By Driver                                       H.B. No. 3167

      75R6185 DWS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to change of a customer's telecommunications provider.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subtitle D, Title III, Public Utility Regulatory

 1-5     Act of 1995 (Article 1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 3.156 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 3.156.  CHANGING TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER.  (a)  If a

 1-8     customer's telecommunications provider is changed, the

 1-9     telecommunications provider serving the customer after the change

1-10     shall ensure that the first bill sent to the customer after the

1-11     change includes a notice that includes:

1-12                 (1)  a statement that the customer's telecommunications

1-13     provider has been changed to the new provider;

1-14                 (2)  a statement that if the change is without the

1-15     customer's consent, the customer is entitled to return to the

1-16     telecommunications provider from which the customer was changed

1-17     without charge; and

1-18                 (3)  a toll-free telephone number at which the customer

1-19     to which Subdivision (2) of this subsection applies may call to

1-20     request the return.

1-21           (b)  On receipt of a request under Subsection (a)(3) of this

1-22     section from a customer entitled to return to the

1-23     telecommunications provider from which the customer was changed,

1-24     the telecommunications provider to which the customer's service was

 2-1     changed shall:

 2-2                 (1)  immediately return the customer to the service of

 2-3     the telecommunications provider from which the customer was

 2-4     changed; and

 2-5                 (2)  pay all costs for returning the customer.

 2-6           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-11     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-12     passage, and it is so enacted.