Texas Register, Volume 15, Number 88, Pages 6697-6775, November 23, 1990 Page: 6,743
6697-6775 p. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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evaluating the impact of prior amendments to
23.25 which gave the RIXC greater flexibility
in pricing for WATS and private line service.
The commission disagrees. The commis-
sion's ability to conduct detailed evaluation of
the effect of the prior amendments has been
greatly hampered by the failure or refusal of
other IXCs to file Interexchange Carrier Data
Reports as require i by the Commission. The
RIXC should not be punished by delaying
consideration of its request for additional flex-
ibility because its competitors (IXCs) have
failed to comply with commission rules and
reporting requirements.
One comment urged the commission to ad-
dress other issues raised in Docket Number
7790, such as the definition of "statewide
average rates" and establishment of service
standards for IXCs before granting additional
flexibility to the RIXC. Although the commis-
sion agrees that these other issues are im-
portant, they are entirely separate from the
issues addressed in 23.25 and should not
be a basis to delay consideration of the grant-
ing of additional flexibility to the RIXC. The
other issues will be considered in a separate
rulemaking at a later date and will be applica-
ble to all IXCs.
The proposed amendments were published in
response to a petition for rulemaking submit-
ted by AT&T Communications of the South-
west, Inc. (AT&T) on March 14, 1990. After
the publication, AT&T submitted comments in
support of the amendments as proposed. The
comments asserted that the commission has
systematically reduced regulatory restrictions
on the RIXC pursuant to its authority under
PURA Section 18 and that there is sufficient
competition at the present time to allow the
RIXC to be regulated the same as all other
IXCs in Texas in the provision of 800 services
and operator services. Although the commis-
sion agrees that additional flexibility for the
RIXC is warranted, it does not agree that the
RIXC should be regulated the same as other
IXCs in the 800 services and operator ser-
vices markets. For this reason the section
has been amended to establish a range of
rates in those service markets.
AT&T argues that the RIXC should be al-
lowed to offer discrete day, evening and
night/weekend MTS rates instead of basing
evening and night/weekend rates on a per-
centage of day rates. The commission agrees
that discrete rate schedules should be utilized
by the RIXC, but only if each per-minute-of-
use rate element is expressed in one-
hundredths of a penny to avoid additional
charges caused by rounding rates to the next
highest penny. The section has been
amended to add this provision.
AT&T urged that the commission adopt the
proposed amendments which would allow the
RIXC to flow through access charge reduc-
tions without prior notice and which would
provide that such reductions did not have to
be flowed through to prices which are below
the cost of access, billing and collection. The
Commission agrees with AT&T's proposal,
but only if the time period for flow-through of
access charge reductions of more than $2
million is reduced from six months to 90 days.
This provision is needed to insure that con-
sumers receive the benefit of access chargereductions in a shorter time period. The sec-
tion has been amended to incorporate this
change. Additionally, in order to insure thataccess charge reductions are passed on to
customers, the commission has amended
provisions related to access charge reduc-
tions to require such reductions to be re-
flected in both bench-mark prices and the
prices actually charged to customers. Access
charge reductions applicable to MTS must be
reflected in each of the discrete time of day
schedules in elements prices above the mini-
mum rate. If any amount attributable to MTS
remains undistributed, it must be used to re-
duce elements in other MTS time of day
schedules.
Following the commission's Final Order
Meeting of September 19, 1990, a copy of the
commission staff's recommended changes to
the proposed amendments was provided to
interested parties and those who had pro-
vided comments on the proposed amend-
ments. Additional comments in response to
the staff's recommendation were received
from AT&T; American Telco, Inc.; the Anti-
trust Division of the Texas Attorney General's
Office; Consumers Union; MCI; ITI; Office of
Public Utility Counsel; U.S. Sprint; and Texas
Association of Long Distance Telephone
Companies. Most of these comments merely
restated objections that had been raised con-
cemrning the original publication and did not
address the staff's proposed revisions. A
summary of the comments on the staff's pro-
posal and the agency's response is provided
below.
Several of the comments objected that the
proposed minimum rate provisions contained
in the section would allow the RIXC to en-
gage in predatory pricing and would exempt
the RIXC from liability for antitrust law viola-
tions. The commission disagrees with these
comments. The proposed minimum rate
would require that the RIXC recover revenues
per minute in excess of the access, billing,
and collection expenses associated with the
service. The access, billing, and collection
expenses constitute an adequate proxy for
the incremental costs of providing the service.
Predatory pricing is not established unless
the price is set below the incremental or aver-
age variable cost. However, in order to pro-
vide additional assurances that the RIXC will
not engage in predatory pricing, the commis-
sion has amended the section to raise the
minimum rate in various services to 105% of
the associated access, billing, and collection
expenses. Although the commission does not
believe that the proposed minimum rate au-
thorizes predatory pricing, additional lan-
guage has been added to the section to
clarify that the section does not exempt the
RIXC from compliance with, or immunize the
RIXC from liability under state or federal law.
By adopting this rule, the commission is not
intending to shield the RIXC from federal or
state antitrust laws, but is granting the RIXC
additional flexibility in the pricing of its ser-
vices in accordance with the state policy,
expressed in Texas Civil Statutes, Article
1446c, 18(a), favoring equal opportunity in a
competitive market place.
One comment objected that the provision
allowing the RIXC to provide temporary pro-
motional rates included language requiring
the RIXC to notify the commission of "the
locations covered by the promotional rates".
The comment suggested that this language
implies that the RIXC could offer rates whichdid not comply with the requirement of state-
wide average rates contained in Texas CivilStatutes, Article 1446c. The Commission
agrees with this comment and has added a
provisiorr to clarify that the RIXC must offer
promotional rates in all parts of the, state
except where local equipment limitations in-
terfere. The RIXC must identify the locations
where the promotional rates would not be
available. Additionally, the RIXC must make
cost information available to the staff to in-
sure compliance with the cost standard for
promotional offerings. The commission will
provide a description of the promotional fil-
ings in its Weekly Events Update so that
persons may be aware of the filings the com-
mission receives.
One comment suggested that the maximum
rate for directory assistance would be inade-
quate if access charges increased so that the
cost exceeded the maximum rate. The com-
mission agrees and has revised the provision
to state that the maximum rate for directory
assistance is 50 cents or 105% of the aver-
age access, billing, and collection expense
associated with directory assistance, which-
ever is greater. This change allows the maxi-
mum price to be increased if access charges
increase in the future.
One comment suggested that the range of
rates for operator services was too great. As
it pertains to person-to-person calls the Com-
mission agrees and has revised the provision
so that the minimum rate for that service may
not be less than 90% of the bench-mark
price. For all other operator services, the
Commission feels that the range is appropri-
ate.
One comment suggested that the provision
that requires the commission to treat as confi-
dential information submitted pursuant to the
rules violates the Open Records Act. The
commission disagrees. The Open Records
Act specifically exempts from disclosure ma-
terial which contains privileged or confidential
trade secrets and commercial or financial in-
formation.
In response to comments concerned about
the enforcement of the price standards con-
tained in the rule, the commission has added
language to the rule requiring the staff to
review all price changes to ensure that they
conform to the minimum price floors con-
tained in the rule. Even though the staff pres-
ently reviews all filings by the RIXC to ensure
that they comply with the rules, the language
is added as assurance to other parties that
the practice will continue in the future. Addi-
tionally, the RIXC is required to make avail-
able to the Office of Public Utility Counsel any
information which is provided to staff.
The amendments are adopted under Texas
Civil Statutes, Article 1446c, 16, which pro-
vides the Public Utility Commission of Texas
with the authority to make and enforce rules
reasonably required in the exercise of its
powers and jurisdiction; and 18 which grants
the Commission the authority and power to
carry out the public policy requiring new
rules, policies, and principles to protect the
public interest and to provide equal opportu-
nity to all telecommunication utilities in a
competitive marketplace.
,23.25. Long Distance Rates.
(a)-(b) (No change.)November 23, 1990 15 1 ,.k i, 6743
f Adopted Sections
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Texas. Secretary of State. Texas Register, Volume 15, Number 88, Pages 6697-6775, November 23, 1990, periodical, November 23, 1990; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201784/m1/47/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.