| (a) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to establish
a code of conduct in order to implement Public Utility Regulatory
Act (PURA) §51.001 and §64.001 relating to fair business
practices and safeguards against fraudulent, unfair, misleading, deceptive,
or anticompetitive practices in order to ensure quality service and
a competitive market.
(b) Application. This section applies to all certificated
telecommunications utilities (CTUs), as defined in §26.5 of this
title (relating to Definitions), and CTU employees. This section also
applies to all authorized agents of the CTU. This section does not
apply to a deregulated company holding a certificate of operating
authority or to an exempt carrier under Public Utility Regulatory
Act (PURA) §52.154.
(c) Communications.
(1) A CTU employee or authorized agent shall conduct
communications with competitors and competitors' end-user customers
with the same degree of professionalism, courtesy, and efficiency
as that performed on behalf of their employer and end-user customers.
(2) A CTU employee or authorized agent, while engaged
in the installation of equipment or the rendering of services (including
the processing of an order for the installation, repair or restoration
of service, or engaged in the actual repair or restoration of service)
on behalf of a competitor shall not make statements regarding the
service of any competitor and shall not promote any of the CTU's services
to the competitor's end-user customers.
(d) Corporate advertising and marketing.
(1) A CTU, CTU employee or authorized agent shall not
engage in false, misleading or deceptive practices, advertising or
marketing with respect to the offering of any telecommunications service.
(2) A CTU, CTU employee or authorized agent shall not
falsely state or falsely imply that the services provided by the CTU
on behalf of a competitor are superior when purchased directly from
the CTU.
(3) A CTU, CTU employee or authorized agent shall not
falsely state or falsely imply that the services offered by a competitor
cannot be reliably rendered, or that the quality of service provided
by a competitor is of a substandard nature.
(4) A CTU, CTU employee or authorized agent shall not
falsely state nor falsely imply to any end-user customer that the
continuation of any telecommunications service provided by the CTU
is contingent upon ordering any other telecommunications service offered
by the CTU. This section is not intended to prohibit a CTU from offering,
or enforcing the terms of, any bundled or packaged service or any
other form of pricing flexibility permitted by PURA and commission
rules.
(e) Information sharing and disclosure.
(1) Pursuant to the federal Telecommunications Act §222(a),
each CTU has a duty to protect the confidentiality of proprietary
information of, and relating to, other CTUs.
(2) Pursuant to the federal Telecommunications Act §222(b),
each CTU that receives or obtains proprietary information from another
CTU for purposes of providing any telecommunications service shall
use such information only for such purpose, and shall not use such
information for its own marketing efforts or any other unauthorized
purpose.
(f) References to other Chapter 26 substantive rules.
The following commission rules also affect the conduct of CTU employees
and authorized agents. All CTU employees and agents must be trained
to comply with the specific substance of these rules which affect
their employment responsibilities. Copies of specific commission rules
shall be made available by the CTU to any employee or agent upon their
request. The applicability of each of the following sections is unaffected
by the reference in this section and does not relieve any CTU of its
responsibility to abide by other applicable commission rules.
(1) Section 26.21 of this title (relating to General
Provisions of Customer Service and Protection Rules);
(2) Section 26.31 of this title (relating to Disclosures
to Applicants and Customers);
(3) Section 26.32 of this title (relating to Protection
Against Unauthorized Billing Charges ("Cramming"));
(4) Section 26.37 of this title (relating to Texas
No-Call List); and
(5) Section 26.130 of this title (relating to Selection
of Telecommunications Utilities).
(g) Adoption and dissemination.
(1) Every CTU or authorized agent shall formally adopt
and implement all applicable provisions of this section as company
policy, or modify existing company policy as needed to incorporate
all applicable provisions, within 90 days of the effective date of
this section. A CTU shall provide a copy of its internal code of conduct
required by this section to the commission upon request.
(2) Every CTU or authorized agent shall disseminate
the applicable provisions of this section to all existing and new
employees and agents, and take appropriate actions to both train employees
and enforce compliance with this section on an ongoing basis. Every
CTU shall document every employee's and agent's receipt and acknowledgement
of its internal policies required by this section, and every CTU shall
make such documentation available to the commission upon request.
(h) Investigation and enforcement.
(1) Administrative penalties. If the commission finds
that a CTU has violated any provision of this section, the commission
shall order the utility to take corrective action, as necessary, and
the utility may be subject to administrative penalties and other enforcement
actions pursuant to PURA, Chapter 15.
(2) Certificate revocation. If the commission finds
that a CTU is repeatedly in violation of this section, and if consistent
with the public interest, the commission may suspend, restrict, or
revoke the registration or certificate of the CTU.
(3) Coordination with the Office of the Attorney General.
The commission shall coordinate its enforcement efforts regarding
the prosecution of fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, and anticompetitive
business practices with the Office of the Attorney General in order
to ensure consistent treatment of specific alleged violations.
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