Back in 2011, there was a bad idea. With telephone service starting a long migration from copper-based landlines to wireless and Internet telephones (i.e VOIP), the same Title I/Title II mess that you heard so much about in the Net Neutrality fight raised it's head and telephone services were split in half in California.
Some telephones continued to be regulated like utilties. Other telephones became information services and were exempted from utility requirements. Didn't make any difference to you because you used it in exactly the same way, but in one case you had consumer protections, and in the other, you didn't.
Like all deregulation, this was intended to reward innovation and provide a nirvana of choice and competition. If you are wondering where you were when nirvana ensued, it's because it never happened.
Now they want to extend the failed experiment for ten more years. There's no reason for that. Protections against overbilling, requirements for back-up batteries during natural disasters, carrier of last resort rules; these aren't the nanny state. They are requirements for utilities, which is what telephones are.
All telephones.