|
For many years the Public Service Commission (“PSC”) has
endeavored to maintain a balance between the public need for pay
telephones and the community desire to be free of the negative effect
that these devices sometimes have. The Commission has always taken
seriously the concerns of the residents. For this reason, in 1991
the PSC instituted a payphone program to give the community, through
its Area Neighborhood Commissioners, a way to resolve issues involving
pay telephones. Under the guidelines of the plan ANC commissioners
could initiate proceedings to change the operation of existing phones,
or object to the proposed installation of payphones in their neighborhoods.
With the advent of deregulation in 1998, the Commission again took
a futuristic stance and ordered the formation of a working group
made up of community representatives, activists, and industry experts.
The group was charged with creating rules to guide all companies
offering pay telephone services in the District of Columbia. That
effort concluded in February of 2001 with the approval of pay telephone
rules found in Chapter 6 of Title 15 of the District of Columbia
Municipal Regulations. With this directive, the PSC carries out
its mandate of assuring that residents have the convenience of pay
telephone service, without having that service diminish their quality
of life.
|
