting to modern networks (fiber, fixed wireless, satellite and VoIP) would improve emergency communications over time and reduce the substantial annual maintenance costs carriers currently face. Spalter said reforms can be phased by geography and by validated alternatives so that customers are not left without service.
Opposing that view, CPUC Public Advocates Office representative Ernesto Falcon said the public must not be left worse off during any transition. "Any transition should keep people connected with…
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