[2837] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] CA Telecom Bill SB 1161
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PRIVACY Forum mailing list)
Thu May 24 22:14:42 2012
Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 18:58:05 -0700
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----- Forwarded message from rjmarti <rjmarti@earthlink.net> -----
Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 18:13:05 -0700
From: rjmarti <rjmarti@earthlink.net>
Subject: CA Telecom Bill SB 1161
To: "lauren@pfir.org" <lauren@pfir.org>
Disposition-Notification-To: <rjmarti@earthlink.net>
Hi Lauren, - thought you might want to be aware of this bill.
R.
Opposition Growing to SB 1161 - The Worst Telecom Bill Ever in California
Posted on 23 May 2012 By Mark Toney TURN
Why has a seemingly innocuous bill, SB 1161(Padilla) attracted the support
of some of the biggest corporations on the planet, as well as vociferous
opposition from consumer, labor and economic justice organizations?
According to supporters, SB 1161 doesn’t really do anything new; it just
“affirms” existing laws.
Fortunately, that’s the kind of deception that withers in the light of
day.
SB 1161 is actually the most anti-consumer bill ever introduced in
California because it permits the telecom industry to dictate the terms of
its own regulation, or as the case would have it, deregulation.
The impact of SB 1161 goes far beyond its stated goal of protecting the
Internet and fostering innovation and job creation in California’s high
tech industry. In fact, the bill has nothing to do with the internet.
What the bill does is eliminate minimum standards for all telephone
services that utilize VOIP (voice over internet protocol) or IP-enabled
networks (internet protocol) - which have nothing to do with the
Internet. Its real impact will be in tying regulators’ hands. In a few
years, when the telecom industry completes its transition to VOIP phone
service, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will lose
authority over all telecom, and consumers like you and me will lose all
our rights.
Minimum standards for public safety would disappear immediately for VOIP
providers if SB 1161 were enacted. Emergency 911 calls during a power
outage will be compromised for the 2.3 million current VOIP phone
customers because VOIP providers would no longer be required by to provide
basic disclosures relating to emergency calls and power outages. VOIP
providers would no longer be subject to CPUC safety rules governing pole
attachments, or be held accountable for dangerously overloading poles, a
major cause of wildfires. Phone service for rural customers is jeopardized
if VOIP providers are exempt from obligations to provide affordable
service to every customer in a service area as a Carrier of Last Resort.
In the near future, service quality for all 10 million California
telephone customers will deteriorate as traditional telephone companies
redefine themselves as VOIP providers to escape CPUC standards for line
maintenance, service restoration and reliability. No agency would be able
to prevent VOIP providers from favoring customers in high–income areas and
redlining customers in rural or low–income communities. California
customers will lose fair billing and collection rights, protections
against unauthorized charges, and the ability to file a complaint and have
it resolved by the CPUC.
The argument AT&T’s lobbyists are trying to sell in the Capitol, that this
bill is needed to liberate the Internet from CPUC regulation, is
ridiculous. The CPUC doesn’t, and couldn’t, regulate the Internet. And
you need look no further that the telecom companies’ own advertising to
affirm that the majority of their services have nothing to do with the
Internet:
· “AT&T U-verse Voice service is provided over AT&T's world-class managed
network and not the public Internet.”
· “FiOS Digital Voice…is not the same as the services you get with a
little Internet adapter for your modem and phone, and it does not ever
touch the public Internet.
· Comcast keeps the calls on their private broadband network until our
switch delivers the call on the PSTN (public switched telephone network).
California is only the latest battleground in a state–by–state campaign
launched by AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Time–Warner that has been
successful in protecting VOIP providers from regulation in 20 states,
paving the way for the decimation of state regulation of phone service.
The telecom industry has employed nearly identical tactics in every state
in which they have sought this extraordinary protection, i.e., insider
lobbying combined with campaign contributions, sneak attacks to avoid
public debate by rushing legislation, and promises of jobs, jobs, and more
jobs.
SB 1161 is a sneaky way for the telecom industry to insure the elimination
of future regulation and minimum standards, under the guise of protecting
the Internet. As more and more policy makers wake up to the fact that
VOIP telephone services are not the same thing as the Internet, the more
difficult it will be for SB 1161 to prevail.
[1]http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_1161&sess=CUR&house=B&author=padilla
[2]http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_1151-1200/sb_1161_cfa_20120521_123827_sen_comm.html
References
Visible links
1. http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_1161&sess=CUR&house=B&author=padilla
2. http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_1151-1200/sb_1161_cfa_20120521_123827_sen_comm.html
----- End forwarded message -----
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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