By: Carona S.B. No. 583
(In the Senate - Filed February 14, 2013; February 20, 2013,
read first time and referred to Committee on Business and Commerce;
April 8, 2013, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 8, Nays 0; April 8, 2013,
sent to printer.)
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 583 By: Carona
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to eligibility for support from the universal service
fund.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 56.023, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (f), (g), (h), (i),
(j), (k), (l), (m), (n), (o), and (p) to read as follows:
(b) The eligibility criteria must require that a
telecommunications provider, in compliance with the commission's
quality of service requirements:
(1) offer service to each consumer within an exchange
in the company's certificated area for which the incumbent local
exchange company receives support under a plan established under
Section 56.021(1) and to any permanent residential or business
premises to which the company is designated to provide services
under Subchapter F; and
(2) render continuous and adequate service within an
exchange in the company's certificated area for which the incumbent
local exchange company receives support under a plan established
under Section 56.021(1) and to any permanent residential or
business premises to which the company is designated to provide
services under Subchapter F.
(f) For purposes of this subsection, "incumbent local
exchange company" includes all incumbent local exchange company
affiliates of the incumbent local exchange company. After December
31, 2016, an incumbent local exchange company or cooperative that
served greater than 31,000 access lines in this state on September
1, 2013, or a company or cooperative that is a successor to such a
company or cooperative and that serves any part of the same market
as its predecessor is not eligible for support under a plan
established under Section 56.021(1) for service provided in an
exchange that has operating in any part of the exchange at least two
competitors to the company or cooperative that:
(1) are unaffiliated with the company or cooperative;
and
(2) provide voice communications service without
regard to the delivery technology, including through:
(A) Internet Protocol or a successor protocol;
(B) satellite; or
(C) a technology used by a wireless provider or a
commercial mobile service provider, as that term is defined by
Section 64.201.
(g) For each exchange for which service by an incumbent
local exchange company or cooperative that may be subject to
Subsection (f) is receiving support under a plan established under
Section 56.021(1), the commission shall initiate contested case
proceedings as necessary to determine the eligibility of a company
or cooperative to receive continued support under the plan for
service in the exchange after December 31, 2016. The proceedings
must be completed before September 1, 2015.
(h) If an incumbent local exchange company or cooperative is
ineligible for support under a plan established under Section
56.021(1) for services in an exchange, a plan established under
Section 56.021(1) may not provide support to any other
telecommunications providers for services in that exchange.
(i) Subsection (g) does not authorize the commission to
initiate a contested case hearing concerning a local exchange
company that has elected to participate in a total support
reduction plan under 16 T.A.C. Section 26.403 that requires the
company to forego funding under a plan established under Section
56.021(1) after January 1, 2017. This section does not affect any
obligation of a local exchange company subject to such a total
support reduction plan.
(j) Notwithstanding Subsections (f) and (g), if an
incumbent local exchange company is determined under those
subsections to be ineligible to receive support under a plan
established under Section 56.021(1) in an exchange, after September
1, 2015, the company may petition the commission to receive support
for service in an exchange after January 1, 2017, if:
(1) the exchange does not have an unsubsidized wire
line competitor to the company that offers voice communications
service in that exchange; and
(2) the incumbent local exchange company demonstrates
it has a financial need for support in the exchange.
(k) If the commission determines that an incumbent local
exchange company has demonstrated financial need for support in an
exchange under Subsection (j), it shall set the amount of support in
the same proceeding.
(l) An incumbent local exchange company may not receive an
amount of support in an exchange under a plan established under
Section 56.021(1) and authorized under Subsections (j) and (k) that
exceeds the total amount of such support the company is eligible to
receive for the exchange on December 31, 2016.
(m) Notwithstanding Subsections (f) and (g), if a
cooperative that is a cooperative on January 1, 2013, is determined
under those subsections to be ineligible to receive support under a
plan established under Section 56.021(1) in an exchange, the
cooperative may petition the commission to receive support for
service in the exchange.
(n) A cooperative may not receive an amount of support under
a plan established under Section 56.021(1) as authorized under
Subsection (m) that exceeds the total amount of such support the
cooperative was receiving on September 1, 2013, attributable to
access lines used to provide stand-alone residential local exchange
voice service, as defined by Section 65.002.
(o) Subsections (f) and (g) do not apply to an incumbent
local exchange company that elects, no later than March 1, 2014, to
eliminate not later than September 1, 2018, the support it receives
under a plan established under Section 56.021(1).
(p) Nothing in this chapter relieves any party of an
obligation entered into in the commission's Docket No. 40521.
SECTION 2. Section 56.024, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read
as follows:
(b) A report or information the commission requires a
telecommunications provider to provide under Subsection (a) is
confidential and not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552,
Government Code.
(c) A telecommunications provider shall file with the
commission the provider's annual earnings report if the provider:
(1) is not a local exchange company subject to a total
support reduction plan under 16 T.A.C. Section 26.403 or that has
made an election under Section 56.023(o);
(2) serves greater than 31,000 access lines; and
(3) receives support under a plan established under
Section 56.021(1).
(d) A report filed under Subsection (c) is public
information.
SECTION 3. Section 56.025, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (g) to read as
follows:
(a) In addition to the authority provided by Section 56.021:
(1) [,] for each local exchange company that serves
fewer than 31,000 access lines and each cooperative, the
commission[:
[(1)] may adopt a mechanism necessary to maintain
reasonable rates for local exchange telephone service; and
(2) for each local exchange company and each
cooperative that serves 31,000 or fewer access lines and that on
June 1, 2013, is not an electing company under Chapter 58 or 59, the
commission shall adopt rules to expand the universal service fund
in the circumstances prescribed by this section.
(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section,
after December 31, 2013, the commission may not distribute support
granted under this section, including any support granted before
that date, to a local exchange company or cooperative that serves
greater than 31,000 access lines or that is an electing company
under Chapter 58 or 59 on June 1, 2013.
SECTION 4. Section 56.026, Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 56.026. PROMPT AND EFFICIENT [UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND]
DISBURSEMENTS. [(a) A revenue requirement showing is not required
for a disbursement from the universal service fund under this
subchapter.
[(b)] The commission shall make each disbursement from the
universal service fund promptly and efficiently so that a
telecommunications provider does not experience an unnecessary
cash-flow change as a result of a change in governmental policy.
SECTION 5. Subchapter B, Chapter 56, Utilities Code, is
amended by adding Section 56.029 to read as follows:
Sec. 56.029. INELIGIBILITY FOR BUSINESS LINE SUPPORT. For
purposes of this section, "incumbent local exchange company"
includes all incumbent local exchange company affiliates of the
incumbent local exchange company. Notwithstanding any other
provision of this subchapter, an incumbent local exchange company
or cooperative that is not an incumbent local exchange company
subject to a total support reduction plan under 16 T.A.C. Section
26.403 and that serves greater than 31,000 access lines in this
state is not eligible to receive support from the universal service
fund for the business lines served by the company or cooperative
after December 31, 2016. If an incumbent local exchange company or
cooperative is ineligible under this section for support from the
universal service fund for business lines served by the company or
cooperative, a plan established under Section 56.021(1) may not
provide support to any other telecommunications provider for
business lines served by the provider.
SECTION 6. Subsections (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), and (h),
Section 56.032, Utilities Code, as added by Chapter 535 (H.B.
2603), Acts of the 82nd Legislature, Regular Session, 2011, are
amended to read as follows:
(b) Except as provided by Subsections [(c),] (d) and[,] (e),
[and (f),] the commission may revise the monthly support amounts to
be made available from the Small and Rural Incumbent Local Exchange
Company Universal Service Plan by any mechanism, including support
reductions resulting from rate rebalancing approved by the
commission, [by revising the monthly per line support amounts,]
after notice and an opportunity for hearing. In determining
appropriate monthly [per line] support amounts, the commission
shall consider the adequacy of basic rates to support universal
service.
(c) A [On the written request of a small or rural incumbent
local exchange] company that receives frozen monthly [per line]
support amounts as prescribed by a final order issued by the
commission in the commission's Docket No. 39643 is entitled to
continue to receive that monthly support until the support is
revised under Subsection (b)[, the commission shall disburse funds
to the company in fixed monthly amounts based on the company's
annualized amount of recovery for the calendar year ending on
December 31, 2010. A company may submit only one request under this
subsection and must submit the request on or before December 31,
2011].
(d) For each [On the written request of a] small or rural
incumbent local exchange company that is not receiving frozen
support amounts as described by Subsection (c) and is not an
electing company under Chapter 58 or 59, the commission annually
shall set the company's monthly support amounts for the following
12 months by dividing by 12 the annualized support amount
calculated under this subsection. The commission shall calculate
the annualized amount:
(1) for the initial 12-month period for which a
company makes an election under this subsection, by[:
[(A)] determining the annualized support amount
received by the company as of January 1, 2013 [calculated for the
requestor in the final order issued by the commission in Docket No.
18516; and
[(B) adjusting the support amount determined
under Paragraph (A) at the beginning of each calendar year by a
factor equal to the most recent consumer price index published at
that time, beginning with the 1999 calendar year and ending in the
year the company makes an election under this subsection]; and
(2) for [the 12-month period following the initial
period for which a company made an election under this subsection
and for] subsequent 12-month periods, by adjusting the most recent
annualized support amount calculated by the commission by a factor
equal to the percentage change in the consumer price index for the
most recent 12-month period.
(e) The [If a company elects to receive monthly support
amounts under Subsection (d), the] commission, on its own motion or
on the written request of the company, may initiate a proceeding to
recalculate the most recent annualized support amount to be used as
the basis for adjustment for a subsequent 12-month period under
Subsection (d)(2). If, based on the recalculation, the commission
by order adjusts a company's most recent annualized support amount,
the adjusted support amount supersedes the annualized support
amount calculated in accordance with Subsection (d).
(f) [The commission shall administratively review requests
filed under Subsections (c) and (d).] Except for good cause, the
commission shall establish monthly support amounts under
Subsection (d) [approve the request] not later than the 60th day
after the date the commission determines the company is eligible
[and has met all the procedural requirements under this
subchapter].
(h) Subsections (a), (c), (d), (e), and (f) [This section]
and any monthly support amount approved under those subsections
[this section] expire [on] September 1, 2017 [2013].
SECTION 7. Section 3, Chapter 535 (H.B. 2603), Acts of the
82nd Legislature, Regular Session, 2011, which amended Section
56.031, Utilities Code, is repealed.
SECTION 8. This Act takes effect June 1, 2013, if it
receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each
house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.
If this Act does not receive the vote necessary to take effect on
that date, this Act takes effect on the 91st day after the last day
of the legislative session.
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