Telephone
Telephone Information
The Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) advocates for the interests of publicly regulated utility consumers across Pennsylvania at both the state and federal levels. The OCA represents consumers in proceedings before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, including rate cases and other regulatory matters affecting essential utility services. The office reviews and analyzes utility filings, participates in policy and technical proceedings, and works to ensure that consumers have a strong voice in decisions impacting utility rates, service quality, and access.
In addition to its state-level work, the OCA actively engages in federal advocacy on behalf of Pennsylvania consumers. This includes participation in national policy discussions and collaboration with organizations such as the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), where the OCA contributes to telecommunications and other utility-related policy efforts, including filings before the Federal Communications Commission.
If you have any questions or need assistance with your publicly regulated telecommunications service and/or provider, please reach out to us using the contact information on the upper righthand side of this page.
Avoid Telemarketing Calls by registering your phone number on either the Pennsylvania Do Not Call List or the National Do Not Call Registry.
Need assistance paying for basic local telephone Service? The federal Lifeline Program is a government assistance program that helps make communications services more affordable for low-income households. Lifeline provides a monthly discount on eligible phone or internet service, helping individuals and families stay connected. The program is administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and managed by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). Eligibility is generally based on household income or participation in certain federal assistance programs. You can get more information by talking to your provider, or calling the Lifeline Support Center 1-800-234-9473 or by going online at www.usac.org/Lifeline. Please see also: https://www.usac.org/lifeline/contact-us/
Lifeline – There are low income assistance programs for telephone service. Click here for specific information for most local telephone company customers.
The PA Office of Consumer Advocate assisted in the preparation of Comments in response to the FCC’s NPRM re: Lifeline, which can be found here.
For more information about the Federal Lifeline Program, please see: https://www.fcc.gov/general/lifeline-program-low-income-consumers
The Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate is advocating for residential consumer interests as part of the Universal Service Fund (USF) Working Group. The Working Group is seeking public feedback on issues related to the future of universal service programs in Pennsylvania. Read the Secretarial Letter requesting stakeholder input here.
You can also review comments previously filed by the OCA through the open USF docket
currently before the PA PUC: https://www.puc.pa.gov/docket/L-2023-3040646’
On or about May 9, 2024, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved a joint settlement in a case involving complaints about telephone and/or internet services provided by Commonwealth Telephone Company LLC, doing business as Frontier Communications Commonwealth Telephone Company (Frontier). The Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) and the Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA) initiated the action against Frontier and Settlement Compliance Review remains ongoing. For more information about this case, please see: https://www.puc.pa.gov/docket/C-2023-3037574
PUC Press Release Regarding Settlement: Click here to view
On or about September 11, 2025, the PUC approved a joint settlement for Verizon Communications (Verizon)
to acquire the parent company of Frontier Communications (Frontier) and its Pennsylvania operating
subsidiaries. For more information, click here.
PUC Press Release Regarding Settlement: Click here to view
