Bill Text: CA SB444 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Telecommunications: Moore Universal Telephone Service

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB444 Detail]

Download: California-2015-SB444-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 444	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Fuller

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2015

   An act to amend Section 873 of the Public Utilities Code, relating
to telecommunications.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 444, as introduced, Fuller. Telecommunications: Moore Universal
Telephone Service Act.
   The Moore Universal Telephone Service Act established the
Universal Lifeline Telephone Service program in order to provide
low-income households with access to affordable basic residential
telephone service. The act requires the commission to: (1) annually
designate a class of lifeline service necessary to meet minimum
communications needs, including the ability to originate and receive
calls and the ability to access electronic information services, (2)
set the rates and charges for that service, (3) develop eligibility
criteria for that service, and (4) assess the degree of achievement
of universal service, including penetration rates by income,
ethnicity, and geography. The act requires that these 4 items of
information be annually reported to the Legislature by the commission
in a document that can be made public.
   This bill would make a nonsubstantive revision to the provision
requiring that the items of information be annually reported to the
Legislature by the commission in a document that can be made public.

   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 873 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
   873.  (a) (1) The commission shall annually do all of the
following:
   (A) Designate a class of lifeline service necessary to meet
minimum communications needs.
   (B) Set the rates and charges for that service.
   (C) Develop eligibility criteria for that service.
   (D) Assess the degree of achievement of universal service,
including telephone penetration rates by income, ethnicity, and
geography.
   (2) This information shall be annually reported to the Legislature
by the commission in a document  which   that
 can be made public.
   (b) Minimum communications needs includes, but is not limited to,
the ability to originate and receive calls and the ability to access
electronic information services.