AT&T and Cox Telecom asked the California Public Utility Commissi...
AT&T and Cox Telecom asked the California Public Utility Commission to reconsider a July decision that fined each company $40,000 for improper ex parte contacts with PUC staff members. The charges involved a complaint case that alleged the carriers…
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failed to fulfill their “warm line” obligation to keep 911 access alive on lines otherwise out of service. The companies (Case 05-11-011) said their contacts hadn’t sought to influence the complaint case but instead to gain approval for a generic rulemaking on warm line access. The carriers said the record didn’t prove that they tried to affect the disposition or classification of the complaint case. They said the PUC decision to penalize them was based on a new legal theory that lawful ex parte contacts to lobby for a rulemaking would be deemed an illegal ex parte contact if the rulemaking was to address issues substantially similar to the complaint case. They also said the PUC incorrectly found the contacts related to the attempt for a warm line rulemaking were an attempt to reclassify the warm line complaint case as a rulemaking matter. “These novel interpretations of the ex parte rules are erroneous and should be withdrawn on rehearing,” the carriers said.