By Uher, et al. H.B. No. 1695
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1695:
By Raymond C.S.H.B. No. 1695
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the service areas of certain public utilities.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Article XIII, The Public Utility Regulatory Act
1-5 (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) is amended by adding
1-6 Section 93A to read as follows:
1-7 Section 93A. (a) To address telephone calling needs between
1-8 nearby telephone exchanges, the commission shall initiate a
1-9 rulemaking proceeding to approve rules to provide for an expedited
1-10 hearing to allow the expanding of toll free calling areas according
1-11 to the following criteria:
1-12 (1) Toll free calling boundaries may only be expanded
1-13 under this section after a petition signed by the lesser of 5 per
1-14 cent of the subscribers or 100 subscribers within an exchange. If
1-15 such a petition is filed with the commission, then the commission
1-16 shall order the local exchange company to provide for the balloting
1-17 of its subscribers within the petitioning exchange and, if there is
1-18 an affirmative vote by 70 percent of those responding, the
1-19 commission shall consider the request.
1-20 (2) The commission shall provide for the expansion of
1-21 toll free calling areas for each local exchange customer in the
1-22 petitioning exchange if the petitioning exchange serves not more
1-23 than 10,000 lines, and if:
1-24 (i) the petitioning exchange is located within
2-1 22 miles of the exchange requested for toll free calling service,
2-2 or
2-3 (ii) the petitioning exchange shares a community
2-4 of interest with the exchange requested for toll free calling
2-5 service. For purposes of this section, "community of interest"
2-6 includes areas that have a relationship because of schools,
2-7 hospitals, local governments, business centers and other
2-8 relationships the unavailability of which would cause a hardship to
2-9 the residents of the area; but need not include an area where the
2-10 affected central offices are more than 50 miles apart.
2-11 (3) The local exchange company shall recover all of its
2-12 costs incurred and all loss of revenue from any expansion of toll
2-13 free calling areas under this section through a request other than
2-14 a revenue requirement showing by:
2-15 (i) a monthly fee for toll free calling service
2-16 of not more than $3.50 per line for residential customers nor more
2-17 than $7 per line for business customers, to be collected from all
2-18 of the customers in the petitioning exchange and only until the
2-19 local exchange company's next general rate case, and/or
2-20 (ii) a monthly fee for toll free calling service
2-21 for all of the local exchange company's local exchange service
2-22 customers in the state in addition to the company's current local
2-23 exchange rates.
2-24 A local exchange company may not recover regulatory case expenses
2-25 under this section by surcharging petitioning exchange subscribers.
2-26 (b) The commission and a local exchange company are not
2-27 required to comply with this section with regard to a petitioning
3-1 exchange or petitioned exchange if:
3-2 (1) the commission determines that there has been a
3-3 good and sufficient showing of a geographic or technological
3-4 infeasibility to serve the area, or
3-5 (2) the local exchange company has less than 10,000
3-6 lines, or
3-7 (3) the petitioning or petitioned exchange is served
3-8 by a cooperative, or
3-9 (4) extended area service or extended metropolitan
3-10 service is currently available between the petitioning and
3-11 petitioned exchange(s), or
3-12 (5) the petitioning or petitioned exchange is a
3-13 metropolitan exchange. The commission may expand the toll free
3-14 calling area into an exchange not within a metropolitan exchange
3-15 but within the local calling area contiguous to a metropolitan
3-16 exchange that the commission determines to have a community of
3-17 interest relationship with the petitioning exchange. For the
3-18 purposes of this section, metropolitan exchange, local calling area
3-19 of a metropolitan exchange, and exchange have the same meanings and
3-20 boundaries as currently defined and approved by the commission.
3-21 However, under no circumstances shall a petitioning or petitioned
3-22 exchange be split in the provision of a toll free calling area.
3-23 (c) The commission may, in order to promote the wide
3-24 dispersion of pay telephones, either exempt such telephones from
3-25 the provisions of this section or may change the rates to be
3-26 charged from such telephones in an amount sufficient to promote
3-27 this goal.
4-1 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
4-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
4-6 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
4-7 passage, and it is so enacted.