PUC Lowers Charge to Block 976 Dial-a-Porn to a Penny

Acting on a Pacific Bell request aimed at controlling dial-a-porn, the state Public Utilities Commission on Friday reduced the charge for blocking access to 976 telephone service from $2 to a penny.

Pacific Bell, which serves about 7 million residential customers in California, filed a petition last week seeking permission to eliminate the blocking charge and to refund $2 to each of more than 180,000 customers who have asked the company to block the 976 prefix.

PUC President Stanley Hulett pointed out after the commission’s unanimous action in San Francisco, however, that when state lawmakers approved legislation permitting blocking, the measure authorized a charge of up to $5.

“So, at the moment we can’t eliminate the charge entirely as Pacific requested, and as we would have preferred, but effective today we have reduced the charge as much as we can to a penny,” Hulett said.

New Request

The PUC official said the commission intends to urge legislators to eliminate the charge, and if they do, customers who have paid $2 for blocking 976 will receive a refund, and those who have been “charged” a penny will never actually be billed. “We are very pleased, “ said Lissa Zanville, director of media relations for Pacific Bell in Los Angeles. “We still are fighting these dial-a-porn services.”

In another request still to be heard by the PUC, Pac Bell also asked for permission to decide whether a 976 message is sexually explicit. The firm lost a legal battle over the issue late last year in federal court in Los Angeles.

But the utility indicated that it is ready to test the issue in court once more on grounds that dial-a-porn is damaging because it closely associates Pacific Bell with dial-a-porn in the minds of the public.

Customers who call a 976 number are charged for each call.