Title 58, Public Utilities, Services and Carriers

The commission and each commissioner may issue subpoenas, subpoenas duces tecum, and all other necessary processes in proceedings pending before it and these processes extend to all parts of the State and may be served by any person authorized by law to serve processes.

No person shall be excused from testifying or from producing any book, document, paper, or account in any hearing before the commission or any commissioner, when ordered to do so, upon the ground that the testimony or evidence, book, document, paper, or account required of him ma…

The Office of Regulatory Staff or any party to any proceedings before the commission may, in any hearing before the commission, cause the deposition of witnesses residing within or without the State to be taken in the manner prescribed by law for taking depositions in civil actio…

The commission or Office of Regulatory Staff may require the production within this State at such time and place as it may designate of any books, accounts, papers, or records of the telephone utility relating to its business or affairs within the State, pertinent to any lawful i…

The Office of Regulatory Staff or any person or corporation having an interest in the subject matter, including any telephone utility concerned, may petition in writing to the commission, setting forth any act or thing done or omitted to be done by any telephone utility in violat…

Upon the filing of a petition pursuant to Section 58-9-1080, the commission shall cause a copy thereof to be served upon the person, corporation, or telephone utility complained of.

Service of all pleadings or notices in all hearings and proceedings pending before the commission, except service of the processes provided for by Section 58-9-1040, may be made personally or by mail as the commission may direct.

The commission may dismiss any petition filed pursuant to Section 58-9-1080 without a hearing if in its opinion a hearing is not necessary in the public interest or for the protection of substantial rights.

The commission may, in addition to the hearings specifically provided for by Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter, conduct such other hearings as may be required in the administration of the powers and duties conferred by Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter and by other laws r…

All commission hearings and proceedings shall be governed by law and by rules of practice and procedure adopted by the commission.

The Commission shall fix the time and place of all hearings, if any is required, and shall serve notice thereof not less than twenty days before the time set for such hearing, unless the Commission shall find that public necessity requires that such hearing be held at an earlier …

At the time fixed for any hearing before the commission or a commissioner or the time to which such hearing may have been continued, the complainant, the Office of Regulatory Staff, and the person, corporation, or telephone utility complained of shall be entitled in person or by …

After the conclusion of a hearing, the commission shall make and file its findings and order with its opinion, if any. Its findings shall be in sufficient detail to enable a court on review to determine the controverted question presented by the proceeding and whether proper weig…

The order shall take effect and become operative twenty days after the service thereof, unless otherwise provided, and shall continue in force either for a period which may be designated therein or until changed or revoked by the Commission. If an order cannot, in the judgment of…

The Commission may at any time, except in those cases provided for in Section 58-9-1200, after notice and after opportunity to be heard as provided in the case of compliance, rescind or amend any order or decision made by it. Any order rescinding or amending a prior order or deci…

A full and complete record shall be kept of all proceedings had before the Commission or any commissioner on any formal hearing and all testimony shall be taken down by a reporter appointed by the Commission.

After an order or decision has been made by the Commission, any party to the proceedings may within ten days after service of notice of the entry of the order or decision apply for a rehearing in respect to any matter determined in such proceedings and specified in the applicatio…

In case of failure on the part of any person to comply with any lawful order of the Commission or of any commissioner or with any subpoena or subpoenas duces tecum or in case of the refusal of any witness to testify concerning any matter on which he may be interrogated lawfully, …

Witnesses who are summoned before the Commission, a special agent or an examiner shall be paid by the party at whose instance they are summoned the same fees and mileages as are paid to witnesses in the courts of common pleas of this State and witnesses whose depositions are take…

Copies of official documents and orders filed or deposited according to law in the office of the commission, certified by a commissioner or by the chief clerk of the commission under its official seal to be true copies of the original, shall be evidence in like manner as the orig…

The Commission may prescribe rules governing pleadings, practice and procedure before it not inconsistent with the provisions of Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter or any other provisions of law.

A party in interest dissatisfied with an order of the commission may appeal to the Supreme Court or court of appeals as provided by statute and the South Carolina Appellate Court Rules. No right of appeal accrues to vacate or set aside, either in whole or in part, an order of the…

The pendency of proceedings to review shall not of itself stay or suspend the operation of the order of the Commission, but during the pendency of such proceedings the court, upon reasonable notice and after hearing, in its discretion may stay or suspend, either in whole or in pa…

All orders of the Commission shall be deemed prima facie just and reasonable and in all actions and proceedings arising under Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter or growing out of the exercise of the powers herein granted to the Commission the burden of proof shall be on the pa…

Any person or corporation violating any provision of Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter or failing, omitting or neglecting to obey, observe or comply with any lawful order of the Commission or any part or provision thereof may be subject to a penalty of not less than twenty-fi…

Every violation of the provisions of Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter or of any lawful order of the Commission, or any part thereof, by any corporation or person is a separate and distinct offense and in case of a continuing violation each day's continuance thereof shall be …

In enforcing the provisions of Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter relating to penalties, the act, omission or failure of any officer, agent or employee of any corporation or person, acting within the scope of his official duties or employment, shall in every case be deemed to …

All penalties accruing under Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter shall be cumulative and a suit for the recovery of one penalty shall not be a bar to or affect the recovery of any other penalty or forfeiture or be a bar to any criminal prosecution against any telephone utility …

Actions to recover penalties under Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter shall be brought in the name of the Office of Regulatory Staff or the State in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Every electric telegraph company with a line of wires, wholly or partly in this State, and engaged in telegraphing for the public shall, during the usual office hours, receive dispatches, whether from other telegraphic lines or from individuals, and, on payment of the usual charg…

In all cases the liability of the companies for messages in cipher, in whole or in part, shall be the same as though they were not in cipher.

It shall be unlawful for any common carrier of intelligence for hire doing business in this State to require the sender of any message over its lines to enter into any agreement limiting such carrier's liability from any loss or damage to the sender of any message.

Such companies shall deliver all dispatches to the persons to whom they are addressed or to their agents, on payment of any charge due for them if such persons or agents reside within one mile of the telegraphic station or within the city or town in which such station is.

Any electric telegraph company operating within this State shall deliver messages within the limits of any city in this State which had a population of more than thirty thousand on March 4, 1921 free of delivery charges and without additional cost to the consignees of such messag…

All telegraph companies doing business in this State shall be liable in damages for mental anguish or suffering, even in the absence of bodily injury, for negligence in receiving, transmitting or delivering messages, without regard to relationship by blood or marriage or whether …

Corporations formed to acquire property or to transact business which would be subject to the provisions of Articles 1 through 13 of this chapter and corporations possessing franchises, powers or privileges for any of the purposes contemplated by Articles 1 through 13 of this cha…

As used in Sections 58-9-295 and 58-9-297: (1) "Communications service provider" means: (a) a telephone utility as defined in Section 58-9-10(6); (b) a government-owned telecommunications service provider as defined in Section 58-9-2610(1); (c) a telephone cooperative as defined …

No telegraph or telephone wire shall be erected or maintained within fifty yards of any public road or highway in this State unless it shall be so constructed, erected and maintained and provided with sufficient lightning guards and arresters as may be necessary for the protectio…

Any telegraph or telephone company incorporated under the laws of this State and any such company incorporated under the laws of any other state, upon complying with the laws of this State regulating the doing of business in this State by foreign corporations and by becoming a do…

Whenever any telegraph or telephone company desires to construct its lines on, over, or under the lands of any person, including a railroad or railway, and fails to agree with the owner of the lands upon the compensation to be paid as damages for the right and use, the company ma…

Every rate made, demanded or received by any telephone utility or by any two or more telephone utilities jointly shall be just and reasonable.

Any message delivered to a telegraph or telephone company within this State for transmission to any other point within this State shall be as a matter of fact, and regarded as a matter of law, as and for an intrastate transaction and shall be transmitted by such company by the mo…

Nothing herein contained shall bar any action for actual or punitive damages growing out of any violations of the provisions of Section 58-9-2150 and any such cause of action may be united in the same complaint as an action for the recovery of the penalty provided in said section…

As used in this article: (1) "Telecommunications service" means the provision, transmission, conveyance, or routing for a consideration of voice, data, video, or any other information or signals of the purchaser's choosing to a point, or between or among points, specified by the …

Nothing in this article shall limit a municipality's authority to enter into and charge for franchise agreements with respect to cable services as governed by 47 U.S.C. Section 542.

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary: (1) A business license tax levied by a municipality upon retail telecommunications services for the years 1999 through the year 2003 shall not exceed three-tenths of one percent of the gross income derived from the sale of ret…