The California Public Utilities Commission fined AT&T and Cox Tel...
The California Public Utilities Commission fined AT&T and Cox Telecom $40,000 each for improper ex parte communications during hearings on a January consumer group complaint that the companies violated PUC rules requiring they keep 911 access alive on disconnected…
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or unassigned access lines. The companies said their contacts were lawful because they were an effort to get the PUC to open a general docket on local carriers’ 911 “warm line” responsibilities, not to address the specific complaint. A PUC hearing officer ruled that the contacts with top PUC members’ advisors sought to influence the complaint case’s outcome. The PUC’s proposed order in early July to impose the fines included a reinterpretation of the ex parte contact restrictions that the carriers challenged as rewriting the rules on forbidden off-the-record contacts, but the PUC dismissed the objections, sticking to its reading. The complaint case itself (Case 05-11-011) was remanded to the hearing officer for further consideration of merit.