| (a) Application. This section applies to any electing
company as the term is defined in the Public Utility Regulatory Act
(PURA) §58.002 who chooses to offer nonbasic services and/or
exercise pricing flexibility for basic and nonbasic services through
informational notice filings. Other sections applicable to an electing
company include, but are not limited to, §26.224 of this title
(relating to Requirements Applicable to Basic Network Services for
Chapter 58 Electing Companies), §26.225 of this title (relating
to Requirements Applicable to Nonbasic Services for Chapter 58-Electing
Companies) and §26.226 of this title (relating to Requirements
Applicable to Pricing Flexibility for Chapter 58 Electing Companies).
Notwithstanding other provisions of this section, PURA §55.003
and §55.004 do not apply to the retail services offered by an
electing company, or to the retail nonbasic services offered by a
transitioning company, as defined by PURA §65.002.
(b) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to establish
procedures for an electing company that chooses to provide an informational
notice to introduce nonbasic services, including new services, and/or
to exercise pricing flexibility for basic and nonbasic services, and
for complaints regarding service offerings introduced through informational
notice filings.
(c) Informational notice filing and notice requirements
related to pricing flexibility and nonbasic services, including new
services.
(1) Notice requirements.
(A) General notice requirements. An electing company
shall provide the informational notice in compliance with this section
to the commission, to the Office of Public Utility Counsel (OPC),
and to any person who holds a certificate of operating authority in
the electing company's certificated area or areas, or who has an effective
interconnection agreement with the electing company.
(B) Unless an interconnection agreement contract specifies
otherwise, an incumbent local exchange carrier shall continue to provide
to affected resellers of retail services the same notice of rate changes
or withdrawal of detariffed services that it was required to provide
prior to detariffing.
(2) Filing requirements:
(A) Filing of informational notice and confidential
information. At the time the informational notice is filed in Central
Records, a copy of the informational notice, including confidential
information, shall be delivered to OPC. In addition to the record
copy, an additional copy of any confidential information shall be
filed in Central Records for use by the commission staff.
(i) The commission shall assign each informational
notice a unique control number and shall stamp the tariff sheets "received".
(ii) The commission staff shall file any notice of
deficiencies for incomplete filings not in compliance with this section
or pleading alleging that the service offering is inappropriately
filed as an informational notice filing within three working days
after the date of the filing of the informational notice.
(iii) Within two working days after the date of the
commission staff's filing, the applicant shall file an explanation
of the actions it has taken or intends to take in response to a notice
or pleading filed under clause (ii) of this subparagraph.
(B) Effective date. A service offering shall be effective
no earlier than ten days after the electing company files a complete
informational notice with the commission.
(C) Access to confidential information. Access to confidential
information filed with the commission as part of an informational
notice filing shall be available to commission staff and OPC, upon
execution of a commission approved protective agreement, at the time
the informational notice is filed.
(D) Format of filing. An informational notice under
this section must include the following elements:
(i) name of company;
(ii) PURA chapter under which company operates;
(iii) date of submission;
(iv) effective date;
(v) new and/or revised tariff pages, written in plain
language and conforming with §26.207 of this title (relating
to Form and Filing of Tariffs); except that an informational notice
filing that cross-references the rates, terms, and/or conditions of
the utility's interstate switched-access tariff for an equivalent
service may be considered sufficient. To implement concurrence of
a utility's federal interstate switched-access tariff and its Texas
intrastate switched-access tariff, the utility in the informational
notice portion of its initial filing shall reference the uniform resource
locator (URL or worldwide web address) on the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) website specific to the interstate switched-access
tariff. Additionally, the utility shall reference the URL on the utility's
commercial website specific to the intrastate switched-access tariff
either in the informational notice portion of the filing or in the
page(s) attached to the informational notice portion of the filing.
Thereafter, the utility must notify the commission, in an informational
notice filing, within 10 business days of any changes to the referenced
concurring interstate rates. In any such filing, the utility shall
provide in the informational notice portion of its filing the corresponding
FCC Transmittal Number, reference the URL on the FCC website specific
to the transmittal, specify which rate elements changed, and reference
the URL on the utility's commercial website specific to the intrastate
switched-access tariff. The utility must also file an update to any
URL(s) referenced in its intrastate tariff within 10 business days
of any changes to such URL(s). If switched-access rates are no longer
required to concur with federal rates, a new tariff must be filed;
(vi) proposed implementation date (if different from
effective date);
(vii) affidavit of notice to OPC, COA holders, and
parties to interconnection agreements;
(viii) type of filing (new service; pricing flexibility
involving basic service; non-basic only pricing flexibility; packaging,
term and volume discount or promotional offering regulated by PURA §58.004;
customer specific contract; customer specific contract regulated by
PURA §58.003; promotional offering);
(ix) relevant Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) study
or LRIC study reference, and relevant support materials (confidential/proprietary/protected
materials provided to commission only). When LRIC studies for which
commission approval has not been obtained are provided with an informational
notice filing, an application for approval of that LRIC study must
be filed pursuant to the standards in §26.214 of this title (relating
to Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) Methodology for Services Provided
by Certain Incumbent Local Exchange Companies (ILECs)) or §26.215
of this title (relating to Long Run Incremental Cost Methodology for
Dominant Certificated Telecommunications Utility (DCTU) Services),
as applicable, to establish a LRIC floor and shall be filed before
or simultaneously with the informational filing. The electing company
shall file a notice of intent to file LRIC studies pursuant to §26.214
or §26.215 of this title no later than ten days prior to the
filing of the LRIC study;
(x) a response of "yes", "no", or "not applicable",
with explanatory language to the following question: "Is the sum of
the Total Element Long Run Incremental Cost (TELRIC)-based wholesale
prices of components needed for provision of the retail service at
or below the retail price set forth in this filing?" If the response
is "yes" or "no", the filing must identify the components needed for
the provision of the retail service, along with a list of relevant
wholesale and retail prices;
(xi) a response of "yes" or "no" to the following question:
"Is the service available for resale by a competitor? If the answer
is "no", does the proposed price meet the standards set forth in §26.274(f)
- (h) of this title (relating to Imputation)?" For purposes of this
question, "available for resale" means:
(I) the service is not subject to tariffed resale restrictions;
and
(II) the electing company is not aware of any constraints
that would prevent a competitor from functionally provisioning the
service to the competitor's customers in parity with the electing
company's provisioning of the service to the electing company's customers;
(xii) for package offerings that combine regulated
products or services with unregulated products or services and/or
with the products or services of an electing company's affiliate,
an affidavit indicating that the price of the package, in addition
to the requirements of §26.226(d)(1) of this title, also recovers
the cost to the electing company of acquiring and providing the unregulated
products or services or the affiliate's products or services. The
affidavit shall also indicate that the cost to the electing company
of acquiring and providing an affiliate's products or services is
greater than or equal to the cost to the affiliate of acquiring and/or
providing the products or services. The cost to an electing Cont'd... |
