"Steven W. Grabhorn" <grabhorn@marlin.nosc.mil> (03/20/90)
From the Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1990
PUC IS ABOUT TO WRITE NEW RULE BOOK FOR PAY PHONES
A new era in the pay-phone business in California is expected to dawn
later this year when the Public Utilities Commission completes work on a
two-year study of the former monopoly that it opened to competition in
November, 1985.
The centerpiece is a "settlement agreement" that reconciles the differ-
ences of all parties: consumer groups, the PUC's consumer-support staff,
local phone companies, long-distance carriers and owners of private pay
phones. If it works as intended, the agreement would have these benefits
for each group:
CONSUMERS: There will be a uniform 20-cent rate for local coin calls from
any pay phone, guaranteed for five years. (While pay phones operated by
local phone companies charge 20 cents for these calls, private owners may
charge 25 cents.) There will also be minimum equipment standards and uni-
form information posted at the pay phones, including the name and toll-free
number of the telephone's owner. There also will be no charge for dialing
toll-free numbers to reach a preferred long-distance carrier, whether that
carrier had a prescribed five-digit code (10-XXX) or a number starting with
a prefix of 950 or 800. A phone's owner could no longer block access to
carriers other than the one subscribed to.
LOCAL PHONE COMPANIES: The PUC would authorize and set out procedures for
these companies to enforce prices and "get rid of the bad actors" by discon-
necting those guilty of persistent overcharging.
PAY PHONE OWNERS: The new owners agreed to trim their basic coin rate to 20
cents but in exchange will receive a 30-cent payment from phone companies
and long-distance carriers for all non-coin calls the private pay phones
transmit to their networks. This provision can spell the difference between
profitability and loss for the pay phone's owner. Owners also will eventu-
ally be able to buy additional network services from local carriers that are
not now available, offering such advantages as correctly identifying when a
call is answered and billing should begin.
LONG-DISTANCE CARRIERS: So-called interexchange carriers are assured that
their customers will always be able to reach them from any pay phone in
California. Owners will no longer be able to force customers to use only
the carrier the owners selected for their phones.
PHONE MAKERS: Manufacturers of telephones equipped with automated operator
and billing services that meet certain standards set by the PUC will be
allowed to install their equipment and compete with the local phone compa-
nies' operators for dial-O calls.
Steve Grabhorn, Code 645, Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, CA, 92152
Phone:619-553-3454 Internet:grabhorn@nosc.mil UUCP:..!sdcsvax!nosc!grabhorn