HB 817

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to telecommunications services; amending
3	s. 364.025, F.S.; providing definitions; providing that a
4	local exchange telecommunications company obligated to
5	serve as the carrier of last resort is not obligated to
6	provide basic local telecommunications service to
7	customers in a multitenant business or residential
8	property under certain circumstances; requiring the local
9	exchange telecommunications company to notify the Public
10	Service Commission when it is relieved of the obligation
11	to provide service; providing for the local exchange
12	telecommunications company to request a waiver of its
13	carrier of last resort obligation from the commission;
14	providing for carrier of last resort obligation to apply
15	when specified conditions cease to exist; providing for
16	effect of the act on the commission's jurisdiction;
17	amending s. 364.051, F.S., relating to price regulation;
18	allowing certain local exchange telecommunications
19	companies to publish terms, conditions, and rates for
20	nonbasic services in lieu of maintaining tariffs with the
21	Public Service Commission; providing for guidelines for
22	the publication; revising the notice requirement for price
23	changes to nonbasic services; removing a provision that
24	allows a company to elect that its basic services be
25	subject to the same regulatory treatment as its nonbasic
26	services; providing for a request from a company to the
27	Public Service Commission to make certain reductions in
28	its retail service quality requirements; revising criteria
29	for granting a petition to change regulatory treatment of
30	retail services; providing an effective date.
31
32	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
33
34	Section 1.  Subsection (6) is added to section 364.025,
35	Florida Statutes, to read:
36	364.025  Universal service.--
37	(6)(a)  For purposes of this subsection:
38	1.  "Owner or developer" means the owner or developer of a
39	multitenant business or residential property, any condominium
40	association or homeowners' association thereof, or any other
41	person or entity having ownership in or control over the
42	property.
43	2.  "Communications service provider" means any person or
44	entity providing communications services, any person or entity
45	allowing another person or entity to use its communications
46	facilities to provide communications services, or any person or
47	entity securing rights to select communications service
48	providers for a property owner or developer.
49	3.  "Communications service" means voice service or voice
50	replacement service through the use of any technology.
51	(b)  A local exchange telecommunications company obligated
52	by this section to serve as the carrier of last resort is not
53	obligated to provide basic local telecommunications service to
54	any customers in a multitenant business or residential property,
55	including, but not limited to, apartments, condominiums,
56	subdivisions, office buildings, or office parks, when the owner
57	or developer thereof:
58	1.  Permits only one communications service provider to
59	install its communications service-related facilities or
60	equipment, to the exclusion of the local exchange
61	telecommunications company, during the construction phase of the
62	property;
63	2.  Accepts or agrees to accept incentives or rewards from
64	a communications service provider that are contingent upon the
65	provision of any or all communications services by one or more
66	communications service providers to the exclusion of the local
67	exchange telecommunications company;
68	3.  Collects from the occupants or residents of the
69	property charges for the provision of any communications
70	service, provided by a communications service provider other
71	than the local exchange telecommunications company, to the
72	occupants or residents in any manner, including, but not limited
73	to, collection through rent, fees, or dues; or
74	4.  Enters into an agreement with a communications service
75	provider that grants incentives or rewards to such owner or
76	developer contingent upon restriction or limitation of the local
77	exchange telecommunications company's access to the property.
78	(c)  The local exchange telecommunications company relieved
79	of its carrier of last resort obligation to provide basic local
80	telecommunications service to the occupants or residents of a
81	multitenant business or residential property pursuant to
82	paragraph (b) shall notify the commission of that fact in a
83	timely manner.
84	(d)  A local exchange telecommunications company that is
85	not automatically relieved of its carrier-of-last-resort
86	obligation pursuant to subparagraphs (b)1.-4. may seek a waiver
87	of its carrier of last resort obligation from the commission for
88	good cause shown based on the facts and circumstances of
89	provision of service to the multitenant business or residential
90	property. Upon petition for such relief, notice shall be given
91	by the company at the same time to the relevant building owner
92	or developer. The commission shall have 90 days to act on the
93	petition. The commission shall implement this paragraph through
94	rulemaking.
95	(e)  If all conditions described in subparagraphs (b)1.-4.
96	cease to exist at a property, the owner or developer requests in
97	writing that the local exchange telecommunications company make
98	service available to customers at the property and confirms in
99	writing that all conditions described in subparagraphs (b)1.-4.
100	have ceased to exist at the property, and the owner or developer
101	has not arranged and does not intend to arrange with another
102	communications service provider to make communications service
103	available to customers at the property, then the carrier of last
104	resort obligation under this section shall again apply to the
105	local exchange telecommunications company at the property;
106	however, the local exchange telecommunications company may
107	require that the owner or developer pay to the company in
108	advance a reasonable fee to recover costs that exceed the costs
109	that would have been incurred to construct or acquire facilities
110	to serve customers at the property initially, and the company
111	shall have a reasonable period of time following the request
112	from the owner or developer to make arrangements for service
113	availability. If any conditions described in subparagraphs
114	(b)1.-4. again exist at the property, then paragraph (b) shall
115	again apply.
116	(f)  This subsection does not affect the limitations on the
117	jurisdiction of the commission imposed by s. 364.011 or s.
118	364.013.
119	Section 2.  Subsections (5), (6), and (7) of section
120	364.051, Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
121	364.051  Price regulation.--
122	(5)  NONBASIC SERVICES.--Price regulation of nonbasic
123	services shall consist of the following:
124	(a)  Each company subject to this section shall, at its
125	option, maintain tariffs with the commission or otherwise
126	publicly publish containing the terms, conditions, and rates for
127	each of its nonbasic services, and may set or change, on 1 day's
128	15 days' notice, the rate for each of its nonbasic services. For
129	a company electing to publicly publish the terms, conditions,
130	and rates for each of its nonbasic services, the commission may
131	establish guidelines for the publication. The guidelines may not
132	require more information than what is required to be filed with
133	a tariff. The, except that a price increase for any nonbasic
134	service category shall not exceed 6 percent within a 12-month
135	period until there is another provider providing local
136	telecommunications service in an exchange area at which time the
137	price for any nonbasic service category may be increased in an
138	amount not to exceed 20 percent within a 12-month period, and
139	the rate shall be presumptively valid. However, for purposes of
140	this subsection, the prices of:
141	1.  A voice-grade, flat-rate, multi-line business local
142	exchange service, including multiple individual lines, centrex
143	lines, private branch exchange trunks, and any associated
144	hunting services, that provides dial tone and local usage
145	necessary to place a call within a local exchange calling area;
146	and
147	2.  Telecommunications services provided under contract
148	service arrangements to the SUNCOM Network, as defined in
149	chapter 282,
150
151	shall be capped at the rates in effect on July 1, 1995, and such
152	rates shall not be increased prior to January 1, 2000; provided,
153	however, that a petition to increase such rates may be filed
154	pursuant to subsection (4) utilizing the standards set forth
155	therein. There shall be a flat-rate pricing option for multi-
156	line business local exchange service, and mandatory measured
157	service for multi-line business local exchange service shall not
158	be imposed. Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the
159	local exchange telecommunications company from meeting offerings
160	by any competitive provider of the same, or functionally
161	equivalent, nonbasic services in a specific geographic market or
162	to a specific customer by deaveraging the price of any nonbasic
163	service, packaging nonbasic services together or with basic
164	services, using volume discounts and term discounts, and
165	offering individual contracts. However, the local exchange
166	telecommunications company shall not engage in any
167	anticompetitive act or practice, nor unreasonably discriminate
168	among similarly situated customers.
169	(b)  The commission shall have continuing regulatory
170	oversight of nonbasic services for purposes of ensuring
171	resolution of service complaints, preventing cross-subsidization
172	of nonbasic services with revenues from basic services, and
173	ensuring that all providers are treated fairly in the
174	telecommunications market. The cost standard for determining
175	cross-subsidization is whether the total revenue from a nonbasic
176	service is less than the total long-run incremental cost of the
177	service. Total long-run incremental cost means service-specific
178	volume and nonvolume-sensitive costs.
179	(c)  The price charged to a consumer for a nonbasic service
180	shall cover the direct costs of providing the service and shall,
181	to the extent a cost is not included in the direct cost, include
182	as an imputed cost the price charged by the company to
183	competitors for any monopoly component used by a competitor in
184	the provision of its same or functionally equivalent service.
185	(6)  After a local exchange telecommunications company that
186	has more than 1 million access lines in service has reduced its
187	intrastate switched network access rates to parity, as defined
188	in s. 364.164(5), the local exchange telecommunications
189	company's basic local telecommunications service may, at the
190	company's election, be subject to the same regulatory treatment
191	as its nonbasic services. The company's retail service quality
192	requirements that are not already equal to the service quality
193	requirements imposed upon the competitive local exchange
194	telecommunications companies shall at the company's request to
195	the commission thereafter be no greater than those imposed upon
196	competitive local exchange telecommunications companies unless
197	the commission, within 120 days after the company's request
198	election, determines otherwise. In such event, the commission
199	may grant some reductions in service quality requirements in
200	some or all of the company's local calling areas. The commission
201	may not impose retail service quality requirements on
202	competitive local exchange telecommunications companies greater
203	than those existing on January 1, 2003.
204	(7)  After If a local exchange telecommunications company
205	that has more than 1 million access lines in service has reduced
206	its intrastate switched network access rates to parity, as
207	defined in s. 364.164(5) elects, pursuant to subsection (6), to
208	subject its retail basic local telecommunications services to
209	the same regulatory treatment as its nonbasic services, the
210	local exchange telecommunications company may petition the
211	commission for regulatory treatment of its retail services at a
212	level no greater than that imposed by the commission upon
213	competitive local exchange telecommunications companies. The
214	local exchange telecommunications company shall:
215	(a)  Show that granting the petition is in the public
216	interest;
217	(b)  Demonstrate that the competition faced by the company
218	is sufficient and sustainable to allow such competition to
219	supplant regulation by the commission; and
220	(c)(b)  Reduce its intrastate switched network access rates
221	to its local reciprocal interconnection rate upon the grant of
222	the petition.
223
224	The commission shall act upon such a petition within 9 months
225	after its filing with the commission. In making its
226	determination to either grant or deny the petition, the
227	commission shall determine the extent to which the level of
228	competition faced by the local exchange telecommunications
229	company permits and will continue to permit the company to have
230	its retail services regulated no differently than the
231	competitive local exchange telecommunications companies are then
232	being regulated. The commission may not increase the level of
233	regulation for competitive local exchange telecommunications
234	companies to a level greater than that which exists on the date
235	the local exchange telecommunications company files its
236	petition.
237	Section 3.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.