Telecommunications: reliability standards: 911 emergency service.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission to periodically assess the reliability of the public telecommunications network and, if necessary, to develop recommendations for improvement. The assessment is required to include (1) an analysis of those factors that pose a risk to network reliability, including the adequacy of independent sources of reserve power, (2) consideration as to whether development of reliability standards is appropriate, and (3) consideration as to whether procedures should be developed to notify customers about accessing other telecommunications companies in the event of a service disruption. This bill would require the commission, when considering the need for reliability standards, to consider standards governing the construction, operation, and maintenance of utility boxes, serving area interfaces, cross-connect facilities, cabinets, vaults, pedestals, and similar equipment located outside telephone corporation plant environments, particularly in areas that have previously experienced damage that caused a 911 outage, where the equipment is located in areas of high risk of vandalism or accidental damage and in areas lacking redundancy for backup of the main network facilities serving the area. The Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act establishes the number "911" as the primary emergency telephone number for use in the state and requires the providing of enhanced service capable of selective routing, automatic number identification, or automatic location identification for all calls. This bill would require the commission to establish service outage reporting and response requirements applicable to 911 network service providers and all facilities-based local exchange carriers, including requirements addressing outages impacting access to 911 emergency call centers. The bill would require the commission to set a threshold for reporting outages that requires the reporting of any outage involving 90,000 user minutes or 3,000 customers. The bill would authorize the commission to establish a more stringent threshold reporting requirement that ensures the timely reporting of outages impacting customers in sparsely populated areas of the state. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because this bill requires the commission to implement service outage reporting and response requirements, a violation of which 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.