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             California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 5301            San Francisco, CA 94102
CONTACT: Armando Rendon           November 9, 1995       CPUC-105
         415-703-1366

        CPUC INVESTIGATES WILTEL FOR CALLER ID PRACTICES

     The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today
opened an investigation of Wiltel Telephone Corporation (Wiltel)
for allegedly releasing phone numbers of California callers to
out-of-state parties without notice or blocking, a violation of
CPUC and federal Caller ID regulations.
     The Commission told Wiltel, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company,
it has 30 days to notify its customers that their billing numbers
are being disclosed in interstate calls.  The notice must be
separate from the customer's bills and by first class mail.
     Wiltel must submit within 45 days a report to the CPUC
detailing numbers of customers, volume of intrastate and
interstate calls, and names of all resellers of Wiltel service in
the state.
     If the company is found to have violated CPUC regulations,
it could face monetary penalties.
     Specifically, Wiltel has been passing on billing numbers,
but for residential customers these are usually the same as the
home number, although they often differ for business lines.  In
either case, Wiltel's California subscribers--many of them with
unlisted numbers--do not know that their numbers are being
disclosed on the other end of a long distance call.
     The problem was revealed in late 1994 when two California
customers complained to the Commission.  While local phone
companies do not provide Caller ID, that is, allow a called party
to see the number of the person calling, billing numbers are
forwarded to the long distance phone companies and to subscribers
of 800 and 900 services for billing and routing purposes.
Wiltel, however, has been releasing numbers to customers in
                             -more-
other states who have Caller ID, even where 800 or 900 services
are not involved.
     Because local phone companies in California were not
offering Caller ID here, California customers have no way of
blocking their billing number and have not been notified that the
number is being disclosed.
     The CPUC approved Caller ID in June 1992, with certain
restrictions to protect the right of privacy of California
residents, including notice and per-line and per-call blocking.
A customer would have to knowingly consent to having his or her
number disclosed.  The local phone companies chose not to
implement Caller ID, claiming the restrictions made providing the
service impractical and unprofitable.
     Recent federal law allows states to retain the per-line
blocking option but for interstate calls requires notice and a
minimum of per-call blocking.  The Federal Communications
Commission has ordered all states to implement Caller ID by
December 1.  The Commission has appealed the action to seek the
requirement of per-line blocking as a default for unlisted
customers to ensure privacy protections for California phone
customers.
     Wiltel is a subsidiary of WorldCom, Inc., which does
business as LDDS WorldCom.  It is both a long distance service
provider and a large reseller of long distance services.
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