BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1734
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:  May 7, 2001

                    ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
                              Roderick D. Wright, Chair
           AB 1734 (Utilities & Commerce) - As Introduced:  March 26, 2001
           
          SUBJECT  :  Telecommunications Services.

           SUMMARY  :  This bill sets forth a policy for encouraging the  
          development and deployment of infrastructure to support new  
          technologies for provision of telecommunications services in a  
          way that efficiently meets consumer need and encourages  
          availability of state of the art services.  

           EXISTING LAW:
           
          1)Asserts a policy to continue universal service commitment by  
            assuring continued affordability and widespread availability  
            of high-quality telecommunications service to all  
            Californians.

          2)Asserts a policy to encourage development and deployment of  
            new technologies, and equitable provision of services in a way  
            that efficiently meets consumer need and encourages the  
            ubiquitous availability of a wide choice of state of the art  
            services.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  Unknown.

           COMMENTS  :

          This bill advances current policy to encourage development and  
          deployment of new technologies for telecommunications services  
          to include support for development of the infrastructure to  
          support these new technologies.  

          California's economy will depend in large part upon the state's  
          ability to provide state of the art communications networks and  
          services to meet the demand of technological development in the  
          world market.  AB 1734 affirms California's commitment to  
          development and deployment of the infrastructure necessary to  
          ubiquitously deploy such advanced services to residential and  
          business customers throughout the state.  More importantly, the  
          policy is geared toward efficiently meeting consumer need and  
          equitable provision of services, presumably across carriers and  








                                                                  AB 1734
                                                                  Page  2

          technologies.

          The universal service policy promulgated in AB 1734 advances  
          California's telecommunications objectives firmly into the 21st  
          century in a non-discriminatory manner that is economically  
          efficient.  Support of infrastructure development is necessary  
          to also support advancement of the technologies relying upon the  
          infrastructure.

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          None on file.

           Opposition 
           
          None on file.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Kelly Boyd / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083