65-21-115 - Assistive telecommunications device distribution program. - Tennessee Statutes

65-21-115. Assistive telecommunications device distribution program.

(a)  The Tennessee regulatory authority shall develop by rule an assistive telecommunications device distribution program no later than January 1, 2000, to be administered by the authority. Such plan shall require all telecommunications service providers to contribute in the aggregate a total of no more than seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) each year to fund the program. The authority shall create a reserve fund for such program which shall not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000) in any given year. The authority shall by rule determine the annual contribution to be made each year by each telecommunications service provider to fund the program, based upon Tennessee telecommunications total revenue.

(b)  It is the legislative intent that such program be designed with consideration of fair distribution of equipment that is technologically available and economically feasible to be provided to assist individuals with any disability using the basic telephone network.

(c)  A telecommunications service provider with less than five million dollars ($5,000,000) of Tennessee intrastate gross receipts for the calendar year is not required to make a contribution to the assistive telecommunications device distribution program established pursuant to subsection (a).

(d)  The administrative cost of the authority to implement this section shall come from the contributions collected as described in subsection (a).

(e)  Contributions to this fund are not to be line-itemized on an end-users telephone bill.

(f)  In establishing the distribution procedures, the Tennessee regulatory authority, or its designee, shall base its procedures on the former TTY distribution program funded by annual appropriations during 1987 to 1990 with regard to: the application procedure, purchasing of equipment, maintenance and repair, monthly telephone charges, priority of selection, certification of disability, verification of information, confidentiality, eligibility requirements and special considerations.

(g)  The Tennessee regulatory authority is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations in accordance with the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, to implement this section.

[Acts 1999, ch. 417, § 1; 2004, ch. 912, § 2.]