392.200. Adequate service--just and reasonable charges--unjust discrimination--unreasonable preference--reduced rates permitted for federal lifeline connection plan--delivery of telephone and telegrap - Missouri Statutes

Adequate service--just and reasonable charges--unjustdiscrimination--unreasonable preference--reduced rates permittedfor federal lifeline connection plan--delivery of telephone andtelegraph messages--customer--specific pricing--term agreements,discount rates.

392.200. 1. Every telecommunications company shall furnish andprovide with respect to its business such instrumentalities and facilitiesas shall be adequate and in all respects just and reasonable. All chargesmade and demanded by any telecommunications company for any servicerendered or to be rendered in connection therewith shall be just andreasonable and not more than allowed by law or by order or decision of thecommission. Every unjust or unreasonable charge made or demanded for anysuch service or in connection therewith or in excess of that allowed by lawor by order or decision of the commission is prohibited and declared to beunlawful.

2. No telecommunications company shall directly or indirectly or byany special rate, rebate, drawback or other device or method charge,demand, collect or receive from any person or corporation a greater or lesscompensation for any service rendered or to be rendered with respect totelecommunications or in connection therewith, except as authorized in thischapter, than it charges, demands, collects or receives from any otherperson or corporation for doing a like and contemporaneous service withrespect to telecommunications under the same or substantially the samecircumstances and conditions. Promotional programs for telecommunicationsservices may be offered by telecommunications companies for periods of timeso long as the offer is otherwise consistent with the provisions of thischapter and approved by the commission. Neither this subsection norsubsection 3 of this section shall be construed to prohibit an economy ratetelephone service offering. This section and section 392.220 to thecontrary notwithstanding, the commission is authorized to approve tariffsfiled by local exchange telecommunications companies which elect to providereduced charges for residential telecommunications connection servicespursuant to the lifeline connection assistance plan as promulgated by thefederal communications commission. Eligible subscribers for suchconnection services shall be those as defined by participating localexchange telecommunications company tariffs.

3. No telecommunications company shall make or give any undue orunreasonable preference or advantage to any person, corporation orlocality, or subject any particular person, corporation or locality to anyundue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoeverexcept that telecommunications messages may be classified into such classesas are just and reasonable, and different rates may be charged for thedifferent classes of messages.

4. (1) No telecommunications company may define a telecommunicationsservice as a different telecommunications service based on the geographicarea or other market segmentation within which such telecommunicationsservice is offered or provided, unless the telecommunications company makesapplication and files a tariff or tariffs which propose relief from thissubsection. Any such tariff shall be subject to the provisions of sections392.220 and 392.230 and in any hearing thereon the burden shall be on thetelecommunications company to show, by clear and convincing evidence, thatthe definition of such service based on the geographic area or other marketwithin which such service is offered is reasonably necessary to promote thepublic interest and the purposes and policies of this chapter.

(2) It is the intent of this act to bring the benefits of competitionto all customers and to ensure that incumbent and alternative localexchange telecommunications companies have the opportunity to price andmarket telecommunications services to all prospective customers in anygeographic area in which they compete. To promote the goals of the federalTelecommunications Act of 1996, for an alternative local exchangetelecommunications company or for an incumbent local exchangetelecommunications company in any exchange where an incumbent localexchange telecommunications company has been classified competitive undersections 392.245 and 392.361, an alternative local exchangetelecommunications company has been certified and is providing basic localtelecommunications services or switched exchange access services, or aninterconnected voice over Internet protocol service provider has beenregistered and is providing local voice service, the commission shallreview and approve or reject, within forty-five days of filing, tariffs forproposed different services as follows:

(a) For services proposed on an exchangewide basis, it shall bepresumed that a tariff which defines and establishes prices for a localexchange telecommunications service or exchange access service as adifferent telecommunications service in the geographic area, no smallerthan an exchange, within which such local exchange telecommunicationsservice or exchange access service is offered is reasonably necessary topromote the public interest and the purposes and policies of this chapter;

(b) For services proposed in a geographic area smaller than anexchange or other market segmentation within which or to whom suchtelecommunications service is proposed to be offered, a local exchangetelecommunications company may petition the commission to define andestablish a local exchange telecommunications service or exchange accessservice as a different local exchange telecommunications service orexchange access service. The commission shall approve such a proposalunless it finds that such service in a smaller geographic area or suchother market segmentation is contrary to the public interest or is contraryto the purposes of this chapter. Upon approval of such a smallergeographic area or such other market segmentation for a different servicefor one local exchange telecommunications company, all other local exchangetelecommunications companies certified to provide service in that exchangemay file a tariff to use such smaller geographic area or such other marketsegmentation to provide that service;

(c) For proposed different services described in paragraphs (a) and(b) of this subdivision, the local exchange telecommunications companywhich files a tariff to provide such service shall provide the service toall similarly situated customers, upon request in accordance with thatcompany's approved tariff, in the exchange or geographic area smaller thanan exchange or such other market segmentation for which the tariff wasfiled, and no price proposed for such service by an incumbent localexchange telecommunications company, other than for a competitive service,shall be lower than its long-run incremental cost, as defined in section386.020, RSMo.

(3) The commission, on its own motion or upon motion of the publiccounsel, may by order, after notice and hearing, define atelecommunications service offered or provided by a telecommunicationscompany as a different telecommunications service dependent upon thegeographic area or other market within which such telecommunicationsservice is offered or provided and apply different service classificationsto such service only upon a finding, based on clear and convincingevidence, that such different treatment is reasonably necessary to promotethe public interest and the purposes and policies of this chapter.

5. No telecommunications company may charge a different price perminute or other unit of measure for the same, substitutable, or equivalentinterexchange telecommunications service provided over the same orequivalent distance between two points without filing a tariff for theoffer or provision of such service pursuant to sections 392.220 and392.230. In any proceeding under sections 392.220 and 392.230 wherein atelecommunications company seeks to charge a different price per minute orother unit of measure for the same, substitutable, or equivalentinterexchange service, the burden shall be on the subjecttelecommunications company to show that such charges are in the publicinterest and consistent with the provisions and purposes of this chapter.The commission may modify or prohibit such charges if the subjecttelecommunications company fails to show that such charges are in thepublic interest and consistent with the provisions and purposes of thischapter. This subsection shall not apply to reasonable price discountsbased on the volume of service provided, so long as such discounts arenondiscriminatory and offered under the same rates, terms, and conditionsthroughout a telecommunications company's certificated or service area.

6. Every telecommunications company operating in this state shallreceive, transmit and deliver, without discrimination or delay, theconversations and messages of every other telecommunications company withwhose facilities a connection may have been made.

7. The commission shall have power to provide the limits within whichtelecommunications messages shall be delivered without extra charge.

8. Customer-specific pricing is authorized on an equal basis forincumbent and alternative local exchange companies, and for interexchangetelecommunications companies for:

(1) Dedicated, nonswitched, private line and special access services;

(2) Central office-based switching systems which substitute forcustomer premise, private branch exchange (PBX) services; and

(3) Any business service offered in an exchange in which basic localtelecommunications service offered by the incumbent local exchangetelecommunications company has been declared competitive under section392.245, and any retail business service offered to an end-user in anoncompetitive exchange.

9. This act shall not be construed to prohibit the commission, upondetermining that it is in the public interest, from altering local exchangeboundaries, provided that the incumbent local exchange telecommunicationscompany or companies serving each exchange for which the boundaries arealtered provide notice to the commission that the companies approve thealteration of exchange boundaries.

10. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, everytelecommunications company is authorized to offer term agreements of up tofive years on any of its telecommunications services.

11. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, everytelecommunications company is authorized to offer discounted rates orspecial promotions on any of its telecommunications services to anyexisting, new, and/or former customers.

12. Packages of services may be offered on an equal basis byincumbent and alternative local exchange companies and shall not be subjectto regulation under section 392.240 or 392.245, nor shall packages ofservices be subject to the provisions of subsections 1 through 5 of thissection, provided that each telecommunications service included in apackage is available apart from the package of services and still subjectto regulation under section 392.240 or 392.245. For the purposes of thissubsection, a "package of services" includes more than onetelecommunications service or one or more telecommunications servicecombined with one or more nontelecommunications service. Any tariff tointroduce a new package or to make any change to an existing package,except for the elimination of a package, shall be filed, on aninformational basis, with the commission at least one day prior to theintroduction of such new package or implementation of such change. Anytariff to eliminate an existing package shall be filed, on an informationalbasis, with the commission at least ten days prior to the elimination ofthe package.

(RSMo 1939 § 5664, A.L. 1987 H.B. 360, A.L. 1988 H.B. 1670, A.L. 1996 S.B. 507, A.L. 2003 H.B. 208, A.L. 2005 S.B. 237, A.L. 2008 H.B. 1779)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 5208; 1919 § 10496

CROSS REFERENCES:

Cities of the third class, RSMo 77.490

Regulation and supervision by public service commission, RSMo 386.320