The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The offering of high-quality basic telephone service at affordable rates to the greatest number of citizens has been a longstanding goal of the state.
(b) The Moore Universal Telephone Service Act has been, and continues to be, an important means for achieving universal service by making basic telephone service affordable to low-income households through the creation of a lifeline class of service.
(c) Every means should be employed by the commission and telephone corporations to ensure that every household qualified to receive lifeline telephone service is informed of and is afforded the opportunity to subscribe to that service.
(d) The furnishing of lifeline telephone service is in the public interest and should be supported fairly and equitably by every telephone corporation, and the commission, in administering the lifeline telephone service program, should implement the program in a way that is equitable, nondiscriminatory, and without competitive consequences for the telecommunications industry in California.
(Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 381, Sec. 2. (AB 2213) Effective January 1, 2011.)