By: Rosson S.B. No. 162
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to a requirement that an operator service make a live
1-2 operator available.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 18A, Public Utility Regulatory Act
1-5 (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
1-6 amending Subsection (h) and adding Subsection (i) to read follows:
1-7 (h) Except as provided by Subsection (i) of this section,
1-8 this <This> section applies only to a telecommunications utility
1-9 that is not a dominant carrier. The commission is granted all
1-10 necessary power and authority under this Act to promulgate rules
1-11 and establish procedures for the purposes of enforcing and
1-12 implementing this section.
1-13 (i) Each dominant or nondominant telecommunications utility
1-14 that provides operator service shall ensure that a caller may
1-15 access a live operator at the beginning of a call through a method
1-16 designed to be easily and clearly understandable and accessible to
1-17 a caller. A telecommunications utility shall submit to the
1-18 commission the method by which the utility will provide access to a
1-19 live operator for review. This subsection applies regardless of
1-20 the method by which the telecommunications utility provides the
1-21 operator service. The requirements of this subsection shall not
1-22 apply to telephones located in prison or jail facilities.
1-23 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
2-1 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.