CHAPTER 4927: TELECOMMUNICATIONS -- ALTERNATIVE REGULATION

As used in this chapter:

(A) “Basic local exchange service” means:

(1) End user access to and usage of telephone company-provided services that enable a customer, over the primary line serving the customer’s premises, to originate or receive voice communications within a local service area, and that consist of the following:

(a) Local dial tone service;

(b) Touch tone dialing service;

(c) Access to and usage of 9-1-1 services, where such services are available;

(d) Access to operator services and directory assistance;

(e) Provision of a telephone directory and a listing in that directory;

(f) Per call, caller identification blocking services;

(g) Access to telecommunications relay service; and

(h) Access to toll presubscription, interexchange or toll providers or both, and networks of other telephone companies.

(2) Carrier access to and usage of telephone company-provided facilities that enable end user customers originating or receiving voice grade, data, or image communications, over a local exchange telephone company network operated within a local service area, to access interexchange or other networks.

(B) “Cable television service” means any transmission of video or other programming service to subscribers and any subscriber interaction required for the selection of that video or other programming service.

(C) “Local service area” means the geographic area within which a telephone customer may complete a call to another telephone customer without being assessed long distance toll charges.

(D) “Public telecommunications service” means the transmission by a telephone company, by electromagnetic or other means, of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, messages, or data originating and terminating in this state regardless of actual call routing, but does not include a system, including its construction, maintenance, or operation, for the provision of telecommunications service, or any portion of such service, by any entity for the sole and exclusive use of that entity, its parent, a subsidiary, or an affiliated entity, and not for resale, directly or indirectly; the provision of terminal equipment used to originate or terminate telecommunications service; broadcast transmission by radio, television, or satellite broadcast stations regulated by the federal government; or cable television service.

(E) “Telephone company” means any company described in division (A)(2) of section 4905.03 of the Revised Code that is a public utility under section 4905.02 of the Revised Code.

Effective Date: 04-05-2001

(A) It is the policy of this state to:

(1) Ensure the availability of adequate basic local exchange service to citizens throughout the state;

(2) Rely on market forces, where they are present and capable of supporting a healthy and sustainable, competitive telecommunications market, to maintain just and reasonable rates, rentals, tolls, and charges for public telecommunications service;

(3) Encourage innovation in the telecommunications industry;

(4) Promote diversity and options in the supply of public telecommunications services and equipment throughout the state;

(5) Recognize the continuing emergence of a competitive telecommunications environment through flexible regulatory treatment of public telecommunications services where appropriate;

(6) Consider the regulatory treatment of competing and functionally equivalent services in determining the scope of regulation of services that are subject to the jurisdiction of the public utilities commission;

(7) Not unduly favor or advantage any provider and not unduly disadvantage providers of competing and functionally equivalent services; and

(8) Protect the affordability of telephone service for low-income subscribers through the continuation of lifeline assistance programs.

(B) The public utilities commission shall consider the policy set forth in this section in carrying out sections 4927.03 and 4927.04 of the Revised Code and in reducing or eliminating the regulation of telephone companies under those sections as to any public telecommunications service.

Effective Date: 03-17-1989; 11-04-2005

(A)(1) The public utilities commission, upon its own initiative or the application of a telephone company or companies, after notice, after affording the public and any affected telephone company a period for comment, and after a hearing if it considers one necessary, may, by order, exempt any such telephone company or companies, as to any public telecommunications service , including basic local exchange service, from any provision of Chapter 4905. or 4909., or sections 4931.01 to 4931.35 of the Revised Code or any rule or order adopted or issued under those provisions, or establish alternative regulatory requirements to apply to such public telecommunications service and company or companies; provided the commission finds that any such measure is in the public interest and either of the following conditions exists:

(a) The telephone company or companies are subject to competition with respect to such public telecommunications service;

(b) The customers of such public telecommunications service have reasonably available alternatives.

(2) In determining whether the conditions in division (A)(1)(a) or (b) of this section exist, factors the commission shall consider include, but are not limited to:

(a) The number and size of alternative providers of services;

(b) The extent to which services are available from alternative providers in the relevant market;

(c) The ability of alternative providers to make functionally equivalent or substitute services readily available at competitive rates, terms, and conditions;

(d) Other indicators of market power, which may include market share, growth in market share, ease of entry, and the affiliation of providers of services.

(3) To authorize an exemption or establish alternative regulatory requirements under division (A)(1) of this section with respect to basic local exchange service, the commission additionally shall find that there are no barriers to entry. Further, as to an exemption with respect to basic local exchange service, the commission shall not exempt a telephone company from sections 4905.20, 4905.21, 4905.22, 4905.231, 4905.24, 4905.241, 4905.242, 4905.243, 4905.244, 4905.25, 4905.26, 4905.30, 4905.32, 4905.33, 4905.35, and 4905.381 of the Revised Code.

(B) In carrying out this section, the public utilities commission may prescribe different classifications, procedures, terms, or conditions for different telephone companies and for the public telecommunications services they provide, provided they are reasonable and do not confer any undue economic, competitive, or market advantage or preference upon any telephone company.

(C) The public utilities commission has jurisdiction over every telephone company providing a public telecommunications service that has received an exemption or for which alternative regulatory requirements have been established pursuant to this section. As to any such company, the commission, after notice and hearing, may abrogate or modify any order so granting an exemption or establishing alternative requirements if it determines that the findings upon which the order was based are no longer valid and that the abrogation or modification is in the public interest. No such abrogation or modification shall be made more than five years after the date an order granting an exemption or establishing alternative requirements under this section was entered upon the commission’s journal, unless the affected telephone company or companies consent.

(D) The public utilities commission shall adopt such rules as it finds necessary to carry out this section. It shall adopt rules initially implementing the amendment of this section by H.B. No. 218 of the 126th general assembly within one hundred twenty days after the effective date of the amendment. In adopting those rules, the commission shall consider the establishment of elective alternative regulation specific to a telephone company that is an incumbent local exchange carrier as defined in 47 U.S.C. 251(h) having fewer than fifty thousand access lines.

Effective Date: 03-17-1989; 11-04-2005

(A)(1) In considering an application pursuant to section 4909.18 of the Revised Code, the rates and charges for any public telecommunications service for which the public utilities commission has not provided an exemption or alternative regulatory requirements under section 4927.03 of the Revised Code may be established by the commission, upon its own initiative or the request of an applicant telephone company, by a method other than that specified in section 4909.15 of the Revised Code, provided the commission finds the use of the alternative method of establishing rates and charges to be in the public interest and provided, in instances where the alternative method is proposed by the commission, the applicant consents. Alternative methods may include, but are not limited to, methods that maintain universal telephone service in the state; minimize the costs and time expended in the regulatory process; tend to assess the costs of any telecommunications service to the entity or service that causes such costs to be incurred; afford rate stability; promote and reward efficiency, quality of service, or cost containment by telephone companies; or provide sufficient flexibility and incentives to the telecommunications industry to achieve high quality, technologically advanced, and universally available telecommunications services at just and reasonable rates and charges.

(2) An application that proposes an alternative method of establishing rates and charges that could result in an increase in any rate or charge for any public telecommunications service for which the public utilities commission has not provided an exemption or alternative regulatory requirements under section 4927.03 of the Revised Code shall be deemed, without further action by the commission, to be an application for an increase in rates and charges under section 4909.18 of the Revised Code, notwithstanding whether an immediate increase in rates and charges is proposed.

(3) An application pursuant to section 4909.18 of the Revised Code that is not for an increase in rates and charges, but that proposes an alternative method of establishing rates and charges for any public telecommunications service for which the public utilities commission has not provided an exemption or alternative regulatory requirements under section 4927.03 of the Revised Code, shall include the exhibits specified in divisions (A) to (D) of section 4909.18 of the Revised Code, unless otherwise ordered by the commission. Notwithstanding any provision of section 4909.18 of the Revised Code to the contrary, after the date such application is filed, any person may file a request for hearing on the application. If it appears to the commission that the request sets forth reasonable grounds for holding a hearing, the commission shall set the matter for hearing and shall give notice of such hearing as provided in section 4909.18 of the Revised Code.

(B) Upon the application of any telephone company that is an incumbent local exchange carrier as defined in 47 U.S.C. 251(h) having fewer than fifty thousand access lines, the public utilities commission, by order, may exempt such company, with respect to any public telecommunications service it provides, from any provision of Chapter 4905. or 4909. of the Revised Code that is specified and requested in such application, except sections 4905.20, 4905.21, 4905.22, 4905.231, 4905.24, 4905.241, 4905.242, 4905.243, 4905.244, 4905.25, 4905.26, 4905.30, 4905.32, 4905.33, 4905.35, and 4905.381 of the Revised Code; or may establish alternative regulatory requirements to apply to such company and service, provided the commission finds that the alternative requirements are in the public interest.

(C) In carrying out this section, the public utilities commission may use different methods of establishing the rates and charges of different telephone companies, provided that the methods are reasonable and do not confer any undue economic, competitive, or market advantage or preference upon any telephone company.

(D) The public utilities commission shall adopt such rules as it finds necessary to carry out this section.

Effective Date: 06-18-1996; 11-04-2005

Effective Date: 12-02-1996