South Carolina § 58-9-230 - Adherence to schedules.

§ 58-9-230. Adherence to schedules.

(A) No telephone utility may directly or indirectly, by any device whatsoever or in any way, charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or corporation a greater or less compensation for any service rendered or supplied, or to be rendered or supplied, by the telephone utility, than that prescribed in the schedules of the telephone utility applicable thereto then filed in the manner provided in Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter, nor may any person or corporation receive or accept any service from a telephone utility for a compensation greater or less than that prescribed in the schedules.

(B) Local exchange company centrex-type services or billing and collection services, or both, may be offered to subscribers without the schedules related thereto being filed as provided in subsection (A), if the Commission, after hearing, first determines that such services are subject to competition in the relevant product and geographic markets. The Commission shall retain regulatory authority, however, over the rates, revenues, investments, expenses, and quality of the services so offered.

(C) The charges for services offered by the utility pursuant to subsection (B) must, in every instance, be provided at a level above the cost of the service as determined by the commission. The regulatory staff shall have access to such data to ensure compliance with this section. The cost data is not subject to disclosure to the public. However, upon the application of any interested party and for good cause shown, the commission may enter an appropriate order which directs the manner in which the proprietary cost data provided to the regulatory staff may be made available to such interested party.

(D) When a local exchange company proposes to offer a service pursuant to subsections (B) and (C), the Commission shall first determine:

(1) whether monopoly elements are offered as part of the centrex-type service; and

(2) if the Commission finds the existence of a monopoly element, then it must decide whether or not that monopoly element should be unbundled from the detariffed service. If they find that the monopoly element should be unbundled, then only the competitive elements of that service may be detariffed.

(3) This section does not amend or repeal the provisions of Section 58-9-250.

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 58-373; 1952 Code SECTION 58-373; 1950 (46) 2466; 1988 Act No. 537, eff May 17, 1988; 2006 Act No. 318, SECTION 33, eff May 24, 2006.