Telecommunications: pay telephones.

(1) Existing law requires an owner or operator of a coin-activated telephone for public use, which is not a telephone corporation and which provides operator-assisted services by other than a telephone corporation tariffed to provide those services, to post on or near the telephone equipment certain information, as prescribed. Commencing January 1, 2015, this bill would apply this provision to a telephone available for public use that accepts any form of payment, and would require the owners or operators of these telephones to post additional information and to comply with additional specified requirements. (2) Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to adopt and enforce operating requirements, as prescribed, for coin-activated and credit card-activated telephones available for public use owned or operated by corporations or persons other than telephone corporations. Commencing January 1, 2015, this bill would apply this provision to telephones available for public use that accept any form of payment. (3) Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the Public Utilities Act and because a violation of an order or decision of the Public Utilities Commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new 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.