Senate Bill No. 279
(By Senators Wooton, Love and Bailey)
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[Introduced February 1, 1996; referred to the Committee
the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section two, article six, chapter
twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to further amend said
article by adding thereto a new section, designated section
six-b, all relating to definitions for local emergency
telephone system and wireless enhanced 911 fee.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section two, article six, chapter twenty-four of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said article be
further amended by adding thereto a new section, designated
section six-b, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. LOCAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
§24-6-2. Definitions.
As used in this article, unless the context clearly requires
a different meaning:
(1) "County answering point" means a facility to which
enhanced emergency telephone system calls for a county are
initially routed for response, and where county personnel respond
to specific requests for emergency service by directly
dispatching the appropriate emergency service provider, relaying
a message to the appropriate provider or transferring the call to
the appropriate provider.
(2) "Emergency services organization" means the organization
established under article five, chapter fifteen of this code.
(3) "Emergency service provider" means any emergency
services organization or public safety unit.
(4) "Emergency telephone system" means a telephone system
which through normal telephone service facilities automatically
connects a person dialing the primary emergency telephone number
to an established public agency answering point, but does not
include an enhanced emergency telephone system.
(5) "Enhanced emergency telephone system" means a telephone system which automatically connects the person dialing the
primary emergency number to the county answering point and in
which the telephone network system automatically provides to
personnel receiving the call, immediately on answering the call,
information on the location and the telephone number from which
the call is being made, and upon direction from the personnel
receiving the call routes or dispatches such call by telephone,
radio or any other appropriate means of communication to
emergency service providers that serve the location from which
the call is made.
(6) "Public agency" means the state, and any municipality,
county, public district or public authority which provides or has
authority to provide fire-fighting, police, ambulance, medical,
rescue or other emergency services.
(7) "Public safety unit" means a functional division of a
public agency which provides fire-fighting, police, medical,
rescue or other emergency services.
(8)
"Telephone company" "Telephone service suppliers" means
a public utility
, including any public wireless
telecommunications utility, which is engaged in the provision of
telephone service
whether primarily by means of wire or wireless facilities.
(9) "Comprehensive plan" means a plan pertaining to the
installing, modifying or replacing of telephone switching
equipment; telephone utilities' response in a timely manner to
requests for emergency telephone service by a public agency;
telephone utilities' responsibility to report to the public
service commission; charges and tariffs for the services and
facilities provided by telephone utilities; and access to
emergency telephone system by emergency service organizations.
(10) "Technical and operational standards" means those
standards of telephone equipment and processes necessary for the
implementation of the comprehensive plan as defined in
subdivision (9) above.
(11) Public wireless telecommunications utility is any
entity, including cellular carriers and personal communications
service carriers as such are defined by the federal
communications commission, which provides, to the public within
the state, switched two-way telecommunications service which
subscribers access by means of radio equipment.
§24-6-6b. Wireless enhanced 911 fee.
(a) Beginning on the first day of July, on
e thousand nine hundred ninety-six, all public wireless
telecommunications utilities, as defined in section two of this
article, shall, on a monthly basis, collect from each of their
in-state two-way service subscribers a wireless enhanced 911 fee.
The public service commission, by no later than the first day of
June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, shall issue an order
which shall direct the wireless telecommunications utilities
regarding the determination of who shall be considered an in-
state two-way service subscriber and which shall specify how the
wireless telecommunications utilities shall deal with fee
collection shortfalls caused by uncollectible accounts. The
public service commission shall solicit the views of the wireless
telecommunications utilities prior to issuing the order.
(b) The wireless enhanced 911 fee shall be calculated by the
public service commission according to the following formula:
(1) The fee shall be the weighted average, as of the first
day of March, of the current year, of all of the enhanced 911
fees imposed by the counties which have adopted an enhanced 911
ordinance;
(2) The fee shall be recalculated, effective the first day
of July, on a yearly basis.
(c) The wireless enhanced 911 fee moneys collected, after
removal of a two percent collection fee which may be kept by the
public wireless telecommunications utilities, shall be sent, on
a monthly basis, to the public service commission. The public
service commission shall, on a quarter-yearly and approximately
evenly staggered basis, disburse the fee revenue in the following
manner:
(1) Each county shall receive a pro rata portion, based on
that county's percentage of the total number of telephone access
lines and line equivalents in service in the state, of the fee
revenues received by the public service commission. The public
service commission shall recalculate the county disbursement
percentages on a yearly basis, with the changes effective on the
first day of July, and using data as of the preceding first day
of March, which data shall be supplied, on a county specific
basis, and by no later than the first day of June of each year,
to the public service commission by the public utilities which
normally provide telecommunications service by means of lines,
wires, cables, optical fibers, etc. extended to subscriber
premises;
(2) Counties which have an enhanced 911 ordinance in effect shall receive their share of the wireless enhanced 911 fee
revenue for use in the same manner as the enhanced 911 fee
revenues received by those counties pursuant to their enhanced
911 ordinances;
(3) The public service commission shall deposit the wireless
enhanced 911 fee revenue for each county which does not have an
enhanced 911 ordinance in effect into an escrow account which
shall be established for that county. Any county with such an
escrow account may, immediately upon adopting an enhanced 911
ordinance, receive the moneys which have accumulated in the
escrow account for use as specified in subdivision (2),
subsection (c) of this section. Every five years all fee revenue
residing in escrow accounts shall be disbursed on the pro rata
basis specified in subdivision (1) subsection (c) of this
section, except omitting data for counties without enhanced 911
ordinances in effect and all escrow accounts shall begin again
with a zero balance.
(d) Failure by a public wireless telecommunications utility
two-way service subscriber to timely pay the wireless enhanced
911 fee shall be adequate basis for discontinuance of wireless
telecommunications utility service.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a wireless
enhanced 911 fee.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
§24-6-6b is new, therefore strike throughs and underscores
have been omitted.
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