Texas Utilities Code Title 2, Chapter 52 - Commission Jurisdiction

SUBCHAPTER A GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMISSION

• Texas Section 52.001 - Policy
  (a) It is the policy of this state to protect the public interest in having adequate and efficient telecommunications service available to each resident of...
• Texas Section 52.002 - Authority To Regulate
  (a) To carry out the public policy stated by Section 52.001 and to regulate rates, operations, and services so that the rates are just, fair,...
• Texas Section 52.003 - Cooperation With Other Regulatory Authorities
  In regulating the rates, operations, and services of a telecommunications utility providing service in a municipality located on the state line adjacent to a municipality...
• Texas Section 52.004 - Commission May Establish Separate Markets
  (a) The commission may establish separate telecommunications markets in this state if the commission determines that the public interest will be served. The commission shall...
• Texas Section 52.005 - Minimum Requirements For Dominant Carriers
  The commission shall impose as minimum requirements for a dominant carrier the same requirements imposed by Subchapter C, except Section 52.107. Acts 1997, 75th Leg.,...
• Texas Section 52.006 - Commission To Report To Legislature
  (a) Before January 15 of each odd-numbered year, the commission shall report to the legislature on: (1) the scope of competition in regulated telecommunications markets;...

SUBCHAPTER B INCUMBENT LOCAL EXCHANGE COMPANIES

• Texas Section 52.007 - Tariff Requirements Relating To Providers Not Subject To Rate Of Return Regulation
  (a) This section applies only to a telecommunications provider that is not subject to rate of return regulation under Chapter 53. (b) A telecommunications provider:...
• Texas Section 52.051 - Policy
  In adopting rules and establishing procedures under this subchapter, the commission shall: (1) attempt to balance the public interest in a technologically advanced telecommunications system...
• Texas Section 52.052 - Applicability
  This subchapter does not apply to basic local telecommunications service, including local measured service. Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 166, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1,
• Texas Section 52.053 - Certain Rates Prohibited
  A rate established under this subchapter may not be: (1) unreasonably preferential, prejudicial, or discriminatory; (2) subsidized either directly or indirectly by a regulated monopoly...
• Texas Section 52.054 - Rules And Procedures For Incumbent Local Exchange Companies
  (a) To carry out the public policy stated in Section 52.001, notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the commission may adopt rules and establish...
• Texas Section 52.055 - Hearing To Determine Level Of Competition
  In determining the level of competition in a specific market or submarket, the commission shall hold an evidentiary hearing to consider: (1) the number and...
• Texas Section 52.056 - Specifically Authorized Regulatory Treatments
  The regulatory treatments the commission may implement under Section 52.054 include: (1) approval of a range of rates for a specific service; and (2) the...
• Texas Section 52.058 - General Provisions Relating To New Or Experimental Services Or Promotional Rates
  (a) To encourage the rapid introduction of new or experimental services or promotional rates, the commission shall adopt rules and establish procedures that allow: (1)...
• Texas Section 52.0583 - New Services
  (a) An incumbent local exchange company may introduce a new service 10 days after providing an informational notice to the commission, to the office, and...
• Texas Section 52.0584 - Pricing And Packaging Flexibility; Customer Promotional Offerings
  (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, an incumbent local exchange company may exercise pricing flexibility in accordance with this section, including the packaging...
• Texas Section 52.0585 - Customer Promotional Offerings
  (a) An incumbent local exchange company may offer a promotion for a regulated service for not more than 90 days in any 12-month period. (b)...
• Texas Section 52.059 - Rates To Cover Appropriate Costs
  (a) The commission by rule shall adopt standards necessary to ensure that a rate established under this subchapter covers appropriate costs as determined by the...

SUBCHAPTER C TELECOMMUNICATIONS UTILITIES THAT ARE NOT DOMINANT CARRIERS

• Texas Section 52.060 - Administrative Fee Or Assessment
  The commission may prescribe and collect a fee or assessment from local exchange companies necessary to recover the cost to the commission and to the...
• Texas Section 52.101 - Applicability
  This subchapter applies only to a telecommunications utility that is not: (1) a dominant carrier; or (2) the holder of a certificate of operating authority...
• Texas Section 52.102 - Limited Regulatory Authority
  (a) Except as otherwise provided by this subchapter, Subchapters D and K, Chapter 55, and Section 55.011, the commission has only the following jurisdiction over...
• Texas Section 52.103 - Registration Required
  (a) A telecommunications utility shall register with the commission not later than the 30th day after the date the utility commences service to the public....
• Texas Section 52.1035 - Renewal Of Certain Certificates
  (a) The commission by rule shall require each holder of a certificate of operating authority and holder of a service provider certificate of operating authority...
• Texas Section 52.104 - Commission May Investigate
  (a) The commission may investigate as necessary to determine the effect and scope of competition in the telecommunications industry. The investigation may include: (1) identifying...
• Texas Section 52.105 - Access To Certain Services Required
  (a) The commission may require that each local exchange area have access to local and interexchange telecommunications service, except as otherwise provided by this section....
• Texas Section 52.106 - Quality Of Service Required
  The commission may require the quality of telecommunications service provided in a local exchange in which the commission determines that service has deteriorated and become...
• Texas Section 52.107 - Predatory Pricing
  (a) The commission may enter an order necessary to protect the public interest if the commission finds by a preponderance of the evidence after notice...
• Texas Section 52.108 - Other Prohibited Practices
  The commission may enter any order necessary to protect the public interest if the commission finds after notice and hearing that a telecommunications utility has:...
• Texas Section 52.109 - Availability Of Service
  (a) The commission may require a telecommunications utility that provides a service to make that service available in an exchange served by the telecommunications utility...
• Texas Section 52.110 - Burden Of Proof
  (a) In a proceeding before the commission in which it is alleged that a telecommunications utility engaged in conduct in violation of Section 52.107, 52.108,...
• Texas Section 52.111 - Commission May Exempt
  The commission may exempt from a requirement of this subchapter a telecommunications utility that: (1) does not have a significant effect on the public interest,...

SUBCHAPTER D CERTIFICATE HOLDERS

• Texas Section 52.112 - Reduction Pass-through Required
  (a) Each telecommunications utility that had more than six percent of the total intrastate access minutes of use as measured for the most recent 12-month...
• Texas Section 52.151 - Applicability
  This subchapter applies only to a telecommunications utility that holds a certificate of operating authority or a service provider certificate of operating authority. Acts 1997,...
• Texas Section 52.152 - Limited Regulatory Authority
  Except as otherwise specifically provided by this title, the commission has only the following authority over a telecommunications utility subject to this subchapter: (1) to...
• Texas Section 52.153 - Books And Records
  The commission may prescribe forms of books, accounts, records, and memoranda to be kept by a telecommunications utility, but only as necessary to enforce the...
• Texas Section 52.154 - Commission May Not Overburden
  The commission may not, by a rule or regulatory practice adopted under this chapter, impose on a nondominant telecommunications utility a greater regulatory burden than...
• Texas Section 52.155 - Prohibition Of Excessive Access Charges
  (a) A telecommunications utility that holds a certificate of operating authority or a service provider certificate of operating authority may not charge a higher amount...

SUBCHAPTER E DEREGULATION OF SERVICE

• Texas Section 52.156 - Retail Rates, Terms, And Conditions
  A telecommunications utility may not: (1) establish a retail rate, term, or condition that is anticompetitive or unreasonably preferential, prejudicial, or discriminatory; or (2) engage...
• Texas Section 52.201 - Deregulation Of Service
  Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the commission may deregulate the price of a service in a geographic market if, after notice and hearing,...
• Texas Section 52.202 - Determination Of Geographic Market
  In determining the geographic market under Section 52.201, the commission shall consider the economic and technical conditions of the market. Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch....
• Texas Section 52.203 - Market Power Test
  (a) To determine whether an incumbent local exchange company or holder of a certificate of operating authority who is a dominant carrier is no longer...
• Texas Section 52.204 - Rate For Deregulated Service
  If the price of a service in a geographic market is deregulated under this subchapter, the incumbent local exchange company or holder of a certificate...
• Texas Section 52.205 - Investigation Of Competition
  (a) On request of an incumbent local exchange company or holder of a certificate of operating authority who is a dominant carrier made in conjunction...
• Texas Section 52.206 - Reregulation Of Market
  The commission, on its own motion or on a complaint that the commission considers to have merit, may assert regulation over a service in a...

SUBCHAPTER F REQUIRED REPORTS AND FILINGS; RECORDS

• Texas Section 52.207 - Reports; Confidential Information
  (a) In conjunction with the commission's authority to collect and compile information, the commission may collect a report from a holder of a: (1) certificate...
• Texas Section 52.251 - Tariff Filings
  (a) A public utility shall file with the commission a tariff showing each rate that is: (1) subject to the commission's jurisdiction; and (2) in...
• Texas Section 52.252 - Depreciation Account
  The commission shall require each public utility to carry a proper and adequate depreciation account in accordance with: (1) the rates and methods prescribed by...
• Texas Section 52.253 - Accounts Of Profits And Losses
  A public utility shall keep separate accounts showing profits or losses from the sale or lease of merchandise, including an appliance, a fixture, or equipment....
• Texas Section 52.255 - Availability Of Records
  Notwithstanding Section 14.152, a book, account, record, or memorandum of a public utility may be removed from this state if the book, account, record, or...
• Texas Section 52.256 - Plan And Report Of Workforce Diversity And Other Business Practices
  (a) In this section, "small business" and "historically underutilized business" have the meanings assigned by former Section 481.191, Government Code, as that section existed on...

Last modified: September 28, 2016