Minnesota Session Laws - 1996, Regular Session

  
    
KEY: stricken = old language to be removed
     underscored = new language to be added
    
                            CHAPTER 340-H.F.No. 2055 
                  An act relating to telecommunications; requiring 
                  notice to customers of the right to require written 
                  authorization before changing intrastate 
                  telecommunications carrier or local telephone company; 
                  amending Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 237.66, 
                  subdivision 3, and by adding a subdivision; Minnesota 
                  Statutes 1995 Supplement, section 237.16, subdivision 
                  8. 
        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
           Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1995 Supplement, section 
        237.16, subdivision 8, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 8.  [RULES.] (a) Before August 1, 1997, the 
        commission shall adopt rules applicable to all telephone 
        companies and telecommunications carriers required to obtain or 
        having obtained a certificate for provision of telephone service 
        using any existing federal standards as minimum standards and 
        incorporating any additional standards or requirements necessary 
        to ensure the provision of high quality telephone services 
        throughout the state.  The rules must, at a minimum: 
           (1) define procedures for competitive entry and exit; 
           (2) require the provisions of equal access and 
        interconnection with the company's network and other features, 
        functions, and services which the commission considers necessary 
        to promote fair and reasonable competition; 
           (3) require unbundling of network services and functions to 
        at least the level required by existing federal standards; 
           (4) prescribe, if necessary, methods of reciprocal 
        compensation between telephone companies; 
           (5) provide for local telephone number portability; 
           (6) prescribe appropriate regulatory standards for new 
        local telephone service providers, that facilitate and support 
        the development of competitive services; 
           (7) protect against cross-subsidization, unfair 
        competition, and other practices harmful to promoting fair and 
        reasonable competition; 
           (8) prescribe methods for the preservation of universal and 
        affordable local telephone services; 
           (9) prescribe standards for quality of service; and 
           (10) provide for the continued provision of local emergency 
        telephone services under chapter 403; and 
           (11) protect residential and commercial customers from 
        unauthorized changes in service providers in a competitively 
        neutral manner. 
           (b) Before January 1, 1998, in a separate rulemaking, the 
        commission shall adopt separate rules regarding the issues 
        described in paragraph (a), clauses (1) to (10) (11), as may be 
        appropriate to provision of competitive local telephone service 
        in areas served by telephone companies with less than 50,000 
        subscribers originally certified to provide local telephone 
        services before January 1, 1988.  
           Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 237.66, is 
        amended by adding a subdivision to read: 
           Subd. 1a.  [NOTICE TO CUSTOMERS.] (a) Each residential and 
        commercial telecommunications carrier customer may elect to 
        require that the telephone company serving the customer receive 
        authorization from the customer before a request to serve that 
        customer from a different intrastate telecommunication carrier 
        than the carrier currently serving the customer is processed. 
           (b) For new installations, a telephone company shall notify 
        a residential or commercial customer of the right described in 
        paragraph (a) when the customer initially requests intraexchange 
        service. 
           (c) Within one year of the date of enactment of this 
        subdivision, a telecommunication carrier shall notify each of 
        its existing residential and commercial customers of the right 
        described in paragraph (a).  The notice may be made as a billing 
        insert.  Any customer notification of the rights set forth in 
        this subdivision shall be provided utilizing uniform, 
        competitively neutral language and the form, content, and style 
        of the authorization shall be consistent with federal law and 
        regulation and shall use language provided and approved by the 
        public utilities commission.  
           (d) A customer may change this election at any time by 
        notifying the telephone company of that decision.  No separate 
        charge may be imposed on the customer for electing to exercise 
        the right described in paragraph (a) or to change that election, 
        but a telephone company may recover in rates the reasonable 
        costs of administering the election. 
           (e) If a customer has elected to exercise the right 
        described in paragraph (a), the telephone company shall not 
        process a request to serve the customer by another 
        telecommunications carrier without prior authorization from the 
        customer.  If a customer has not elected to exercise the right 
        described in paragraph (a), the company may process a request to 
        serve the customer by another telecommunications carrier.  
           (f) A carrier may request such a change if the customer has 
        authorized the change either orally or in writing signed by the 
        customer.  If the carrier requests a change in a customer's 
        service provider, the carrier must: 
           (1) notify the customer in writing that the request has 
        been processed; and 
           (2) be able to present, upon complaint by the customer, 
        verified authorization for the change by the customer.  
           If the initial authorization was made orally, the carrier 
        must be able to present verified authorization received from the 
        customer within 14 business days of the date the oral 
        authorization was made. 
           (g) In the case of an oral authorization, if a 
        telecommunications carrier does not receive the verified 
        authorization within 14 business days of the date of the oral 
        authorization, the carrier must either bear the risk that the 
        change to the service of the carrier will be deemed unauthorized 
        under paragraph (h) or: 
           (1) immediately return the customer to the service of the 
        customer's original service provider; 
           (2) bear all costs associated with returning the customer; 
        and 
           (3) bill the customer for services rendered at the rate the 
        customer would have paid for such services if the request to 
        serve the customer had not been made. 
           (h) If the carrier is not able to present, upon complaint 
        by the customer, verified authorization received from the 
        customer as required under paragraph (f) and the carrier did not 
        return the customer to the service of the customer's original 
        service provider as required under paragraph (g), the change to 
        the service of the carrier shall be deemed to be unauthorized 
        from the date the carrier requested the change.  In that event, 
        the carrier shall: 
           (1) bear all costs of immediately returning the customer to 
        the service of the customer's original service provider; and 
           (2) bear all costs of serving that customer during the 
        period of unauthorized service. 
           (i) For purposes of paragraphs (f), (g), and (h), 
        authorization required in those paragraphs may be verified 
        utilizing any method that is consistent with federal law and 
        regulation.  
           Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1994, section 237.66, 
        subdivision 3, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 3.  [ENFORCEMENT.] If, after an expedited procedure 
        conducted under section 237.61, the commission finds that a 
        telephone company is failing to provide disclosure as required 
        under subdivision 1, or the notification required under 
        subdivision 1a, paragraphs (b) and (c), it shall order the 
        company to take corrective action as necessary. 
           Sec. 4.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
           Section 1 is effective the day following final enactment.  
        Sections 2 and 3 are effective January 1, 1997. 
           Presented to the governor March 18, 1996 
           Signed by the governor March 19, 1996, 3:58 p.m.