By: Shapiro S.B. No. 1665
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the expansion of toll-free calling areas.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Section 3.304, Public Utility Regulatory Act of
1-4 1995 (Article 1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended
1-5 to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 3.304. Expansion of Toll-Free Calling Areas; Criteria.
1-7 (a) To address telephone calling needs between nearby telephone
1-8 exchanges, the commission shall initiate a rulemaking proceeding to
1-9 approve rules to provide for an expedited hearing to allow the
1-10 expanding of toll-free calling areas according to the following
1-11 criteria:
1-12 (1) Toll-free calling boundaries may only be expanded
1-13 under this section after the filing of a petition signed by the
1-14 lesser of five percent of the subscribers or 100 subscribers within
1-15 an exchange. If such a petition is filed with the commission, the
1-16 commission shall order the incumbent local exchange company to
1-17 provide for the balloting of its subscribers within the petitioning
1-18 exchange and, if there is an affirmative vote of at least 70
1-19 percent of those responding, the commission shall consider the
1-20 request.
1-21 (2) The commission shall provide for the expansion of
1-22 toll-free calling areas for each incumbent local exchange customer
1-23 in the petitioning exchange if the petitioning exchange serves not
2-1 more than 10,000 lines and if:
2-2 (A) the central switching office of the
2-3 petitioning exchange is located within 22 miles utilizing vertical
2-4 and horizontal geographic coordinates of the central switching
2-5 office of the exchange requested for toll-free calling service; or
2-6 (B) the petitioning exchange shall demonstrate
2-7 in its petition that it shares a community of interest with the
2-8 exchange requested for toll-free calling service. For purposes of
2-9 this paragraph, "community of interest" includes areas that have a
2-10 relationship because of schools, hospitals, local governments,
2-11 business centers, and other relationships the unavailability of
2-12 which would cause a hardship to the residents of the area but shall
2-13 not include an area where the affected central offices are more
2-14 than 50 miles apart.
2-15 (3) The commission shall permit only one-way toll-free
2-16 calling areas under this section for petitions filed on or after
2-17 April 15, 1997.
2-18 (4)(A) The incumbent local exchange company shall
2-19 recover all of its costs incurred and all loss of revenue from any
2-20 expansion of toll-free calling areas under this section through a
2-21 request other than a revenue requirement showing by:
2-22 (i) a monthly fee for toll-free calling
2-23 service of not more than $3.50 per line for residential customers
2-24 nor more than $7 per line for business customers for up to five
2-25 exchanges, together with an additional monthly fee of $1.50 per
3-1 line for each exchange in excess of five, whether obtained in one
3-2 or more petitions, to be collected from all such residential or
3-3 business customers in the petitioning exchange and only until the
3-4 incumbent local exchange company's next general rate case;
3-5 (ii) a monthly surcharge [fee] for
3-6 toll-free calling service for all of the incumbent local exchange
3-7 company's local exchange service customers in the state in addition
3-8 to the company's current local exchange rates; or
3-9 (iii) both (i) and (ii).
3-10 The monthly fees allowed by Subparagraph (i) of
3-11 this paragraph shall be a charge to customers, including customers
3-12 of petitioning exchanges, in addition to the customer surcharge
3-13 allowed by Subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph or Paragraph (C) of
3-14 this subdivision. The surcharge to each customer permitted under
3-15 either Subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph or Paragraph (C) of this
3-16 subdivision is not limited or reduced by any monthly fee assessed
3-17 the customer under Subparagraph (i) of this paragraph.
3-18 (B) For petitions filed after April 15, 1997,
3-19 the petitioned and petitioning incumbent local exchange companies
3-20 shall recover all costs incurred and all loss of revenue from the
3-21 granting of a petition for toll-free calling areas through a
3-22 monthly fee assessed to residential and business local exchange
3-23 customers in the petitioning exchange. Such fee shall not be
3-24 limited to $3.50 per line for residential customers or $7 per line
3-25 for business customers.
4-1 (C) For surcharges allowed by Paragraph (A)(ii)
4-2 of this subdivision relating to petitions filed prior to April 15,
4-3 1997:
4-4 (i) the surcharge rate shall be
4-5 recalculated and will be administratively approved to allow the
4-6 company's previously approved total expanded local calling service
4-7 surcharge amount to be collected from only the company's customers
4-8 in the expanded local calling service petitioning and petitioned
4-9 exchanges;
4-10 (ii) for those companies having fewer than
4-11 one million access lines, the surcharge rate, at the company's
4-12 initiative, shall be recalculated and will be administratively
4-13 approved to allow the approved total expanded local calling service
4-14 surcharge amount to be collected either from only the company's
4-15 customers in the expanded local calling service petitioning and
4-16 petitioned exchanges or from all of the company's local exchange
4-17 service customers, at its option.
4-18 Any surcharge amount relating to petitions filed
4-19 prior to April 15, 1997, which surcharge has not been approved by
4-20 the commission as of April 15, 1997, shall be calculated consistent
4-21 with the provisions of Subparagraph (i) or (ii) of this paragraph.
4-22 (D) If two years after the imposition of a fee
4-23 or surcharge allowed by Paragraphs (A) - (C) of this subdivision a
4-24 local exchange company has not had a general rate case, the company
4-25 may include all of the fees and surcharges allowed by Paragraphs
5-1 (A) - (C) of this subdivision in the company's regular charge for
5-2 local exchange service in the exchanges to which the monthly fee or
5-3 surcharge applies and changes to the company's tariffs shall be
5-4 approved on a revenue-neutral basis by the commission on
5-5 application by a company under this subsection.
5-6 (E) [(B)] An incumbent local exchange company
5-7 may not recover regulatory case expenses under this section by
5-8 surcharging petitioning exchange subscribers.
5-9 (F) A proceeding under this section is not a
5-10 ratemaking proceeding before the commission or in a court.
5-11 (b)(1) The commission and an incumbent local exchange
5-12 company are not required to comply with this section with regard to
5-13 a petitioning exchange or petitioned exchange if:
5-14 (A) the commission determines that there has
5-15 been a good and sufficient showing of a geographic or technological
5-16 infeasibility to serve the area;
5-17 (B) the incumbent local exchange company has
5-18 less than 10,000 lines;
5-19 (C) the petitioning or petitioned exchange is
5-20 served by a cooperative;
5-21 (D) extended area service or extended
5-22 metropolitan service is currently available between the petitioning
5-23 and petitioned exchanges; or
5-24 (E) the petitioning or petitioned exchange is a
5-25 metropolitan exchange.
6-1 (2) The commission may expand the toll-free calling
6-2 area into an exchange not within a metropolitan exchange but within
6-3 the local calling area contiguous to a metropolitan exchange that
6-4 the commission determines to have a community of interest
6-5 relationship with the petitioning exchange. For the purposes of
6-6 this section, metropolitan exchange, local calling area of a
6-7 metropolitan exchange, and exchange have the meanings and
6-8 boundaries as defined and approved by the commission on September
6-9 1, 1993. However, under no circumstances shall a petitioning or
6-10 petitioned exchange be split in the provision of a toll-free
6-11 calling area.
6-12 (c) In [The commission may, in] order to promote the wide
6-13 dispersion of pay telephones, [either exempt] such telephones shall
6-14 be exempt from the provisions of this section [or change the rates
6-15 to be charged from such telephones in an amount sufficient to
6-16 promote this goal].
6-17 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
6-18 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
6-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
6-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
6-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
6-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.