PacBell to Announce Plans to Better Serve Minorities

Pacific Bell, under pressure to increase phone service to low-income minority consumers, will announce today that it has agreed to serve 95% of blacks, Asians and Latinos in California within five years.

People familiar with the agreement said Pacific Bell will propose several ideas to reach underserved groups, including voice mail service for homeless people and migrant workers, a toll restriction service to help consumers manage phone costs, and a service enabling people who don’t otherwise want a phone to make emergency 911 calls.

Pacific Bell is also expected to ask regulators to impose a fee on cellular phone users to further subsidize service to low-income people, an idea the California Public Utilities Commission has already endorsed.

The agreement was reached with the Greenlining Coalition, a statewide advocacy group.

Pacific Bell has been under pressure from state regulators and consumer organizations to increase service in minority communities. Until now, Pacific Bell has maintained that many people lacked phone service by choice.

Phil Quigley, chairman and chief executive of Pacific Telesis, parent of Pacific Bell, is scheduled to announce the company’s plan in San Francisco today, signaling its importance. Also expected to attend the news conference are PUC President Daniel Fessler and Greenlining Coalition representatives.

Robert Gnaizda, general counsel for the coalition, called Pacific Bell’s action a first that he hopes will influence regional phone companies in other states.

“It is in their long-term interest to serve this large underserved population,” Gnaizda said.

Part of the challenge facing Pacific Bell will be to determine how many blacks, Asians and Latinos are not served. The Federal Communications Commission reports that nationwide, less than 85% of blacks and Latinos had phone service in 1992, compared to 95% for the population as a whole. Precise figures for California’s cities are not available, and this has long been a source of contention between the Greenlining Coalition and Pacific Bell.

In reaching the agreement, Pacific Bell is proposing to do what it probably would have been forced to do anyway. Last year, the PUC ordered Pacific Bell and GTE to develop five-year plans to increase service to minorities and to set specific goals for each of those years. However, the order was part of a larger phone rate decision that was voided because of procedural irregularities. The PUC is likely to include the order when it eventually issues a revised phone rate decision.

Pacific Bell has been testing one of the services it is expected to propose: toll restriction. Customers who have difficulty managing long-distance or toll calls can ask Pacific Bell to block such calls from their phones. The service is offered to those facing loss of service for non-payment.