PacBell Fined for Failing to Provide Data

State regulators fined Pacific Bell $309,000 for failing to provide 1997 survey data about the quality of its high-speed Internet service using integrated services digital network. The Public Utilities Commission also ordered the San Francisco-based phone company to absorb installation costs in some cases if more than 10% of PacBell’s ISDN customers rate the service as “poor” or “terrible” in any three-month period before December 1999. PacBell’s ISDN service has been widely criticized, and when the PUC approved an ISDN rate hike in 1997, it ordered PacBell to provide customer rebates and turn over customer satisfaction data.