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CalTel Challenges CPUC Service Quality Fines

California CLECs shouldn’t be fined for service or facility issues of an unaffiliated underlying carrier, said the California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies (CalTel). The CLEC association filed a petition, dated Aug. 30 and posted Tuesday, to modify a Public…

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Utilities Commission August service quality order (see 1608180060). Starting Jan. 1, the order requires phone companies to face automatic daily fines of up to $25,000 for failure to meet service quality measures. But CalTel said CLECs should be fined only “if the failure was primarily due to the CLEC’s action or inaction.” The CPUC decision’s “determination that CLECs have contractual recourse against underlying facilities-based carriers that caused the CLEC to fail to meet a service quality measure and be subject to fines is both legally and factually incorrect,” it said.