[ Search ] [ Legislation ]
[ Home ] [ Back ] [ Bottom ]
91_HB2126
LRB9104078JSpc
1 AN ACT to amend the Public Utilities Act by changing
2 Section 13-502.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The Public Utilities Act is amended by
6 changing Section 13-502 as follows:
7 (220 ILCS 5/13-502) (from Ch. 111 2/3, par. 13-502)
8 (Section scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2001)
9 Sec. 13-502. Classification of services.
10 (a) All telecommunications services offered or provided
11 under tariff by telecommunications carriers shall be
12 classified as either competitive or noncompetitive. A
13 telecommunications carrier may offer or provide either
14 competitive or noncompetitive telecommunications services, or
15 both, subject to proper certification and other applicable
16 provisions of this Article. Any tariff filed with the
17 Commission as required by Section 13-501 shall indicate
18 whether the service to be offered or provided is competitive
19 or noncompetitive.
20 (b) A service shall be classified as competitive only
21 if, and only to the extent that, for an identified some
22 identifiable class or group of customers in an exchange,
23 group of exchanges, or some other clearly defined
24 geographical area, such service, or its functional
25 equivalent, or a substitute service, is reasonably available
26 from and actually and demonstrably being supplied to those
27 customers by more than one unaffiliated provider, whether or
28 not any such provider is a telecommunications carrier subject
29 to regulation under this Act. All telecommunications services
30 not properly classified as competitive shall be classified as
31 noncompetitive; provided, however, that all
-2- LRB9104078JSpc
1 telecommunications services offered by a local exchange
2 telecommunications carrier certificated after January 1, 1989
3 and not affiliated with or a successor to a local exchange
4 telecommunications carrier certificated before January 1,
5 1989 shall be classified as competitive. The Commission shall
6 have the power to investigate the propriety of any
7 classification of a telecommunications service on its own
8 motion and shall investigate upon complaint. In any hearing
9 or investigation, the burden of proof as to the proper
10 classification of any service shall rest upon the
11 telecommunications carrier providing the service. After
12 notice and hearing, the Commission shall order the proper
13 classification of any service in whole or in part. The
14 Commission shall make its determination and issue its final
15 order no later than 180 days from the date such hearing or
16 investigation is initiated. If the Commission enters into a
17 hearing upon complaint and if the Commission fails to issue
18 an order within that period, the complaint shall be deemed
19 granted unless the Commission, the complainant, and the
20 telecommunications carrier providing the service agree to
21 extend the time period.
22 (c) No tariff classifying a new telecommunications
23 service as competitive or reclassifying a previously
24 noncompetitive telecommunications service as competitive,
25 which is filed by a telecommunications carrier which also
26 offers or provides noncompetitive telecommunications service,
27 shall be effective unless and until such telecommunications
28 carrier offering or providing, or seeking to offer or
29 provide, such proposed competitive service prepares and files
30 (1) a study describing the market for the service, including
31 evidence of the manner and extent to which the service is
32 being supplied by more than one provider, and (2) a study of
33 the long-run service incremental cost underlying such service
34 and demonstrates that the tariffed rates and charges for the
-3- LRB9104078JSpc
1 service and any relevant group of services that includes the
2 proposed competitive service and for which resources are used
3 in common solely by that group of services are not less than
4 the long-run service incremental cost of providing the
5 service and each relevant group of services. The latter Such
6 study shall be given proprietary treatment by the Commission
7 at the request of such carrier if any other provider of the
8 competitive service, its functional equivalent, or a
9 substitute service in the geographical area described by the
10 proposed tariff has not filed, or has not been required to
11 file, such a study.
12 (c-5) Within 180 days after the effective date of this
13 amendatory Act of the 91st General Assembly, the Commission
14 shall complete an investigation of the propriety of all
15 existing tariffs for competitive services filed by a
16 telecommunications carrier that offers or provides both
17 competitive and noncompetitive telecommunications services.
18 The Commission shall reclassify as noncompetitive any such
19 service if it finds, after notice and hearing, that any
20 consumer within the geographic area described by the tariff
21 cannot readily obtain such service or a substitute service
22 from more than one provider. The Commission shall also
23 investigate the propriety of all new tariffs for competitive
24 services filed by a telecommunications carrier that offers or
25 provides both competitive and noncompetitive
26 telecommunications services to ensure their proper
27 classification. In all investigations and hearings pursuant
28 to this subsection, the burden of proof as to the proper
29 classification of any service shall rest with the
30 telecommunications carrier offering or providing the service.
31
32 (d) In the event any telecommunications service has been
33 classified and filed as competitive by the telecommunications
34 carrier, and has been offered or provided on such basis, and
-4- LRB9104078JSpc
1 the Commission subsequently determines after investigation
2 that such classification improperly included services which
3 were in fact noncompetitive, the Commission shall have the
4 power to determine and order refunds to customers for any
5 overcharges which may have resulted from the improper
6 classification, or to order such other remedies provided to
7 it under this Act, or to seek an appropriate remedy or relief
8 in a court of competent jurisdiction.
9 (e) (Blank). If no hearing or investigation regarding
10 the propriety of a competitive classification of a
11 telecommunications service is initiated within 180 days after
12 a telecommunications carrier files a tariff listing such
13 telecommunications service as competitive, no refunds to
14 customers for any overcharges which may result from an
15 improper classification shall be ordered for the period from
16 the time the telecommunications carrier filed such tariff
17 listing the service as competitive up to the time an
18 investigation of the service classification is initiated by
19 the Commission's own motion or the filing of a complaint.
20 Where a hearing or an investigation regarding the propriety
21 of a telecommunications service classification as competitive
22 is initiated after 180 days from the filing of the tariff,
23 the period subject to refund for improper classification
24 shall begin on the date such investigation or hearing is
25 initiated by the filing of a Commission motion or a
26 complaint.
27 (Source: P.A. 90-185, eff. 7-23-97.)
28 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
29 becoming law.