CS/CS/SB 2626--Telecommunications companies.

This bill directs the Florida Department of Management Services (DMS) to engage in certain activities necessary to draw down federal stimulus funds to provide broadband service in rural, unserved, or underserved areas of Florida. It exempts from Public Service Commission jurisdiction broadband and voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) service, entitling a competitive local exchange telecommunications company to interconnect with a local exchange telecommunication company for voice traffic purposes and requires the commission to afford procedural and substantive rights available to companies with regard to interconnection. The legislation amends the definitions of "basic local telecommunications service" and "nonbasic service" to provide that only single-line, fl at-rate residential service taken with no additional calling features or other services is classified as basic service, providing that combining basic with nonbasic or unregulated service is nonbasic service for the purpose of regulation. It reduces from 20 percent to 10 percent the amount of rate increase in a 12-month period for any nonbasic telecommunication service, where competition exists. The price for any service that was treated as basic service before July 1, 2009, cannot be increased more than CPI-1 and the cap for certain multi-line business and SUNCOM service is removed. The bill otherwise provides that the price charged for a nonbasic service must cover the direct costs of providing that service. Also, the measure removes PSC authority to: oversee otherwise exempt services as specifically authorized by federal law; resolve service complaints concerning nonbasic services; compel repairs to secure adequate service or facilities for the provision of nonbasic services; regulate the terms of telecommunications service contracts of companies subject to price cap regulation; or establish maximum rates and charges for all providers of operator services within the state. Further, the bill repeals the prohibition against the giving of rebates or special rates. The bill also raises the income eligibility test for Lifeline service to 150 percent of the federal poverty income level, up from the current 135 percent. It additionally allows telecommunications companies to publish their rate schedules through electronic or physical media, and removes the requirement that companies file the schedules with the PSC - these provisions also apply to operator services. Other requirements relating to the publishing of schedules are deleted. The measure also allows the holder of a certificate, granted by the commission for purposes of constructing, operating, and controlling a telecommunications facility, to transfer the certificate to another certificate holder, its parent, or affiliate, for purposes of acquiring ownership or control of a telecommunications facility without prior commission approval. The bill removes the condition that a local exchange telecommunications company be subject to the expired carrier-of-last-resort obligation in order to be eligible to request recovery of storm damage costs from the commission. It also amends the methodology for changing telecommunications providers, to require the commission to resolve anticompetitive behavior concerning a local preferred carrier freeze ("pick freeze") and placing a burden of proof on the carrier asserting the existence of a freeze. If approved

by the Governor, these provisions take effect July 1, 2009.