Provider of last resort obligations of certain telecommunications providers. (FE)

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

This bill requires a telecommunications provider that is an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) under federal law to comply with requirements regarding the availability of basic voice service. Under current law, until April 30, 2013, an ILEC was required to make basic voice service available to all residential customers within the local exchange area in which the telecommunications provider operated as an ILEC, and allowed an ILEC to satisfy that requirement through an affiliate or through the use of any available technology or mode. However, an ILEC was allowed to apply to the Public Service Commission for a waiver from compliance with that requirement and the PSC was required to grant the waiver if certain requirements were satisfied. Also, if the PSC failed to act on the application within specified deadlines, the waiver was considered granted by operation of law. Current law specifies a sunset date of April 30, 2013, on which all of the foregoing no longer apply.

This bill eliminates that sunset date. As a result, under the bill, except as described as follows, the foregoing requirements apply to an ILEC. The bill also makes the following changes to those requirements. First, instead of requiring an ILEC to make basic voice service available to residential customers within a local exchange area, the bill requires an ILEC to make such service effectively available to such customers. Second, the bill eliminates the PSC's authority to grant waivers, but exempts from the bill's requirements an ILEC that was granted a waiver before that sunset date, or for whom a waiver was considered granted by operation of law before that sunset date. Finally, the bill allows the PSC to investigate whether an ILEC has complied with the bill's requirements and allows the PSC to order an ILEC to comply through the use of any technology or mode that the PSC determines is necessary to ensure that basic voice service is effectively available to all residential customers in a local exchange area.

Who's behind it

5 senators are its authors⁠. All 5 are Democrats.

5 more lawmakers signed on in support⁠.

What it would cost

State agencies filed a cost estimate. Each opens as a PDF from the Legislature.

• Fiscal Estimate From PSC