Telecommunications: universal service: deaf and disabled telecommunications programs.

Existing law, the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, establishes a program of cooperative federalism for the regulation of telecommunications to attain the goal of local competition, while implementing specific, predictable, and sufficient federal and state mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service, consistent with certain universal service principles. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission to oversee administration of the state's universal service programs, including the deaf and disabled programs. The existing deaf and disabled universal service program, among other things, requires the commission to design and implement a program to provide a telecommunications device capable of serving the needs of individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired, together with a single party line, at no charge additional to the basic exchange rate, to any subscriber who is certified as an individual who is deaf or hearing impaired. Existing law requires the commission, with certain exceptions, until January 1, 2010, to establish a rate recovery mechanism through a surcharge not to exceed 0.5% applied to a subscriber's intrastate telephone service, to allow providers of equipment and service pursuant to the state's deaf and disabled universal service programs to recover costs as they are incurred. Existing law requires the commission to annually review the surcharge level and the balances in the funds established to fund the state's deaf and disabled universal service programs and, until January 1, 2010, authorize the commission to make any necessary adjustments to the surcharge to ensure that the deaf and disabled universal service programs are adequately funded and the fund balances are not excessive. This bill would instead make January 1, 2014, the termination date for the requirements placed on the commission relative to funding of the deaf and disabled universal service programs. Existing law makes any public utility and any corporation other than a public utility that fails to comply with any part of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission guilty of a crime. Because the program that is extended under the provisions of this bill require a decision or order of the commission to implement, and violation of the order or decision would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by extending the operation of a crime. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.