Senate Bill No. 271
(By Senator Dittmar)
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[Introduced March 4, 1993; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section three-c, article two, chapter
twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to removing the
regulation of cellular telephone service from the
jurisdiction of the public service commission.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three-c, article two, chapter twenty-four of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. POWERS AND DUTIES OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
§24-2-3c. Cessation of jurisdiction over rates for certain
services subject to competition.
(a) Upon the application of any telephone utility, the
commission shall, unless it finds that the continued availability
of adequate, economical and reliable local exchange telephone
service will be adversely affected thereby, permanently cease its
regulation of the rates charged by the telephone utility for anycommodity or service, except carrier access service, which the
commission determines to be subject to workable competition:
Provided, That if any such commodity or service thereafter ceases
being subject to workable competition by reason of lawful
governmental action, or, if the market forces fail to constrain
monopolistic practices or anticompetitive behavior, the
commission shall upon notice and hearing, reinstitute its
regulation of the rates charged for such commodity or service.
Evidence of ease of market entry, the presence of other
competitors and the availability of like or substitute services
shall, for purposes of this section, be sufficient to show that
a commodity or service is subject to workable competition. In
making its determination, the commission shall not be bound by
any previous determination of competitiveness for any other
purpose. The furnishing of all such commodities and services
shall in all other respects remain fully subject to the
commission's jurisdiction.
(b) The commission shall ensure through such accounting
system as it deems appropriate that the costs and revenues
associated with the furnishing of those commodities and services
that the commission determines to be subject to workable
competition are not charged against or credited to the utility's
cost of furnishing other services; except, however, that the
commission may, in connection with any general increase in local
exchange telephone rates proposed by the telephone utility within
ten years from the effective date of this section, credit to theutility's cost of furnishing local exchange telephone service the
contribution, if any, then being yielded by those competitive
commodities or services that such utility was offering as of the
effective date of this section:
Provided, That if the
contribution from such competitive commodities or services is
less than the contribution that was being yielded by those
commodities or services during the year preceding the year in
which such commodities or services were determined to be subject
to workable competition, the commission may, in order to
eliminate such deficiency, further credit to the cost of
furnishing local exchange telephone service any contribution that
is then being yielded by those competitive commodities or
services that were not being offered by the utility as of the
effective date of this section. In no case, however, shall the
additional contribution so credited exceed the contribution that
is actually being yielded by such new commodities or services,
nor shall the commission, in connection with the crediting of any
contribution under the provisions of this subsection, credit any
amount of contribution that exceeds that which is reasonably
necessary to the continued availability of adequate, economical,
and reliable local exchange telephone service. Contribution
shall be defined to mean the excess of revenues over costs.
(c) The application of the telephone utility shall be in
such form as the commission may prescribe and shall contain:
(1) A designation of the commodities or services that are
the subject of the application;
(2) A statement explaining why the applicant believes that
each commodity or service so designated is subject to workable
competition;
(3) Such other information as the applicant may deem
relevant or the commission may require.
(d) Within sixty days after the filing of the application,
or if hearing shall be held thereon, within ninety days after
final submission upon oral argument or brief, but in no event
longer than one hundred eighty days after the filing of the
application, the commission shall enter a final order granting,
in whole or in part, or denying the application.
(e) Nothing in this section limits the commission's power to
require telephone utilities to maintain uniform, statewide toll
rates, or to require that public and semi-public coin telephone
service be offered at a flat per message rate. Nothing in this
section limits the commission's power to continue to engage in
incentive or other innovative forms of ratemaking in connection
with its regulation of those services which it has not determined
to be subject to workable competition.
Nothing in this section limits the power or right of the
consumer advocate division to petition to decrease rates and
tariffs in the event of decreases in costs of service.
(f) The provisions of this section do not go into effect
until the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-
one.
(g) In recognition of the competitive nature of the cellulartelephone industry and the fact that cellular telephone service
is an elective service, on and after the first day of June, one
thousand nine hundred ninety-three, cellular telephone services
shall be deregulated and shall not be subject to the jurisdiction
of the commission.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove regulation of
cellular telephone services from the authority of the Public
Service Commission after June 1, 1993.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.