By Seidlits H.B. No. 739
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to a requirement that an operator service make a live
1-3 operator available.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 18A, Public Utility Regulatory Act
1-6 (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
1-7 amending Subsection (h) and adding Subsection (i) to read as
1-8 follows:
1-9 (h) Except as provided by Subsection (i) of this section,
1-10 this <This> section applies only to a telecommunications utility
1-11 that is not a dominant carrier. The commission is granted all
1-12 necessary power and authority under this Act to promulgate rules
1-13 and establish procedures for the purposes of enforcing and
1-14 implementing this section.
1-15 (i) Each dominant or nondominant telecommunications utility
1-16 that provides operator service shall ensure that a caller may
1-17 access a live operator at the beginning of a call through a method
1-18 designed to be easily and clearly understandable and accessible to
1-19 a caller. A telecommunications utility shall submit to the
1-20 commission the method by which the utility will provide access to a
1-21 live operator for review. This subsection applies regardless of
1-22 the method by which the telecommunications utility provides the
1-23 operator service. The requirements of this subsection shall not
2-1 apply to telephones located in prison or jail facilities.
2-2 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
2-3 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-4 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-5 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-6 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-7 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.