BILL REQ. #: S-0675.2
State of Washington | 58th Legislature | 2003 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/22/2003. Referred to Committee on Technology & Communications.
AN ACT Relating to promotional service offerings; and amending RCW 80.04.130, 80.36.110, 80.36.320, and 80.36.330.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 80.04.130 and 2001 c 267 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1)(a) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section,
whenever any public service company shall file with the commission any
schedule, classification, rule or regulation, the effect of which is to
change any rate, charge, rental or toll theretofore charged, the
commission shall have power, either upon its own motion or upon
complaint, upon notice, to enter upon a hearing concerning such
proposed change and the reasonableness and justness thereof, and
pending such hearing and the decision thereon the commission may
suspend the operation of such rate, charge, rental or toll for a period
not exceeding ten months from the time the same would otherwise go into
effect, and after a full hearing the commission may make such order in
reference thereto as would be provided in a hearing initiated after the
same had become effective. The commission shall not suspend a tariff
that makes a decrease in a rate, charge, rental, or toll filed by a
telecommunications company pending investigation of the fairness,
justness, and reasonableness of the decrease when the filing does not
contain any offsetting increase to another rate, charge, rental, or
toll and the filing company agrees to not file for an increase to any
rate, charge, rental, or toll to recover the revenue deficit that
results from the decrease for a period of one year. The filing company
shall file with any decrease sufficient information as the commission
by rule may require to demonstrate the decreased rate, charge, rental,
or toll is above the long run incremental cost of the service. A
tariff decrease that results in a rate that is below long run
incremental cost, or is contrary to commission rule or order, or the
requirements of this chapter, shall be rejected for filing and returned
to the company. The commission may prescribe a different rate to be
effective on the prospective date stated in its final order after its
investigation, if it concludes based on the record that the originally
filed and effective rate is unjust, unfair, or unreasonable.
((For the purposes of this section, tariffs for the following
telecommunications services, that temporarily waive or reduce charges
for existing or new subscribers for a period not to exceed sixty days
in order to promote the use of the services shall be considered tariffs
that decrease rates, charges, rentals, or tolls:))
(a) Custom calling service;
(b) Second access lines; or
(c) Other services the commission specifies by rule.
The commission may suspend any promotional tariff other than those
listed in (a) through (c) of this subsection.
(b) The commission may suspend the initial tariff filing of any
water company removed from and later subject to commission jurisdiction
because of the number of customers or the average annual gross revenue
per customer provisions of RCW 80.04.010. The commission may allow
temporary rates during the suspension period. These rates shall not
exceed the rates charged when the company was last regulated. Upon a
showing of good cause by the company, the commission may establish a
different level of temporary rates.
(2) For promotional service offerings not to exceed ninety days, a
telecommunications company may file a change to a price list or tariff
that contains only decreases to filed rates or waives conditions, and
that shall be effective upon filing or such other date specified by the
company. The price list or tariff is not subject to suspension by the
commission.
(3) At any hearing involving any change in any schedule,
classification, rule or regulation the effect of which is to increase
any rate, charge, rental or toll theretofore charged, the burden of
proof to show that such increase is just and reasonable shall be upon
the public service company.
(((3))) (4) The implementation of mandatory local measured
telecommunications service is a major policy change in available
telecommunications service. The commission shall not accept for filing
a price list, nor shall it accept for filing or approve, prior to June
1, 2004, a tariff filed by a telecommunications company which imposes
mandatory local measured service on any customer or class of customers,
except that, upon finding that it is in the public interest, the
commission may accept for filing a price list or it may accept for
filing and approve a tariff that imposes mandatory measured service for
a telecommunications company's extended area service or foreign
exchange service. This subsection does not apply to land, air, or
marine mobile service, or to pay telephone service, or to any service
which has been traditionally offered on a measured service basis.
(((4))) (5) The implementation of Washington telephone assistance
program service is a major policy change in available
telecommunications service. The implementation of Washington telephone
assistance program service will aid in achieving the stated goal of
universal telephone service.
(((5))) (6) If a utility claims a sales or use tax exemption on the
pollution control equipment for an electrical generation facility and
abandons the generation facility before the pollution control equipment
is fully depreciated, any tariff filing for a rate increase to recover
abandonment costs for the pollution control equipment shall be
considered unjust and unreasonable for the purposes of this section.
Sec. 2 RCW 80.36.110 and 1997 c 166 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section and in RCW
80.04.130(2), unless the commission otherwise orders, no change shall
be made in any rate, toll, rental, or charge, that was filed and
published by any telecommunications company in compliance with the
requirements of RCW 80.36.100, except after thirty days' notice to the
commission and publication for thirty days as required in the case of
original schedules in RCW 80.36.100, which notice shall plainly state
the changes proposed to be made in the schedule then in force, and the
time when the changed rate, toll, or charge will go into effect, and
all proposed changes shall be shown by printing, filing and publishing
new schedules, or shall be plainly indicated upon the schedules in
force at the time and kept open to public inspection. Proposed changes
may be suspended by the commission within thirty days or before the
stated effective date of the proposed change, whichever is later. The
commission for good cause shown may allow changes in rates, charges,
tolls, or rentals without requiring the thirty days' notice and
publication provided for in this section, by an order specifying the
change to be made and the time when it takes effect, and the manner in
which the change will be filed and published. When any change is made
in any rate, toll, rental, or charge, the effect of which is to
increase any rate, toll, rental, or charge then existing, attention
shall be directed on the copy filed with the commission to the increase
by some character immediately preceding or following the item in the
schedule, which character shall be in such a form as the commission may
designate.
(2) A telecommunications company may file a tariff that decreases
any rate, charge, rental, or toll with ten days' notice to the
commission and publication without receiving a special order from the
commission when the filing does not contain an offsetting increase to
another rate, charge, rental, or toll, and the filing company agrees
not to file for an increase to any rate, charge, rental, or toll to
recover the revenue deficit that results from the decrease for a period
of one year.
Sec. 3 RCW 80.36.320 and 1998 c 337 s 5 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) The commission shall classify a telecommunications company as
a competitive telecommunications company if the services it offers are
subject to effective competition. Effective competition means that the
company's customers have reasonably available alternatives and that the
company does not have a significant captive customer base. In
determining whether a company is competitive, factors the commission
shall consider include but are not limited to:
(a) The number and sizes of alternative providers of service;
(b) The extent to which services are available from alternative
providers in the relevant market;
(c) The ability of alternative providers to make functionally
equivalent or substitute services readily available at competitive
rates, terms, and conditions; and
(d) Other indicators of market power which may include market
share, growth in market share, ease of entry, and the affiliation of
providers of services.
The commission shall conduct the initial classification and any
subsequent review of the classification in accordance with such
procedures as the commission may establish by rule.
(2) Competitive telecommunications companies shall be subject to
minimal regulation. Minimal regulation means that competitive
telecommunications companies may file, instead of tariffs, price lists
((that shall be)). Except as provided in RCW 80.04.130(2), price lists
are effective after ten days' notice to the commission and customers.
The commission shall prescribe the form of notice. The commission may
also waive other regulatory requirements under this title for
competitive telecommunications companies when it determines that
competition will serve the same purposes as public interest regulation.
The commission may waive different regulatory requirements for
different companies if such different treatment is in the public
interest. A competitive telecommunications company shall at a minimum:
(a) Keep its accounts according to regulations as determined by the
commission;
(b) File financial reports with the commission as required by the
commission and in a form and at times prescribed by the commission;
(c) Keep on file at the commission such current price lists and
service standards as the commission may require; and
(d) Cooperate with commission investigations of customer
complaints.
(3) When a telecommunications company has demonstrated that the
equal access requirements ordered by the federal district court in the
case of U.S. v. AT&T, 552 F. Supp. 131 (1982), or in supplemental
orders, have been met, the commission shall review the classification
of telecommunications companies providing inter-LATA interexchange
services. At that time, the commission shall classify all such
companies as competitive telecommunications companies unless it finds
that effective competition, as defined in subsection (1) of this
section, does not then exist.
(4) The commission may revoke any waivers it grants and may
reclassify any competitive telecommunications company if the revocation
or reclassification would protect the public interest.
(5) The commission may waive the requirements of RCW 80.36.170 and
80.36.180 in whole or in part for a competitive telecommunications
company if it finds that competition will serve the same purpose and
protect the public interest.
Sec. 4 RCW 80.36.330 and 1998 c 337 s 6 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) The commission may classify a telecommunications service
provided by a telecommunications company as a competitive
telecommunications service if the service is subject to effective
competition. Effective competition means that customers of the service
have reasonably available alternatives and that the service is not
provided to a significant captive customer base. In determining
whether a service is competitive, factors the commission shall consider
include but are not limited to:
(a) The number and size of alternative providers of services;
(b) The extent to which services are available from alternative
providers in the relevant market;
(c) The ability of alternative providers to make functionally
equivalent or substitute services readily available at competitive
rates, terms, and conditions; and
(d) Other indicators of market power, which may include market
share, growth in market share, ease of entry, and the affiliation of
providers of services.
(2) When the commission finds that a telecommunications company has
demonstrated that a telecommunications service is competitive, the
commission may permit the service to be provided under a price list.
Except as provided in RCW 80.04.130(2), price lists are effective on
ten days notice to the commission and customers. The commission shall
prescribe the form of notice. The commission may adopt procedural
rules necessary to implement this section.
(3) Prices or rates charged for competitive telecommunications
services shall cover their cost. The commission shall determine proper
cost standards to implement this section, provided that in making any
assignment of costs or allocating any revenue requirement, the
commission shall act to preserve affordable universal
telecommunications service.
(4) The commission may investigate prices for competitive
telecommunications services upon complaint. In any complaint
proceeding initiated by the commission, the telecommunications company
providing the service shall bear the burden of proving that the prices
charged cover cost, and are fair, just, and reasonable.
(5) Telecommunications companies shall provide the commission with
all data it deems necessary to implement this section.
(6) No losses incurred by a telecommunications company in the
provision of competitive services may be recovered through rates for
noncompetitive services. The commission may order refunds or credits
to any class of subscribers to a noncompetitive telecommunications
service which has paid excessive rates because of below cost pricing of
competitive telecommunications services.
(7) The commission may reclassify any competitive
telecommunications service if reclassification would protect the public
interest.
(8) The commission may waive the requirements of RCW 80.36.170 and
80.36.180 in whole or in part for a service classified as competitive
if it finds that competition will serve the same purpose and protect
the public interest.