By:  Uher                                             H.B. No. 1695
       73R6365 DWS-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the service area of certain public utilities.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article XIII, Public Utility Regulatory Act
    1-5  (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
    1-6  adding Section 93A to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 93A.  (a)  The commission shall require each local
    1-8  exchange company to establish local service areas that conform to
    1-9  this section.
   1-10        (b)  Each telephone subscriber is entitled to place toll-free
   1-11  calls to any other subscriber if any part of the respective
   1-12  subscribers' central office territories are adjoining or if either
   1-13  territory's central office is located within 22 miles of the other
   1-14  central office's territory.
   1-15        (c)  Each telephone subscriber is entitled to place toll-free
   1-16  calls to any other subscriber within any area that the commission
   1-17  determines to be within one community of interest.
   1-18        (d)  For the purposes of this section, a community of
   1-19  interest:
   1-20              (1)  includes areas that have a relationship because of
   1-21  schools, hospitals, local governments, business centers, and other
   1-22  relationships the unavailability of which would cause a hardship to
   1-23  the residents of the area; and
   1-24              (2)  need not include an area where the affected
    2-1  central offices are more than 50 miles apart.
    2-2        (e)  Each local exchange company shall submit its plan to
    2-3  establish toll-free calling areas under this section not later than
    2-4  the 90th day after the date the commission adopts rules
    2-5  implementing this section.  Any affected person may complain about
    2-6  the plan as provided by Section 43A of this Act.
    2-7        (f)  The commission shall amend the boundaries of a toll-free
    2-8  service area on petition by 100 or more residents of the area if
    2-9  the commission finds, after a hearing on the merits, that a
   2-10  community of interest exists.  The commission shall require notice
   2-11  by the local exchange company to affected parties as the commission
   2-12  considers reasonable.  The commission shall make a decision
   2-13  relating  to changing a toll-free calling area under this section
   2-14  not later than the 60th day after the date the notice required by
   2-15  the commission is delivered.  The commission shall establish a
   2-16  reasonable time for the implementation of the plan.
   2-17        (g)  The commission and a local exchange company are not
   2-18  required to comply with this section with regard to a specific
   2-19  proposed area if the commission determines that there has been a
   2-20  good and sufficient showing of a geographic or technological
   2-21  infeasibility to serve the area.
   2-22        (h)  To compensate a local exchange company for any lost
   2-23  revenues caused by compliance with this section, the commission may
   2-24  allow the local exchange company to establish a fixed monthly per
   2-25  line fee to be paid by subscribers that obtain a new toll-free
   2-26  calling area under this section.  This fee may not exceed $2 a line
   2-27  and may be collected only until the local exchange company's next
    3-1  general rate case, at which time the costs and revenues associated
    3-2  with providing the service shall be considered as if the boundaries
    3-3  of the territories had not changed.  A fee established under this
    3-4  section must be approved by the commission after adequate notice
    3-5  and hearing on the merits and may not exceed an amount determined
    3-6  by the commission to compensate the local exchange company for the
    3-7  actual loss of revenue due to the implementation of this section.
    3-8  If the fee established fails to compensate the local exchange
    3-9  company and the local exchange company is able to demonstrate a
   3-10  hardship, as defined by the commission, the local exchange company
   3-11  is entitled to recover sufficient lost revenues to eliminate the
   3-12  hardship from the universal service fund established by this Act.
   3-13        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-19  passage, and it is so enacted.