Senate Bill No. 278

(By Senators Love, Bailey and Wooton)

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[Introduced March 10, 1997; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections two, four and eight, article six, chapter twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to further amend said article by adding thereto a new section, designated section six-b, all relating to definitions for local emergency telephone system and providing for a wireless enhanced 911 fee.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two, four and eight, article six, chapter twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said article be further amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section six-b, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. LOCAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
§24-6-2. Definitions.

As used in this article, unless the context clearly requires a different meaning:
(1) "County answering point" means a facility to which enhanced emergency telephone system calls for a county are initially routed for response, and where county personnel respond to specific requests for emergency service by directly dispatching the appropriate emergency service provider, relaying a message to the appropriate provider or transferring the call to the appropriate provider.
(2) "Emergency services organization" means the organization established under article five, chapter fifteen of this code.
(3) "Emergency service provider" means any emergency services organization or public safety unit.
(4) "Emergency telephone system" means a telephone system which through normal telephone service facilities automatically connects a person dialing the primary emergency telephone number to an established public agency answering point, but does not include an enhanced emergency telephone system.
(5) "Enhanced emergency telephone system" means a telephone system which automatically connects the person dialing the primary emergency number to the county answering point and in which the telephone network system automatically provides to personnel receiving the call, immediately on answering the call, information on the location and the telephone number from which the call is being made, and upon direction from the personnel receiving the call routes or dispatches such call by telephone, radio or any other appropriate means of communication to emergency service providers that serve the location from which the call is made.
(6) "Public agency" means the state, and any municipality, county, public district or public authority which provides or has authority to provide fire fighting, police, ambulance, medical, rescue or other emergency services.
(7) "Public safety unit" means a functional division of a public agency which provides fire fighting, police, medical, rescue or other emergency services.
(8) "Telephone company" "Telephone service supplier" means a public utility, including any public wireless telecommunications utility, which is engaged in the provision of telephone service whether primarily by means of wire or wireless facilities.
(9) "Comprehensive plan" means a plan pertaining to the installing, modifying or replacing of telephone switching equipment; telephone utilities' response in a timely manner to requests for emergency telephone service by a public agency; telephone utilities' responsibility to report to the public service commission; charges and tariffs for the services and facilities provided by telephone utilities; and access to emergency telephone system by emergency service organizations.
(10) "Technical and operational standards" means those standards of telephone equipment and processes necessary for the implementation of the comprehensive plan as defined in subdivision (9) above.
(11) "Public wireless telecommunications utility" means any entity, including cellular carriers and personal communications service carriers as such are defined by the federal communications commission, which provides, to the public within the state, switched two-way telecommunications service which subscribers access by means of radio equipment.
§24-6-4. Creation of emergency telephone systems.

(a) Upon the adoption by the public service commission of a comprehensive plan, the public agency may establish, consistent with the comprehensive plan, an emergency telephone system within its respective jurisdiction. Nothing herein contained, however, shall be construed to prohibit or discourage in any way the establishment of multijurisdiction or regional systems, and any emergency telephone system established pursuant to this article may include the territory of more than one public agency, or may include only a portion of the territory of a public agency. To the extent feasible, emergency telephone systems shall be centralized.
(b) Every emergency telephone system shall provide access to emergency services organizations, police, fire fighting, and emergency medical and ambulance services and may provide access to other emergency services. Such The system may also provide access to private ambulance services. The emergency telephone system shall provide the necessary mechanical equipment at the established public agency answering point to allow deaf persons access to the system. In those areas in which a public safety unit of the state provides emergency services, the system shall provide access to the public safety unit.
(c) The primary emergency telephone number to the extent possible, shall be uniform throughout the state.
(d) A telephone company service supplier in the normal course of replacing or making major modifications to its switching equipment shall include the capability of providing for the emergency telephone system and shall bear all costs related thereto. All charges for other services and facilities provided by the telephone company, including the provision of distribution facilities and station equipment, shall be paid for by the public agency or public safety unit in accordance with the applicable tariff rates then in effect for such services and facilities. Other costs pursuant to the emergency telephone system shall be allocated as determined by the applicable comprehensive plan of the public service commission.
(e) All coin-operated telephones within the state shall be of a design that will permit a caller to initiate, without first having to insert a coin (dial tone first or post-pay systems), local calls to the long distance and directory assistance operators, calls to the emergency telephone number answering point, if one has been established in his or her local calling area, and to other numbers for services as the telephone company may from time to time make available to the public.
§24-6-6b. Wireless enhanced 911 fee.
(a) Beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, all public wireless telecommunications utilities, as defined in section two of this article, shall, on a monthly basis, collect from each of their in-state two-way service subscribers a wireless enhanced 911 fee. The public service commission, by no later than the first day of June, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, shall issue an order which directs the wireless telecommunications utilities regarding all relevant details of wireless enhanced 911 fee collection, including the determination of who shall be considered an in- state two-way service subscriber and which shall specify how the wireless telecommunications utilities deal with fee collection shortfalls caused by uncollectible accounts. The public service commission shall solicit the views of the wireless telecommunications utilities prior to issuing the order.
(b) The wireless enhanced 911 fee shall initially be seventy-five cents per month per wireless service to which a subscriber subscribes.
(c) Every two years from one thousand nine hundred ninety- seven the public service commission shall respecify the wireless enhanced 911 fee by recalculating the fee such that it shall be the weighted average rounded to the nearest penny, as the first day of March of the respecification year, of all of the enhanced 911 fees imposed by the counties which have adopted an enhanced 911 ordinance: Provided, That the wireless enhanced 911 fee may never be increased by more than twenty-five percent of its value at the beginning of the respecification year.
(d) The wireless enhanced 911 fee moneys collected, after removal of a three percent collection fee which may be kept by the public wireless telecommunications utilities, shall be sent, on a monthly basis, to the public service commission. The public service commission shall, on a quarter-yearly and approximately evenly staggered basis, disburse the fee revenue in the following manner:
(1) Each county shall receive a pro rata portion, based on that county's percentage of the total number of local exchange telephone access lines and line equivalents in service in the state, of the fee revenues received by the public service commission. The public service commission shall recalculate the county disbursement percentages on a yearly basis, with the changes effective on the first day of July, and using data as of the preceding first day of March, which data shall be supplied, on a county specific basis, and by no later than the first day of June of each year, to the public service commission by the public utilities which normally provide local exchange telecommunications service by means of lines, wires, cables, optical fibers, etc. extended to subscriber premises;
(2) Counties which have an enhanced 911 ordinance in effect shall receive their share of the wireless enhanced 911 fee revenue for use in the same manner as the enhanced 911 fee revenues received by those counties pursuant to their enhanced 911 ordinances;
(3) The public service commission shall deposit the wireless enhanced 911 fee revenue for each county which does not have an enhanced 911 ordinance in effect into an escrow account which shall be established for that county. Any county with such an escrow account may, immediately upon adopting an enhanced 911 ordinance, receive the moneys which have accumulated in the escrow account for use as specified in subdivision (2), subsection (d) of this section: Provided, That every five years from the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, all fee revenue residing in escrow accounts shall be disbursed on the pro rata basis specified in subdivision (1) subsection (d) of this section, except omitting data for counties without enhanced 911 ordinances in effect and all escrow accounts shall begin again with a zero balance.
(e) Failure by a public wireless telecommunications utility two-way service subscriber to timely pay the wireless enhanced 911 fee is adequate basis for discontinuance of wireless telecommunications utility service.
§24-6-8. Limitation of liability.

A public agency or a telephone service supplier participating in an emergency telephone system or a county which has established an enhanced emergency telephone system, and any officer, agent or employee of such the public agency, telephone service supplier, or county is not liable for damages in a civil action for injuries, death or loss to persons or property arising from any act or omission, except willful or wanton misconduct, in connection with developing, adopting or approving any final plan or any agreement made pursuant to this article, or otherwise bringing into operation or participating in the operation of an emergency telephone system or an enhanced emergency telephone system pursuant to this article.






NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a wireless enhanced 911 fee.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

§24-6-6b is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.