Regulatory Information

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Post-Disaster Consumer Protection Measures For Wireline Communications Customers in California

In the event the Governor of California or the President of the United States declares a state of emergency in your area that results in the loss or disruption of landline telephone service¹ or in the degradation of the quality of landline telephone service,² landline telephone providers shall provide the following protections to their residential and small business (5 lines or less) customers for a duration of at least 12 months from the date of the state of emergency declaration or as appropriately determined by the California Office of Emergency Services:

1. Waiver of one-time activation fee for establishing remote call forwarding, remote access to call forwarding, call forwarding features, and messaging services;
2. Waiver of the monthly rate for one month for remote call forwarding, remote access to call forwarding, call forwarding, call forwarding features, and messaging services;
3. Waiver of the service charge for installation of service at the temporary or new permanent location of the customer and again when the customer moves back to the premises;
4. Waiver of the fee for one jack and associated wiring at the temporary location regardless of whether the customer has an Inside Wire Plan;
5. Waiver of the fee for up to five free jacks and associated wiring for Inside Wiring Plan customer upon their return to their permanent location; and
6. Waiver of the fee for one jack and associated wiring for non-Plan customers upon their return to their permanent location.

For more information, please contact your service provider.

1 “Disruption” is the (1) loss of dial tone; (2) no connection or otherwise non-functioning service; or (3) circumstances in which the caller cannot make or receive a voice call because the disaster has rendered the service nonfunctional and so, the caller is unable to make a 9-1-1 call.

2 “Degradation” occurs in situations where service is not completely out, but callers still encounter poor service quality, including, but not limited to, static, failure to connect, a fast busy signal, and/or dropped calls, including 9-1-1 calls.

Printable PDF Versions:

1. English
2. Filipino
3. Simplified Chinese (Mandarin)
4. Spanish
5. Traditional Chinese (Cantonese)
6. Vietnamese