By:  Carriker                                          S.B. No. 632
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the service areas of certain public utilities.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Article XIII, Public Utility Regulatory Act
    1-4  (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
    1-5  adding Section 93A to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 93A.  (a)  The commission shall require each local
    1-7  exchange company to establish local service areas that conform to
    1-8  the following provisions:
    1-9              (1)  each telephone subscriber shall be entitled to
   1-10  place toll-free calls to any other subscriber if any part of the
   1-11  subscribers' central office territories are adjoining or if either
   1-12  territory's central office is located within 22 miles of the other
   1-13  central office's territory; and
   1-14              (2)  each telephone subscriber shall be entitled to
   1-15  place toll-free calls to any other subscriber within any area that
   1-16  the commission determines to be within one community of interest.
   1-17        (b)  For the purposes of this section, a community of
   1-18  interest includes areas that are related by common schools,
   1-19  hospitals, local governments, business centers, and other
   1-20  facilities, the inaccessibility to which would create or exacerbate
   1-21  a hardship for the residents of the areas.  A community of interest
   1-22  need not include areas in territories in which the central offices
   1-23  are more than 50 miles apart.
    2-1        (c)  Each local exchange company shall submit its plan to
    2-2  establish toll-free calling areas pursuant to this section within
    2-3  90 days after the commission adopts rules implementing this
    2-4  section.  An affected person may complain of a plan submitted, and
    2-5  the commission shall proceed as provided by Section 43A of this
    2-6  Act.
    2-7        (d)  The commission shall amend the boundaries of a toll-free
    2-8  service area on petition by 100 residents of the area if the
    2-9  commission finds, after a hearing on the merits, that a community
   2-10  of interest exists.  The commission shall require notice by the
   2-11  local exchange company to affected parties as it deems reasonable.
   2-12  The decision regarding changing a toll-free calling area pursuant
   2-13  to this section shall be made within 60 days after the notice
   2-14  required by the commission is delivered, and the commission shall
   2-15  establish a reasonable time for the implementation of the plan.
   2-16        (e)  The commission and a local exchange company are not
   2-17  required to comply with this section if there is a good and
   2-18  sufficient showing that it is geographically or technologically
   2-19  infeasibile to serve such an area.
   2-20        (f)  In order to compensate a local exchange company for
   2-21  revenues lost due to the implementation of this section, the
   2-22  commission may allow a local exchange company to establish a fixed
   2-23  monthly per line fee to be paid by subscribers who obtain a new
   2-24  toll-free calling area pursuant to this section.  A fee so allowed
   2-25  may not exceed $2 per line and shall only be in effect until the
    3-1  next general rate case, at which time the costs and revenues
    3-2  associated with this section shall be considered as if the
    3-3  boundaries of the territories had not changed unless there is
    3-4  another boundary change pursuant to this section after the general
    3-5  rate case.  A fee established pursuant to this section must be
    3-6  approved by the commission in a hearing on the merits after
    3-7  adequate notice and may not exceed an amount determined to
    3-8  compensate the local exchange company for the actual loss of
    3-9  revenue due to the implementation of this section.  In the event
   3-10  that the fee established fails to compensate the local exchange
   3-11  company and the local exchange company is able to demonstrate
   3-12  hardship, as defined by the commission, then the local exchange
   3-13  company is entitled to recover sufficient lost revenues to
   3-14  eliminate the hardship from the universal service fund established
   3-15  by this Act.
   3-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-22  passage, and it is so enacted.