The following is a press release from The Public Advocates Office:
The Public Advocates Office, the independent consumer advocate at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), urged the CPUC today to hear from the public, stakeholders, and others on what baseline service quality standards are necessary to ensure all Californians receive reliable broadband and wireless services.
Now is the time for the CPUC to engage the public in this conversation and take steps to ensure Californians can reliably work from home and communicate with healthcare, education, and public safety services, especially during emergencies. This effort is even more critical because of customers’ increased reliance on communications services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and the intensity and frequency of wildfires and power outages.
“As the state moves forward with its aggressive and laudable plans to ensure all Californians have access and the means to use broadband and wireless services, we must also collaboratively discuss the quality of those services,” said Amy Yip-Kikugawa, Acting Director of the Public Advocates Office. “Without this discussion it’s hard to know if we are meeting the needs of our educators, seniors, first responders, families, children, and all our communities so that they are kept connected, informed, healthy, and safe.”
The Public Advocates Office is urging the CPUC to open a dialogue to further advance the states’ broadband goals by:
- Considering ways to build upon existing service quality standards to ensure customers get the broadband speed and stable connection they are paying for.
- Identifying measures and ways to monitor broadband and wireless service performance.
- Exploring enforcement mechanisms to ensure companies are providing services in customers’ best interests.
The Public Advocates Office proposal can be found here.
