(a) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to describe
the process used to administer requests from telephone service subscribers
for two-way toll-free expanded local calling service (ELCS) pursuant
to the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA), Chapter 55, Subchapter
C. Only incumbent local exchange companies (ILECs) are subject to
the provisions of PURA, Chapter 55, Subchapter C. On or after September
1, 2011, the commission may not require a telecommunications provider
to provide mandatory or optional expanded local calling services to
additional metropolitan areas or calling areas.
(b) Definitions. The following terms, when used in
this section, have the following meanings unless the context clearly
indicates otherwise.
  (1) Expanded local calling service (ELCS)--The meaning
assigned in §26.221 of this title (relating to Applications to
Establish or Increase Expanded Local Calling Service Surcharges).
  (2) Expanded local calling service (ELCS) fee--The
meaning assigned in §26.221 of this title.
  (3) Expanded local calling service (ELCS) surcharge--The
meaning assigned in §26.221 of this title.
  (4) Metropolitan exchange--The meaning assigned in
PURA §55.041, including Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas/Fort Worth,
Houston, San Antonio and Waco.
(c) ELCS requests, notice and intervention.
  (1) Filing a request for ELCS. Telephone subscribers
in an exchange that has 10,000 or fewer access lines are eligible
to request ELCS from the commission by filing information listed in
paragraph (2) of this subsection. The request shall be assigned a
project number. A presiding officer shall be assigned to the project
and the request shall be reviewed administratively unless the presiding
officer, for good cause, determines at any point during the review
that the request should be docketed. A request from telephone subscribers
in an exchange that has more than 10,000 access lines shall be dismissed
by the presiding officer within 20 days of the date the request is
filed.
  (2) Contents of a request for ELCS.
    (A) Filing letter. A request for ELCS shall include
a letter that designates a contact person to respond to inquiries
about the request for ELCS. The name, address, and daytime telephone
number of the contact person shall be identified in the letter. The
letter shall be sent with all other parts of the request to the commission's
Filing Clerk.
    (B) Community of interest statement. If the petitioning
and petitioned exchanges do not meet the geographic proximity requirement
set forth in subsection (d)(3)(C) of this section, the request for
ELCS shall contain a statement describing the community of interest
between the petitioning and petitioned exchanges, based upon standards
in subsection (d)(3)(D) of this section. The statement must describe
the existence of a community of interest between the petitioning exchange
and each petitioned exchange in sufficient detail to allow for verification
of assertions made.
    (C) Statement of changed circumstances. If subscribers
in the petitioning exchange denied by ballot a petition for ELCS to
any one or more of the same petitioned exchange(s) within the previous
18 months, the new request shall contain a statement explaining what
circumstances have changed since the time of the prior ballot that
materially affect the need for ELCS between the petitioning exchange
and each petitioned exchange. A petition is denied by ballot if it
fails to receive an affirmative vote of at least 70% of the voting
subscribers in the petitioning exchange.
    (D) Petition. A request for ELCS shall include a petition.
A petition may request ELCS between a single petitioning exchange
and one or more petitioned exchanges. A petition shall be signed by
at least 100 subscribers or 5.0% of subscribers in the petitioning
exchange, whichever is less. Each signatory shall include his or her
name and telephone number on the petition. Each signature page of
the petition for ELCS shall include:
      (i) the name and telephone number of a petition coordinator,
whom signatories may contact for further information about the petition;

      (ii) the name, area code and prefix of the exchange
from which the petitioners receive telephone service (the petitioning
exchange);
      (iii) the name, area code and prefix(es) of exchange(s)
to which ELCS is sought (the petitioned exchange(s));
      (iv) a clear statement that only subscribers in the
petitioning exchange may sign the petition;
      (v) a clear statement that subscribers in the petitioning
exchange will be billed a monthly ELCS fee of up to $3.50 per residential
line and $7.00 per business line for the first five petitioned exchanges
granted, with an additional $1.50 per line for each exchange in excess
of five, whether obtained in one or more petitions, in addition to
basic local exchange service rates;
      (vi) a clear statement that there must be an affirmative
vote of at least 70% of those subscribers responding within the petitioning
exchange as to each petitioned exchange before ELCS can be implemented
to that petitioned exchange; and
      (vii) a clear statement that, in addition to ELCS fees
billed to petitioning subscribers, an ELCS surcharge may, if necessary,
be billed to that ILEC's Texas customers to recover the costs of implementing
ELCS.
  (3) Notice to affected ILECs. Within five working days
of receipt by the commission of a filed request for ELCS, the commission
shall send a copy of the request by certified mail to each ILEC serving
either a petitioning or a petitioned telephone exchange.
  (4) Notice to affected telephone service subscribers.
An ILEC serving a petitioning exchange shall arrange for publication
of notice in the petitioning exchange and shall bear the cost of notice
as a regulatory case expense. This notice shall be published once,
not later than 15 days before ballots are mailed in accordance with
subsection (f) of this section, in each local newspaper in the petitioning
exchange. The information contained in subsection (f)(2)(A) - (D)
and (F) of this section shall be published. Published notice shall
identify the assigned project number, shall include the language in
Procedural Rule §22.51(a)(1)(F) of this title (relating to Notice
for Public Utility Regulatory Act, Chapter 36, Subchapter C-E, Chapter
51, §51.009; and Chapter 53, Subchapters C-E Proceedings) modified
to reflect the appropriate intervention deadline and shall be written
in both English and Spanish. Additionally, the presiding officer shall
cause notice to be published in the Texas
Register no later than 15 days before ballots are mailed.
  (5) Intervention. The intervention deadline shall be
no sooner than ten days after the last date notice is published in
the petitioning exchange. On or before the intervention deadline stated
in the published notice, any interested person may file a request
to intervene in the project. The presiding officer shall rule on a
request to intervene in accordance with Procedural Rule §22.103
of this title (relating to Standing to Intervene) within ten days
from the date the request to intervene is filed with the commission's
Filing Clerk. Intervention by an interested person does not by itself
require that the project be docketed.
(d) Initial review of a request for ELCS.
  (1) Sufficiency. The presiding officer shall, by order
issued within 15 days of the filing of a request for ELCS, determine
if the request is sufficient as to the requirements in subsection
(c)(2) of this section. If the presiding officer finds that the request
is deficient, the presiding officer shall notify the designated contact
person so that the contact person may cure any such deficiencies.
Deficiencies in the request for ELCS may be cured within 30 days of
its initial filing. If not cured by the subsequent filing of sufficient
information within that time, the presiding officer shall dismiss
the request in whole, if appropriate, or in relevant part, without
prejudice to the filing of another request involving the same petitioning
and petitioned exchanges.
  (2) Changed Circumstances. The presiding officer shall,
by order issued no later than 15 days after the filing of the request
for ELCS, determine whether a statement of changed circumstances required
by subsection (c)(2)(C) of this section justifies allowing another
ballot sooner than 18 months after the denial by ballot of a prior
petition involving the same petitioning and petitioned exchanges.
If the presiding officer finds that the statement does not justify
allowing another ballot, the presiding officer shall dismiss the request
in whole, if appropriate, or in relevant part.
  (3) Geographic proximity or community of interest.
    (A) Distance limitation. ELCS is not available where
the most distant central switching offices in a petitioning and petitioned
exchange are more than 50 miles apart as measured by using vertical
and horizontal (V&H) geographic coordinates.
    (B) Determination. The presiding officer shall, by
order issued no later than 15 days after the request for ELCS is filed,
determine whether the request satisfies either the geographic proximity
requirement set forth in subparagraph (C) of this paragraph or the
community of interest requirement set forth in subparagraph (D) of
this paragraph. If the presiding officer determines that neither the
geographic proximity nor the community of interest requirements are
satisfied, the presiding officer shall dismiss the request in whole,
if appropriate, or in relevant part.
    (C) Geographic proximity. The geographic proximity
requirement is satisfied as to each petitioned exchange if the nearest
central switching office in the petitioning exchange is located within
22 miles of the nearest central switching office in the petitioned
exchange as measured using vertical and horizontal (V&H) geographic
coordinates.
    (D) Community of interest. A community of interest
statement shall address situations where the nearest central switching
offices in a petitioning and petitioned exchange are more than 22
miles apart and the most distant central offices in a petitioning
and petitioned exchange are 50 or less miles apart. A community of
interest between a petitioning exchange and a petitioned exchange
exists, for purposes of this section, when the community of interest
statement includes information demonstrating that the petitioning
and petitioned exchanges have a relationship because of schools, hospitals,
local governments, or business centers, or that the petitioning or
petitioned exchanges have other relationships that make the unavailability
of ELCS a hardship on residents of the area.
(e) Exemptions.
  (1) ILEC requests for exemption. An ILEC serving either
the petitioning or the petitioned exchange may file a request for
exemption from the potential requirement to provide ELCS. Such requests
must be filed no later than 20 days after the filing of the request
for ELCS. The request for exemption shall be accompanied by an affidavit
identifying in detail which conditions described in paragraph (2)
of this subsection exist. If the petition includes more than one petitioned
exchange, the request for exemption shall clearly identify which conditions
apply to which exchanges. The presiding officer shall look to facts
or circumstances existing on the date the ELCS request is filed in
determining whether a request for exemption may be granted.
  (2) Types of exemptions. The following conditions shall
be considered by the presiding officer in determining whether to exempt
an ILEC from being required to provide ELCS:
    (A) the ILEC serves fewer than 10,000 access lines
statewide; or
    (B) the petitioning or petitioned exchange is served
by a telephone cooperative; or
    (C) extended area service (EAS) or extended metropolitan
service is currently available between the petitioning exchange and
the petitioned exchange(s); or
    (D) the petitioning or petitioned exchange is a metropolitan
exchange as defined in subsection (b) of this section; or
    (E) it is technologically or geographically infeasible
to provide ELCS to the area; or,
    (F) the request for ELCS proposes to split a petitioning
or petitioned exchange.
  (3) Determination. If one or more of the conditions
described in paragraph (2)(A) - (D) or (2)(F) of this subsection exist,
the presiding officer shall, within 40 days after the filing of the
request for ELCS, dismiss the request in whole, if appropriate, or
in relevant part. If the ILEC requests an exemption based on paragraph
(2)(E) of this subsection, the presiding officer shall, by order issued
no later than 40 days after the filing of the request for ELCS, determine
whether the ILEC's affidavit sufficiently demonstrates that technology
is not available in the marketplace to make ELCS feasible. If the
exemption request is granted, the presiding officer shall dismiss
the request for ELCS in whole, if appropriate, or in relevant part.
(f) Balloting. If all applicable requirements contained
in subsections (c) and (d) of this section are met and no exemption
requests are outstanding, the presiding officer shall issue an order
directing the ILEC serving the petitioning exchange to begin balloting
subscribers in that exchange, and the presiding officer shall notify
the designated contact person for the petitioning exchange that balloting
will take place.
  (1) Cost of balloting. The cost of preparing and distributing
ballots shall be borne by the ILEC serving the petitioning exchange
as a regulatory case expense.
Cont'd...