By Ellis                                        S.B. No. 1008

      75R3240 JJT-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to limitations on long distance service charges and

 1-3     related disconnections of service.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subtitle G, Title III, Public Utility Regulatory

 1-6     Act of 1995 (Article 1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is

 1-7     amended by adding Section 3.312 to read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 3.312.  LONG DISTANCE SERVICE DISCONNECTIONS AND

 1-9     BLOCKING.  (a)  A telecommunications utility may not disconnect a

1-10     customer's local telephone service for nonpayment of long distance

1-11     service costs.

1-12           (b)  A telecommunications utility, at no charge, shall allow:

1-13                 (1)  a customer to block long distance service; or

1-14                 (2)  a residential customer to set a voluntary

1-15     limitation on the amount of the customer's monthly long distance

1-16     telephone costs.

1-17           (c)  A telecommunications utility shall block all long

1-18     distance service to a residential customer who has chosen to place

1-19     a limitation on long distance costs when the total of the unpaid

1-20     long distance telephone costs attributable to the customer reaches

1-21     the amount of the voluntary limitation set by the customer.

1-22           (d)  A telecommunications utility shall remove the block

1-23     placed on a customer under Subsection (c) of this section when the

1-24     customer has paid a portion of the customer's total unpaid long

 2-1     distance telephone cost so that the amount of the unpaid cost is

 2-2     less than the voluntary limitation set by the customer.

 2-3           (e)  A telecommunications utility shall remove, at no charge,

 2-4     a voluntary long distance limitation set by the customer under

 2-5     Subsection (b) of this section not later than the 30th day after

 2-6     the customer makes a request.

 2-7           (f)  In this section:

 2-8                 (1)  "Long distance" includes any interLATA or

 2-9     intraLATA telephone call that terminates outside the calling

2-10     customer's local calling area.

2-11                 (2)  "Telecommunications utility" includes a person who

2-12     holds a service provider certificate of operating authority under

2-13     Section 3.2532 of this Act.

2-14           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-20     passage, and it is so enacted.