ALJ/KOT/hkr * Mailed 1/11/2002
Decision 02-01-038 January 9, 2002
BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Rulemaking for purposes of revising General Order 96-A regarding informal filings at the Commission. |
Rulemaking 98-07-038 (Filed July 23, 1998) |
SECOND INTERIM OPINION ADOPTING CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS
FOR NOTIFYING TELECOMMUNICATIONS CUSTOMERS
OF PROPOSED TRANSFER, WITHDRAWAL OF SERVICE,
OR HIGHER RATES OR CHARGES
1. Summary
In today's decision, we adopt another part of the previously proposed revisions to General Order (GO) 96-A, which comprehensively governs utility tariffs (including their content, form, and publication, and the advice letters by which they are amended).1 The rule revisions adopted today (which will eventually be codified in GO 96-B) are set forth in the Appendix; they concern the notice that a telecommunications utility must provide its affected customers when that utility proposes a rate increase, a withdrawal of service, or certain kinds of transfers. These rule revisions complement our efforts in Rulemaking (R.) 00-02-004 to develop consumer protection rules and procedures applicable to all telecommunications utilities.
We intend to adopt and implement these rules revisions now, without waiting for adoption of GO 96-B as a whole. As with our prior interim opinion (see footnote 1), we believe adoption of these rules revisions will benefit consumers, and should not be delayed. The notice requirements adopted today will also work in tandem with the final rules in R.00-02-004; we expect to be considering the latter rules shortly.2
1 In a prior interim opinion (Decision (D.) 01-07-026) in this rulemaking, we adopted rules governing (1) use of the Internet to publish tariffs, and (2) representations by a utility regarding any of that utility's tariffed services. 2 Until we take final action on GO 96-B, the notice requirements adopted today will be treated as an Appendix to GO 96-A, as we did with the rules adopted in D.01-07-026. Both sets of interim rules will be published at the Commission's Internet site together with the rest of GO 96-A.
