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             California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 5301            San Francisco, CA 94102
CONTACT: Dianne Dienstein                 May 22, 1996  CPUC - 45
         415-703-2423                               (A.90-11-011)

     DELAY IN PACIFIC BELL AND GTEC CALLER ID IMPLEMENTATION

    The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today
authorized Pacific Bell (Pacific) to delay implementation of
Caller ID until it has sent letters to all customers confirming
their blocking option assignments, and authorized GTEC to delay
implementation until June 15 when the company expects to have all
switches ready.
    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires all
local phone companies able to pass callers' phone numbers
(Calling Party Number Passage or CPN) to do so beginning June 1,
and this makes Caller ID possible.  Pacific Bell, GTEC and
Citizens have asked the FCC to allow them to delay CPN for the
same reasons they sought delay approval from the CPUC.  The FCC
has not acted on their requests yet, and today the CPUC stated it
will support the phone companies' requests pending before the
FCC.
    Prior to implementation of Calling Party Number Passage and
Caller ID in California, the California Public Utilities
Commission required, and worked with, local phone companies to
conduct a comprehensive education program to inform customers
about Calling Party Number Passage, Caller ID, and blocking
options.  The CPUC required that before utilities provide CPN or
Caller ID they demonstrate that at least 70 percent of their
customers understood their numbers would be passed on beginning
June 1, and at least 30 percent had requested a blocking option.
The FCC deferred to and supported states' education requirements.
    The customer education program has proved successful to the
point that Pacific Bell, serving the largest number of customers
                            - more -
in California, has been overwhelmed with blocking requests.  A
final step in the customer education program is for a phone
company to send customers a confirmation letter advising them of
the blocking option assigned to their phone number, whether they
chose the option or it was assigned by default, their right to
change the blocking option one time free of charge, and blocking
options available.  Although Pacific would have been able to put
blocking in place for customers who have requested it by June 1,
it would not have been able to complete mailing letters to all
customers.
    If the FCC approves the delays the phone companies seek for
implementation of Calling Party Number Passage, once utilities
notify the CPUC they have sent confirmation letters to all of
their customers or fulfilled other outstanding requirements, they
have CPUC approval to implement Calling Party Number Passage and
Caller ID.
    Contel, Roseville, Siskiyou, Ponderosa, Sierra, Evans, Happy
Valley, and California-Oregon phone companies have met all CPUC
requirements and will implement Calling Party Number Passage and
Caller ID on June 1.  Numbers will be passed on unless customers
have told their phone company to block passage of their phone
number, or unless they dial *67 (1167 on a rotary phone) to block
passage of their number each time they make a phone call.
    The Commission ordered GTE West Coast to seek FCC approval to
delay CPN until it is able to complete its customer education
program.  CTC-California, CTC-Tuolumne, and CTC-Golden State have
pending requests at the FCC to delay implementation of CPN until
July 1 in order to complete their customer education programs.
    Customers who have not called the 800 number or returned the
form they received in their phone bill to choose Complete or
Selective blocking will be given Selective blocking.  Selective
blocking reveals a caller's number on every call, unless the
caller dials *67 (1167 on a rotary phone) to block the number.
    Complete blocking blocks disclosure of a caller's number on
every call unless a caller dials *82 before a call to reveal the
number.  However, blocking does not work with 800, 888, 900 or
911 numbers.  A caller's number will be revealed whenever these
types of calls are made.
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