CCC   PPPPP   U    U    CCC       N    N  EEEEE  W  W  W   SSS
 C   C  P    p  U    U   C   C      NN   N  E      W  W  W  S   S
C       P    P  U    U  C           N N  N  E      W  W  W  S
C       PPPPP   U    U  C           N N  N  EEE    W W W W   SSS
C       P       U    U  C           N  N N  E      WW   WW      S
 C   C  P       U    U   C   C      N   NN  E      W     W  S   S
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             California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 5301            San Francisco, CA 94102
CONTACT: Armando Rendon           July 3, 1996          CPUC-056
         415-703-1366                              (Res. T-15933)


       CPUC SELECTS MCI TO OPERATE STATEWIDE RELAY SERVICE

     The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today
granted MCI Telecommunications (MCI) a three-year contract to
operate the California Relay Service (CRS), a 24-hour program
that enables hearing and speech-impaired persons to make and
receive telephone calls.
     MCI will begin operating the service in October when the
current contract, held by U.S. Sprint, expires.  MCI was
recommended as the new CRS operator by the Deaf and Disabled
Telecommunications Program Administrative Committee (DDTPAC).
The contract includes an option to extend for up to two one-year
terms.
     The program helps underwrite services and equipment
purchases to hearing and speech-impaired persons, enabling them
to send or receive messages via teletype equipment that a CRS
employee transmits by voice to or from a hearing person.  The
toll-free numbers to reach CRS are 1-800-735-2929 (TTY) or 1-800-
735-2922.
     CRS was set up in 1987 by Senate Bill 244 and is funded by a
charge on all intrastate phone calls.  The charge, currently .36
percent, is collected by all telephone companies in California
and deposited in the D.E.A.F. Trust, a fund created by the
legislation for this purpose.
     Usage of the service has increased steadily each year since
1987, from 149,449 calls the first year to 642,137 in 1995.
     The first CRS operator, AT&T, had no contract with the CPUC,
but simply billed the Commission for costs.  The DDTPAC, which
oversees the CRS program, switched to a bid process in 1990 and
selected Sprint from three bidders.  That contract also included
                             -more-
two one-year renewal options, thus Sprint had operated the
program since 1991.
     The Administrative Committee includes: G. "Bummy" Burstein,
chairperson, Deaf Community at-Large; Bill Cutler, Hard-of-
Hearing Community; June Isaacson Kailes, Disabled Community;
Richard Ray, Statewide Deaf Organization; Edna Shipley-Conner,
Late Deafened Adult Community; Dmitri Belser, Pacific Bell; Carol
Millard, GTE California; John Moore, Sprint; Sheila Thomson,
California Telephone Association; and Ravi Kumra, CPUC.

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