The Florida Senate

Notwithstanding subsection (2), any local exchange telecommunications company that believes circumstances have changed substantially to justify any increase in the rates for basic local telecommunications services may petition the commission for a rate increase, but the commission shall grant the petition only after an opportunity for a hearing and a compelling showing of changed circumstances. The costs and expenses of any government program or project required in part II may not be recovered under this subsection unless the costs and expenses are incurred in the absence of a bid and subject to carrier-of-last-resort obligations as provided for in part II. The commission shall act upon the petition within 120 days after its filing.

For purposes of this section, evidence of damage occurring to the lines, plants, or facilities of a local exchange telecommunications company, which damage is the result of a tropical system occurring after June 1, 2005, and named by the National Hurricane Center, constitutes a compelling showing of changed circumstances.

Each company subject to this section may set or change, on 1 day’s notice, the rate for each of its nonbasic services. The price increase for any nonbasic service category shall not exceed 6 percent within a 12-month period until there is another provider providing local telecommunications service in an exchange area at which time the price for any nonbasic service category may be increased in an amount not to exceed 10 percent within a 12-month period, and the rate shall be presumptively valid. However, the price for any service that was treated as basic service before July 1, 2009, may not be increased by more than the amount allowed for basic service as provided in subsections (2) and (3). There shall be a flat-rate pricing option for multi-line business local exchange service, and mandatory measured service for multi-line business local exchange service shall not be imposed. This chapter does not prevent the local exchange telecommunications company from meeting offerings by any competitive provider of the same, or functionally equivalent, nonbasic services in a specific geographic market or to a specific customer by deaveraging the price of any nonbasic service, packaging nonbasic services together or with basic services, using volume discounts and term discounts, and offering individual contracts. However, the local exchange telecommunications company may not engage in any anticompetitive act or practice or unreasonably discriminate among similarly situated customers.

The commission has continuing regulatory oversight of nonbasic services for purposes of preventing cross-subsidization of nonbasic services with revenues from basic services, and ensuring that all providers are treated fairly in the telecommunications market. The price charged to a consumer for a nonbasic service shall cover the direct costs of providing the service. The cost standard for determining cross-subsidization is whether the total revenue from a nonbasic service is less than the total long-run incremental cost of the service. Total long-run incremental cost means service-specific volume and nonvolume-sensitive costs.