Minnesota Session Laws - 1990, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1990 

                        CHAPTER 513-S.F.No. 1743 
           An act relating to telephone service; regulating the 
          installation of extended area service in exchanges; 
          requiring the expansion of the metropolitan extended 
          area telephone service, under some circumstances; 
          proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, 
          chapter 237. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
     Section 1.  [237.161] [EXTENDED AREA SERVICE.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [CRITERIA.] (a) The commission shall grant 
a petition for installation of extended area service only when 
each of the following criteria has been met: 
    (1) the petitioning exchange is contiguous to an exchange 
or local calling area to which extended area service is 
requested in the petition; 
    (2) polling by the commission shows that a majority of the 
customers responding to a poll in the petitioning exchange favor 
its installation, unless all parties and the commission agree 
that no polling is necessary; and 
    (3) at least 50 percent of the customers in the petitioning 
exchange make one or more calls per month to the exchange or 
local calling area to which extended area service is requested, 
as determined by a traffic study. 
    The rate to the polled exchange must be available to its 
customers before the commission determines what proportion of 
them favor the installation of extended area service. 
    (b) For the purpose of clause (3), the commission shall 
include as a customer an FX telephone service subscriber in the 
petitioning exchange whose FX service is provided through the 
exchange or an exchange within the local calling area to which 
extended area service is sought.  For the purposes of this 
subdivision, "FX" means tariffed telephone toll service provided 
by placing a telephone line from another telephone exchange area 
in the telephone customer's exchange area. 
    (c) When the local calling area to which extended service 
is sought is the metropolitan local calling area in Anoka, 
Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington counties 
and the petitioning exchange meets the criteria in paragraph 
(a), the telephone company serving the petitioning exchange 
shall make local measured service or another lower cost 
alternative to basic flat-rate service available to customers in 
the petitioning exchange. 
    Subd. 2.  [BASIS OF RATES; COSTS.] For a proposal to 
install extended area service, proposed rates must be based on 
specific additional cost incurred, operating expenses, actual 
cost for new facilities constructed specifically to provide for 
extended area service, net book value of existing facilities 
transferred from another service to extended area service, a 
return on the capital investment associated with installing and 
providing the extended area service, and appropriate 
contributions to common overheads. 
    Subd. 3.  [RATES.] (a) When the local calling area to which 
extended service is sought is the metropolitan local calling 
area in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and 
Washington counties, 75 percent of the costs of providing 
extended area service, as identified in subdivision 2, must be 
apportioned to the petitioning exchange and the remaining 25 
percent apportioned to the exchange or exchanges to which 
extended area service is requested.  When the proposed extended 
service area is not the metropolitan local calling area, the 
commission shall determine the apportionment of costs, provided 
that between 50 and 75 percent of the costs must be allocated to 
the petitioning exchange.  The costs must be apportioned among 
the customers in an exchange so that the relationship between 
the rates for classes of basic local service remains the same.  
Rates within the existing metropolitan local calling area may 
not be raised as a result of the addition of a local exchange 
under this subdivision until the rates in the added exchange are 
at least equal to the highest rates in an adjacent exchange 
within the metropolitan local calling area, provided that the 
rates in the added exchange may not exceed the amount necessary 
to recover 100 percent of the costs and ensure that the rates 
are income neutral for the telephone company serving the added 
exchange. 
    (b) The commission shall establish rates that are income 
neutral for each affected telephone company at the time at which 
the commission determines the extended area service rates.  The 
commission shall consider the interests of all parties when 
determining a fair and equitable extended area service rate for 
a local telephone exchange that is newly included in the 
extended area service. 
    (c) A telephone company that provides local telephone 
service in an exchange that is included in an extended service 
area shall include the extended area service rate in the basic 
rate for the purpose of billing customers so that only one line 
item charge appears on customers' bills for both rates. 
    Subd. 4.  [LATA BOUNDARIES.] When the commission has 
determined that a petition for inclusion of a local exchange in 
an extended service area should be granted under this section, 
but the inclusion of that local exchange would place a telephone 
company in violation of the federal prohibition on providing 
telephone service across a local access and transport area 
(LATA) line, as defined in section 237.57, subdivision 5, the 
commission shall order the affected telephone company to seek a 
waiver of the prohibition on the provision of service across the 
LATA line to the extent necessary to include the exchange in the 
extended service area. 
    Subd. 5.  [INTERSTATE EXTENDED AREA SERVICE.] No state 
boundary may be crossed to establish extended area service under 
this section, but an exchange may be added to an interstate 
extended service area in existence on the effective date of this 
section. 
    Sec. 2.  [METROPOLITAN EXTENDED AREA TELEPHONE SERVICE.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [DEFINITION.] For the purposes of this 
section, "metropolitan" or "metropolitan area" means all of the 
area within the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, 
Ramsey, Scott, and Washington. 
    Subd. 2.  [REQUIRED EXPANSION OF METROPOLITAN EXTENDED AREA 
SERVICE.] Notwithstanding section 1, by July 1, 1991, the public 
utilities commission shall expand the metropolitan extended area 
service local calling area to include each local service 
telephone exchange served by a central office or wire center 
located within the metropolitan area if a majority of the 
consumers in the exchange that respond to polling by the 
commission favor including that exchange in the metropolitan 
local calling area as determined under subdivisions 3 and 4. 
    Subd. 3.  [COMMISSION DUTIES; PROJECT.] The commission, in 
cooperation with each affected telephone company, shall 
determine the rates that would be charged to the customers in 
each metropolitan exchange that is not currently included in the 
metropolitan local calling area if that exchange were to be 
included.  The commission shall then conduct a poll of the 
customers in each exchange.  The ballot or questionnaire sent to 
each customer must clearly identify the rate that would be 
charged to customers in that exchange if the exchange becomes 
part of the metropolitan extended service area and must be 
returnable to the commission, at no cost to the customers, 
within 60 days of the date the ballot or questionnaire was 
mailed.  If a majority of the customers in an exchange who 
respond to the commission's poll indicate that they favor 
inclusion, the commission shall include that exchange in the 
metropolitan local calling area. 
    Subd. 4.  [COSTS; RATES.] The commission shall determine 
the costs and rates for each exchange subject to subdivision 3 
in accordance with section 1, subdivisions 2 and 3, and 
commission rules. 
    Subd. 5.  [FUTURE EXPANSION.] Customers in metropolitan 
exchanges that are not included in the metropolitan local 
calling area under subdivision 3 and customers in 
nonmetropolitan exchanges that want to be included in the 
metropolitan local calling area may petition the commission for 
inclusion under section 1 and commission rules, provided that no 
state boundary may be crossed in expanding the metropolitan 
local calling area. 
    Subd. 6.  [DUTIES; TELEPHONE COMPANIES.] Each telephone 
company that is potentially affected by the activities of the 
commission in implementing subdivision 3 shall cooperate with 
the commission in determining costs and rates and any other 
activity or determination necessary to implement that 
subdivision. 
    Sec. 3.  [REPEALER.] 
    Section 1 is repealed effective June 1, 1994. 
    Sec. 4.  [EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION.] 
    Sections 1 and 2 are effective the day following final 
enactment.  Section 1 applies to all petitions pending before 
the public utilities commission on that date and to bills sent 
to customers in exchanges that become part of an extended 
service area after that date.  Section 2 applies to local 
exchanges whose central offices or wire centers are located in 
the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, 
and Washington.  The public utilities commission shall suspend 
further action on any pending extended area service petition 
from an exchange governed by section 2 until the public 
utilities commission has implemented that section. 
    Presented to the governor April 24, 1990 
    Signed by the governor April 26, 1990, 10:50 p.m.