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During its second special session in 2005, the 79th
Texas Legislature passed SB 5 - a major telecommunications restructure bill. The
bill contains a new provision that prohibits an incumbent local exchange carrier
from charging more for a payphone line than it does for a regular business line.
Specifically, the payphone provisions of the bill read as follows:
Sec. 55.1735. CHARGE FOR PAY PHONE
ACCESS LINE. The charge or surcharge a local exchange company imposes for
an access line used to provide pay telephone service in an exchange may not
exceed the amount of the charge or surcharge the company imposes for an access
line used for regular business purposes in that exchange.
The bill became effective September 7, 2005. All
ILECs in violation of the new law were supposed to file new tariffs with
the PUC before September 7 reducing their payphone line rates to the
level of their business line rates. Most did not.
Those that did not are liable for overcharges made
on payphone lines from Sept. 7 until the date they actually changed their
payphone rates on their monthly invoices.
TPA is urging all members with payphones with these ILECs to file overcharge
claims as soon as possible.
Click here
for a copy of a demand letter you can use to file an overcharge claim with your
ILEC. Some of these overcharge claims can be significant, so we urge all members
to review their monthly ILEC invoices closely.
Please remember, not all ILECs were in violation.
For example, SBC has charged its business line rate on payphone lines since
1997. The table below shows those ILECs who had to file new tariffs with the PUC
to bring their payphone line rates into compliance with SB 5. If you have phones
with these ILECs, you should file a demand letter as soon as possible. This does
not apply to those below in green. These
ILECs were charging business line rates on the payphone lines before September
7, 2005.
|
LEC |
Old Payphone Rate |
New Payphone Rate |
|
Alenco Communications |
$29.74 |
Min: $7.20
Max: $18.35 |
|
Big Bend Telephone Co. |
$56.87 |
$17.00 |
|
Brazoria Telephone Co. |
$29.74 |
Min: $18.00
Max: $22.00 |
|
Brazos Telecom |
$29.74 |
Min: $18.35
Max: $29.10 |
|
Brazos Telephone Coop |
$18.61 |
$9.65 |
|
Central Telephone (Sprint) |
$29.74 |
Min: $16.75
Max: $37.85 |
|
Central Texas
Telephone Cooperative |
$20.00 |
Min: $10.90
Max: $21.30 |
|
CenturyTel
(Lake Dallas) |
$18.90 and $14.95 |
$14.35 |
|
CenturyTel
(Northwest Louisiana) |
$37.10 |
Min: $24.75
Max: $25.50 |
|
CenturyTel
(Port Aransas) |
$34.58 and
$17.95 to $18.55 |
Min: $11.35
Max: $11.95 |
|
CenturyTel
(San Marcos) |
$38.00 and
$15.00 |
$12.50 |
|
Comanche County Telephone Co. |
$34.95 |
$15.51 |
| Community
Telephone |
$27.45 |
Min: $10.90
Max: $13.15 |
|
Consolidated Communications of
Ft. Bend |
$32.40 |
Min: $12.90
Max: $15.60 |
|
Consolidated Communications of
Texas |
$22.00 and
$9.90 + usage |
Min: $13.00
Max: $15.30 |
| Eastex Telephone
Coop |
$24.55 |
Min: $9.90
Max: $10.65 |
| Electra
Telephone |
$43.02 |
$11.90 |
| Ganado Telephone |
Min: $22.10
Max: $22.90 |
Min: $13.40
Max: $18.35 |
| Guadalupe Valley
Telephone Coop |
$22.25 |
Min: $10.50
Max: $18.35 |
|
Hill Country
Telephone Coop |
$36.85 |
Min: $9.50
Max: $15.00 |
| Industry
Telephone |
$29.74 |
Min: $12.49
Max: $13.68 |
| Kerrville
Telephone |
$18.15 |
Min: $15.60
Max: $19.90 |
| Lake Livingston
Telephone |
$9.98 |
$6.65 |
| Lipan |
$27.80 |
Min: $11.25
Max: $12.70 |
| Livingston
Telephone |
$37.35 |
$13.70 |
|
Nortex |
$12.90 |
$12.90
(no filing
made-payphone line rates were the same as business line) |
|
Santa Rosa
Telephone Cooperative |
Min: $11.50
Max: $21.30 |
Min: $11.50
Max: $21.30
(no filing
made-payphone line rates were the same as business line) |
|
Sugar Land Telephone dba AllTel Corp. |
Min: $7.20
Max: $44.20 |
Min: $7.20
Max: $44.20
(no filing
made-payphone line rates were the same as business line) |
|
Texas AllTel
dba AllTel Corp |
$11.10 |
$11.10
(no filing
made-payphone line rates were the same as business line) |
|
United Telephone
(Sprint) |
$29.40 |
Min: $14.25
Max: $18.70 |
|
Valor
(Contel) |
$35.57
(including a $14.40
flat usage charge) |
Min: $18.35
Max: $18.90 |
|
Valor
(Southwest) |
$29.74
(including a $11.50
flat usage charge) |
Min: $18.35
Max: $19.95 |
| Verizon (TXC) |
$35.57
(including a $14.40
flat usage charge) |
$18.35 |
| Verizon (TXG) |
$29.74
(including a $11.50
flat usage charge) |
$20.35 |
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