By:  Shapleigh                                        S.B. No. 1819

         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.

         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

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

 1-2                         disconnections of service.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subtitle G, 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 3.312 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 3.312.  LONG DISTANCE SERVICE DISCONNECTIONS AND

 1-8     BLOCKING.  (a)  A telecommunications utility may not disconnect a

 1-9     customer's local telephone service for nonpayment of long distance

1-10     service costs.

1-11           (b)  A telecommunications utility, at no charge, shall allow:

1-12                 (1)  a customer to block long distance service; or

1-13                 (2)  a residential customer to set a voluntary

1-14     limitation on the amount of the customer's monthly long distance

1-15     telephone costs.

1-16           (c)  A telecommunications utility shall block all long

1-17     distance service to a residential customer who has chosen to place

1-18     a limitation on long distance costs when the total of the unpaid

1-19     long distance telephone costs attributable to the customer reaches

1-20     the amount of the voluntary limitation set by the customer.

1-21           (d)  A telecommunications utility shall remove the block

 2-1     placed on a customer under Subsection (c) of this section when the

 2-2     customer has paid a portion of the customer's total unpaid long

 2-3     distance telephone cost so that the amount of the unpaid cost is

 2-4     less than the voluntary limitation set by the customer.

 2-5           (e)  A telecommunications utility shall remove, at no charge,

 2-6     a voluntary long distance limitation set by the customer under

 2-7     Subsection (b) of this section not later than the 30th day after

 2-8     the customer makes a request.

 2-9           (f)  In this section:

2-10                 (1)  "Long distance" includes any interLATA or

2-11     intraLATA telephone call that terminates outside the calling

2-12     customer's local calling area.

2-13                 (2)  "Telecommunications utility" includes a person who

2-14     holds a service provider certificate of operating authority under

2-15     Section 3.2532 of this Act.

2-16           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-22     passage, and it is so enacted.