[§269-16.85]  Local exchange intrastate
services; fully competitive.  (a)  Notwithstanding section 269-16.9 or any
other law to the contrary, the public utilities commission shall treat the
State's local exchange intrastate services, under the commission's
classification of services relating to costs, rates, and pricing, as fully
competitive and apply all commission rules in accordance with that
designation.  In addition, a telecommunications carrier shall not be required
to obtain approval or provide any cost support or other information to
establish or otherwise modify in any manner its rates, fares, and charges, or
to bundle any service offerings into a single or combined price package;
provided that a telecommunications carrier, except upon receiving the approval
of the commission, shall not charge a higher rate for any retail
telecommunications service than the rate for the same service included in the
telecommunications carrier's filed tariff.  All rates, fares, charges, and
bundled service offerings shall be filed with the public utilities commission
for information purposes only.



(b)  This section shall apply to retail rates
charged for service to end-user consumers only and shall not apply to wholesale
rates charged for services provided by a telecommunications carrier to another
telecommunications provider, a wireless communications provider, a voice over
internet protocol communications provider, or other similar communications
provider.



(c)  Nothing herein shall modify any
requirements of a telecommunications carrier to provide lifeline telephone
service, comply with carrier of last resort obligations, or comply with
applicable service quality standards. [L 2009, c 180, §2]