AN ACT Relating to regulation of telecommunications companies; amending RCW 80.04.010; reenacting and amending RCW 80.36.380; adding a new section to chapter 80.36 RCW; creating a new section; and repealing RCW 80.36.300, 80.36.310, 80.36.320, 80.36.330, 80.36.360, and 80.36.370.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that efforts to deregulate certain aspects of the telecommunications industry have met with a great deal of uncertainty and concern over the uneven amount of regulation which face competing companies. Therefore the legislature finds that the most equitable system would be to return all telecommunications companies and services to complete oversight by the utilities and transportation commission.

Sec. 2. Section 1, chapter 229, Laws of 1987 and RCW 80.04.010 are each amended to read as follows:

As used in this title, unless specifically defined otherwise or unless the context indicates otherwise:

"Commission" means the utilities and transportation commission.

"Commissioner" means one of the members of such commission.

((~~"Competitive telecommunications company" means a telecommunications company which has been classified as such by the commission pursuant to RCW 80.36.320.~~

~~"Competitive telecommunications service" means a service which has been classified as such by the commission pursuant to RCW 80.36.330.~~))

"Corporation" includes a corporation, company, association or joint stock association.

"Person" includes an individual, a firm or partnership.

"Gas plant" includes all real estate, fixtures and personal property, owned, leased, controlled, used or to be used for or in connection with the transmission, distribution, sale or furnishing of natural gas, or the manufacture, transmission, distribution, sale or furnishing of other type gas, for light, heat or power.

"Gas company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receiver appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town, owning, controlling, operating or managing any gas plant within this state.

"Electric plant" includes all real estate, fixtures and personal property operated, owned, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the generation, transmission, distribution, sale or furnishing of electricity for light, heat, or power for hire; and any conduits, ducts or other devices, materials, apparatus or property for containing, holding or carrying conductors used or to be used for the transmission of electricity for light, heat or power.

"Electrical company" includes any corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever (other than a railroad or street railroad company generating electricity solely for railroad or street railroad purposes or for the use of its tenants and not for sale to others), and every city or town owning, operating or managing any electric plant for hire within this state. "Electrical company" does not include a company or person employing a cogeneration facility solely for the generation of electricity for its own use or the use of its tenants or for sale to an electrical company, state or local public agency, municipal corporation, or quasi municipal corporation engaged in the sale or distribution of electrical energy, but not for sale to others, unless such company or person is otherwise an electrical company.

"LATA" means a local access transport area as defined by the commission in conformance with applicable federal law.

"Private telecommunications system" means a telecommunications system controlled by a person or entity for the sole and exclusive use of such person, entity, or affiliate thereof, including the provision of private shared telecommunications services by such person or entity. "Private telecommunications system" does not include a system offered for hire, sale, or resale to the general public.

"Private shared telecommunications services" includes the provision of telecommunications and information management services and equipment within a user group located in discrete private premises in building complexes, campuses, or high-rise buildings, by a commercial shared services provider or by a user association, through privately owned customer premises equipment and associated data processing and information management services and includes the provision of connections to the facilities of a local exchange and to interexchange telecommunications companies.

"Radio communications service company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership, and person, their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court, and every city or town making available facilities to provide radio communications service, radio paging, or cellular communications service for hire, sale, or resale.

"Telecommunications company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town owning, operating or managing any facilities used to provide telecommunications for hire, sale, or resale to the general public within this state.

"Facilities" means lines, conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, cross-arms, receivers, transmitters, instruments, machines, appliances, instrumentalities and all devices, real estate, easements, apparatus, property and routes used, operated, owned or controlled by any telecommunications company to facilitate the provision of telecommunications service.

"Telecommunications" is the transmission of information by wire, radio, optical cable, electromagnetic, or other similar means. As used in this definition, "information" means knowledge or intelligence represented by any form of writing, signs, signals, pictures, sounds, or any other symbols.

"Water system" includes all real estate, easements, fixtures, personal property, dams, dikes, head gates, weirs, canals, reservoirs, flumes or other structures or appliances operated, owned, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the supply, storage, distribution, sale, furnishing, diversion, carriage, apportionment or measurement of water for power, irrigation, reclamation, manufacturing, municipal, domestic or other beneficial uses for hire.

"Water company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town owning, controlling, operating, or managing any water system for hire within this state: PROVIDED, That for purposes of commission jurisdiction it shall not include any water system serving less than one hundred customers where the average annual gross revenue per customer does not exceed three hundred dollars per year, which revenue figure may be increased annually by the commission by rule adopted pursuant to chapter 34.04 RCW to reflect the rate of inflation as determined by the implicit price deflator of the United States department of commerce: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That such measurement of customers or revenues shall include all portions of water companies having common ownership, regardless of location or corporate designation. However, water companies exempt from commission regulation shall be subject to the provisions of chapter 19.86 RCW.

"Cogeneration facility" means any machinery, equipment, structure, process, or property, or any part thereof, installed or acquired for the primary purpose of the sequential generation of electrical or mechanical power and useful heat from the same primary energy source or fuel.

"Public service company" includes every gas company, electrical company, telecommunications company, and water company. Ownership or operation of a cogeneration facility does not, by itself, make a company or person a public service company.

"Local exchange company" means a telecommunications company providing local exchange telecommunications service.

"Department" means the department of social and health services.

The term "service" is used in this title in its broadest and most inclusive sense.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 80.36 RCW to read as follows:

The commission shall classify and regulate all telecommunications services previously classified as competitive under chapter 450, Laws of 1985.

Sec. 4. Section 41, chapter 450, Laws of 1985 as amended by section 6, chapter 293, Laws of 1987 and by section 78, chapter 505, Laws of 1987 and RCW 80.36.380 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

Subject to RCW 40.07.040, the commission shall provide the legislature with a biennial report through 1991 on the status of the Washington telecommunications industry. The report shall describe the competitiveness of all markets as defined by the commission; the availability of diverse and affordable telecommunications services to all people of Washington, particularly to customers in rural or sparsely populated areas; and the level of rates for local exchange and interexchange telecommunications service. The report also shall address the quality and extent of the state's telecommunications infrastructure. ((The report also shall address the question of whether competition in certain markets has developed to such an extent that the commission recommends additional regulatory flexibility such as detariffing or total deregulation and the evidence therefor; and the need for further legislation to achieve the purposes of RCW 80.36.300 through 80.36.370 and 80.04.010.)) The commission shall also monitor cost of service methodologies and shall recommend to the legislature whether cost of service ratemaking shall become a standard for telecommunications services.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The following acts or parts of acts are each repealed:

(1) Section 1, chapter 450, Laws of 1985 and RCW 80.36.300;

(2) Section 3, chapter 450, Laws of 1985 and RCW 80.36.310;

(3) Section 4, chapter 450, Laws of 1985 and RCW 80.36.320;

(4) Section 5, chapter 450, Laws of 1985 and RCW 80.36.330;

(5) Section 8, chapter 450, Laws of 1985 and RCW 80.36.360; and

(6) Section 9, chapter 450, Laws of 1985 and RCW 80.36.370.