Bill Text: TX HB2621 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to deregulation of certain telecommunications markets and companies.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-03-24 - Left pending in committee [HB2621 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-HB2621-Introduced.html

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82R8402 JXC-D
By: Hancock H.B. No. 2621

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to deregulation of certain telecommunications markets and
companies.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 65.051, Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 65.051. MARKETS DEREGULATED. A market that is
deregulated as of September 1, 2011, shall remain deregulated.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the commission
may not reregulate a market or company that has been deregulated.
[(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), all markets of all
incumbent local exchange companies are deregulated on January 1,
2006, unless the commission determines under Section 65.052(a) that
a market or markets should remain regulated.
[(b) A market of an incumbent local exchange company in
which the population in the area included in the market is less than
30,000 is deregulated on January 1, 2007, unless the commission
determines under Section 65.052(f) that the market should remain
regulated.]
SECTION 2. Sections 65.052(a), (b), and (c), Utilities
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) An incumbent local exchange company may petition the
commission to deregulate a market of the company that the
commission previously determined should remain regulated.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, only the
incumbent local exchange company may initiate a proceeding to
deregulate one of the company's markets. Not later than the 90th day
after the date the commission receives the petition, [Except as
provided by Subsection (f),] the commission shall:
(1) determine whether the regulated [each] market [of
an incumbent local exchange company] should remain regulated [on
and after January 1, 2006]; and
(2) issue a final order classifying the market
[company] in accordance with this section [effective January 1,
2006].
(b) In making a determination under Subsection (a), the
commission may not determine that a market should remain regulated
if:
(1) the population in the area included in the market
is at least 100,000; or
(2) the population in the area included in the market
is [at least 30,000 but] less than 100,000 and, in addition to the
incumbent local exchange company, there are at least two
competitors operating in all or part of the market that [three
competitors of which]:
(A) are unaffiliated with the incumbent local
exchange company [at least one is a telecommunications provider
that holds a certificate of operating authority or service provider
certificate of operating authority and provides residential local
exchange telephone service in the market]; and
(B) provide voice communications service without
regard to the delivery technology, including through:
(i) Internet Protocol or a successor
protocol;
(ii) satellite; or
(iii) a technology used by a wireless
provider or a commercial mobile service provider, as that term is
defined by Section 64.201 [at least one is an entity providing
residential telephone service in the market using facilities that
the entity or its affiliate owns; and
[(C) at least one is a provider in that market of
commercial mobile service as defined by Section 332(d),
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. Section 151 et seq.), Federal
Communications Commission rules, and the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1993 (Pub. L. No. 103-66), that is not
affiliated with the incumbent local exchange company].
(c) If the commission deregulates a market under this
section and the deregulation results in a regulated or
transitioning company no longer meeting the definition of a
regulated or transitioning company, the commission shall issue an
order reclassifying the company as a transitioning company or
deregulated company, as those terms are defined by Section 65.002.
[The commission shall issue an order classifying an incumbent local
exchange company as a deregulated company that is subject to
Subchapter C if:
[(1) the company does not have any markets in which the
population in the area included in the market is less than 30,000;
and
[(2) the commission does not determine that a market
of the company should remain regulated on and after January 1,
2006.]
SECTION 3. Sections 65.052(d), (e), and (f), 65.054, and
65.055, Utilities Code, are repealed.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.