I. INTRODUCTION

Vycera Communications Inc. (Vycera) is a facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier based in San Diego, California. Vycera provides long distance, local, and local toll service. Vycera currently has approximately 18,000 local and local-toll customers in California (primarily Spanish-speaking), and a small number of long distance customers.

The Commission's Consumer Protection and Safety Division's ("CPSD") Utility Enforcement Unit ("Staff") has investigated hundreds of consumer complaints regarding slamming and cramming against Vycera. Staff alleges that Vycera has violated the regulations regarding how a consumer's intent to switch is verified, and that Vycera has engaged in the practice of billing consumers for products or services they did not authorize or request as well as other unfair and illegal business practices, described below.

Staff has found that Vycera did not thoroughly inform prospective customers of the nature and extent of the services being offered by its telemarketers, who typically falsely promise that a consumer's rates will be lower with Vycera, in violation of Public Utilities Code section 2889.5. Vycera did not properly establish the consumers' intent to make any changes to his or her telephone service by failing to obtain oral verification of the consumers' intent to switch, in violation of section 2889.5. Further, Vycera failed to explain all charges associated with that switch, by not providing notification to the consumer that his or her telephone service provider was changed. Staff also alleges that Vycera includes charges for "Line Pro/Cable Pro", a product that the customer did not authorize, in violation of section 2890. Staff alleges that Vycera may have provided Commission staff with copies of third-party verification tapes (TPV tapes) that have been illegally doctored. The Commission is concerned that Vycera's customers are primarily Spanish-speaking consumers, and that language barriers may prevent these consumers from resolving their complaints. Finally, the Commission is concerned that Mr. Derek Geitzen and Thalia Geitzen provided misleading answers to staff's data requests, by failing to reveal that they were formerly officers of Communication Telesystems International, Inc. (CTS).