THE PA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION ANNOUNCES THE CONTINUATION OF CAPTEL-TM SERVICE!
On May 25, 2005 the PA PUC responded to the many letters, emails and telephone calls from CapTel users throughout the state by announcing that interim Captel service will be made available until such time as a permanent provider of the service is identified and prepared to provide this valuable service.
In a Secretarial Letter to all CapTel trialists, James McNulty, PUC Secretary stated, "The decision to provide interim service was made based on new information resulting from negotiations with the current provider of the trial service, as well as input received from the Pennsylvania Relay Service Advisory Board, the Commission's Consumer Advisory Council, public officials, and current trialists of captioned telephone service in Pennsylvania."
The letter went on to say that trialists will have the option of upgrading to 2-line service and can continue to use the phones which were loaned to them by Ultratec for the trial. Further, as soon as terms and equipment fees have been determined, which is estimated to be in approximately 60 days time, the service will open to new users.
Meanwhile, the PUC will work expeditiously toward providing permanent captioned telephone service in the Commonwealth.
If you would like to contact the commissioners to personally thank them for this very welcome news, here's how:
TO CONTACT THE 3 PUC COMMISSIONERS:
By email: Chairman Wendell Holland: wfh@state.pa.us
Vice Chairman Robert Bloom: rkontra@state.pa.us
Commissioner Kim Pizzingrilli: kpizzin@state.pa.us
By mail at: Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
PO Box 3265
Harrisburg , PA 17105-3265
We are indeed fortunate to have such a responsive Public Utility Commission in PA - let's let them know that we appreciate them!
