California legislation imposing universal service mandate on commercial providers founders

Two California bills that would establish a statutory requirement on commercial providers of advanced telecommunications to provide service to all addresses in their service areas have foundered. AB 1714 would effectively do so by defining such providers as common carrier public utilities. The bill has not been set for hearing since it was introduced in February.

The second measure, AB 41, would have required providers issued franchises under the state’s video franchise law by the California Public Utilities Commission to make service available to all residences in its service area within five years following renewal of a franchise. That requirement was deleted from the bill in a July 13 amendment. The bill includes a legislative finding that “Thousands of California households still lack access to video or broadband service, including households that are within the existing service territories of state video franchise holders.”