§276 Provision of payphone service

Summary

After the Commission’s rules go into effect, any Bell operating company that runs payphones must not pay for its payphone service out of money from its local telephone or access services. It also must not favor or give unfair advantages to its own payphone service. Within 9 months after February 8, 1996, the Commission (the Federal Communications Commission) must make rules to promote competition and wider payphone availability. The rules must create a payment plan so all payphone providers are fairly paid for completed interstate and intrastate calls (excluding emergency calls and relay calls for people with hearing disabilities). The rules must end the carrier access charge payphone elements and the payphone subsidies that were in effect on February 8, 1996, and replace them with the new payment plan. The Commission must require nonstructural safeguards at least equal to those in the Computer Inquiry-III order, give Bell companies the same rights as independent payphone providers to negotiate with location owners about which carriers handle interLATA calls (unless the Commission finds that would harm the public interest), give all providers similar rights for intraLATA calls, decide if “public interest” payphones should be kept and fairly supported, leave existing contracts in force as of February 8, 1996 unchanged, and preempt any state rules that conflict. Payphone service here means public or semi‑public pay phones, inmate telephone service, certain advanced communications in correctional institutions (see subparagraphs (A), (B), (D), and (E) of section 153(1)), and related services.