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House Bill 2680 |
House Author: King, Tracy O. |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
Senate Sponsor: Hegar |
Previous law defined "minor change," in regard to telecommunications utility rates for small local exchange companies and cooperatives, as a change, including the restructuring of rates of existing services, that decreases the rates or revenues of an incumbent local exchange company or, together with any other rate or proposed or approved tariff changes in the 12 months preceding the effective date of the proposed change, increases the company's total regulated intrastate gross annual revenues by not more than five percent. House Bill 2680 amends the Utilities Code to redefine "minor change" to remove proposed tariff changes from among the changes described above that are used to calculate the increase in the company's total regulated intrastate gross annual revenues. Previous law specified that a minor change does not include a change that, together with any other change to the basic local access line rate that took effect during the 12 months preceding the effective date of the proposed change, results in an increase of more than 10 percent. The bill increases the maximum total increase to 50 percent.
Current law authorizes an incumbent local exchange company to offer certain services or make minor changes in rates or tariffs under certain conditions. The bill adds more service options. One of the conditions for offering services or making minor rate or tariff changes required the incumbent local exchange company to file a statement of intent with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) not later than the 91st day before the effective date of the proposed change. The bill requires the company to file a notice instead of a statement of intent and specifies that it must be filed not later than the 10th day before the effective date of the proposed change. Previous law required the company to provide notice of a proposed rate change to affected customers not later than the 61st day before the effective date of the proposed change. The bill changes that requirement to not later than the 10th day before the effective date of the proposed change.