Future Telecommunications Landscape Begins to Emerge in New State Legislation
| Publication year | 1995 |
| Pages | 1772 |
1995, August, Pg. 1772. Future Telecommunications Landscape Begins to Emerge in New State Legislation
House Bill ("H.B.") 95-1335, recently signed into law by Governor Romer, adds Colorado to a handful of states opening their local telephone exchanges to competition. Currently, local telephone service is provided primarily by U S West as a monopoly regulated by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission ("PUC").
Introduced in the House by Majority Leader Tim Foster (R-Grand Junction), H.B. 95-1335 adds a new Part 5 to CRS Title 40, Art. 15 on Intrastate Telecommunications Services. It also amends Parts 1 and 2 of Art. 15 by adopting an evolving definition of "basic local exchange service" to permit the inclusion of new services, as appropriate, every three years. Under the Part 2 amendments, the Colorado high cost fund, originally established in 1992 (CRS § 40-15-208), will be made available to all local exchange providers as compensation for the provision of telecommunications services to areas of the state that are especially costly to serve due to geography, low population density or similar factors.
New Part 5 (CRS § 40-15-501 et seq.) formulates statewide policies promoting entry into telecommunications services by cable, long distance, wireless and alternative access service providers, as well as procedures by which the terms of such entry can be established by July 1, 1996. Primary responsibility for developing rules and regulations to determine the conditions for entry into local exchange markets is assigned to the PUC. Three major committees are created to assist the PUC and to identify matters that will need to be resolved with additional legislation: an interim committee of the legislature; an "Advisory Committee" that will include the Governor, legislators and industry representatives; and a "Working Group" consisting of...
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