Title 56, Title 56. Public Service Companies

Whenever any horses, cattle, or other livestock are killed or injured, or other property damaged, by the cars or locomotives upon any railroad, it shall be lawful for the owner thereof or for the railroad company to have the property examined and the damages assessed by a board o…

If the railroad company fails, for sixty days after such report is so returned to such clerk, to pay to the owner the full amount assessed by the board of appraisers under § 56-436, and the cost attending the assessment, the owner shall have the right to institute suit on the ori…

Appraisers appointed pursuant to the provisions of § 56-436 shall receive for their services each the sum of one dollar.

The provisions of §§ 56-436 through 56-438 shall not apply to any railroad company which has its line of road enclosed with fences and cattle guards, as required by law.

Whenever any horses, cattle, or other livestock are injured or killed by the cars or locomotives operating on a railroad, the section master or employee of the railroad having charge of the road at the place where the injury or death occurred shall, if he knows of the incident or…

If any railroad, when directed so to do by a valid order of the State Corporation Commission, shall refuse or fail to remove the cause of complaint of the authorities of any incorporated city or town in which such railroad is located, as to the physical condition or operation of …

Every corporation operating a railroad in this Commonwealth, whether such corporation be created under the laws of this Commonwealth or otherwise, shall be liable in damages for any and all injury sustained by any employee of such corporation under the following circumstances: (1…

Every railroad company in this Commonwealth shall, at all times, on request, furnish to the State Corporation Commission any information required by it concerning the track and ancillary facilities or operation of the road, or any other report lawfully required by the Commission …

A. As used in this section, unless the context requires otherwise: "Authority" means a political subdivision of the Commonwealth that is comprised of two transportation commissions of the Commonwealth collectively engaged in providing, directly or indirectly, passenger rail trans…

If a railroad company discontinues operations on all or any portion of its line of railroad (other than yard tracks, passing sidings, or tracks unneeded because of the diversion of traffic over parallel or other substitute tracks), it shall notify the governing body of any city, …

A. Every telegraph company and every telephone company incorporated by this or any other state, or by the United States, may construct, maintain and operate its line along and parallel to any of the railroads of the Commonwealth, and shall have authority to occupy and use the pub…

Whenever a telegraph or telephone company, or any company mentioned in Chapter 10 (§ 56-232 et seq.) of this title, shall be required by the Commonwealth Transportation Board, or the Commissioner of Highways, to remove any part of its lines or works off of the right-of-way of a r…

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as authorizing the Commonwealth Transportation Board to require the removal of the lines and works of any telegraph or telephone company from any street or road in either state highway system which such company is occupying by consent of…

The consent required under § 56-458, when given, shall be by ordinance regularly adopted by the council or other governing body of the city or town, or by resolution regularly adopted and spread upon the minutes by the board of supervisors or other governing authority of the coun…

The actual costs and expenses of the Commonwealth in the investigation by the Commonwealth Transportation Board of the application of any company for a permit, and in the supervision of the construction or installation of any of the works of the company, under the provisions of t…

A. No incorporated city or town shall grant to any such telegraph or telephone corporation the right to erect its poles, wires, or cables, or to lay its conduits upon or beneath its parks, streets, avenues, or alleys until such company shall have first obtained, in the manner pre…

Every telegraph or telephone company and every cable operator that has a franchise to use the public rights-of-way in a locality may contract with any person, the owner of lands, or of any interest, franchise, privilege, or easement therein or in respect thereto, over which such …

If the company and such owner cannot agree on the terms of such contract, the company may acquire such right-of-way in the manner provided by the laws of this Commonwealth for the exercise of the right of eminent domain. The title which may be acquired by a telegraph or telephone…

The preceding sections of this chapter and also §§ 56-466, 56-467 and 56-484 shall be subject to repeal, alteration, or modification, and the rights and privileges acquired thereunder shall be subject to revocation or modification by the General Assembly at its pleasure.

All posts, poles, wires, cables and conduits which shall be erected by any authority in the preceding sections of this chapter conferred shall be so located as in no way to obstruct or interfere with public travel or the ordinary use of, or the safety and convenience of persons t…

A. As used in this section: "Cable television system" means any system licensed, franchised or certificated pursuant to Article 1.2 (§ 15.2-2108.19 et seq.) of Chapter 21 of Title 15.2 that transmits television signals, for distribution to subscribers of its services for a fee, b…

When an investor-owned incumbent electric utility proposes to improve electric service reliability pursuant to clause (iv) of subdivision A 6 of § 56-585.1 by installing new underground facilities to replace the utility's existing overhead distribution tap lines, if the utility o…

The portions of the surface of the parks, roads, turnpikes, streets, avenues, or alleys, or of any pavements opened up or disturbed in erecting, repairing, laying or replacing poles, wires, or cables, or in repairing conduits under the provisions of this chapter shall be immediat…

Whoever shall hereafter erect, string, or maintain wires for any telephone or telegraph lines, over or across the works, in this Commonwealth, of any company chartered as a work of internal improvement in any manner so as to endanger the lives or limbs of the employees of such co…

A. As used in this article: "Access lines" are defined to include residence and business telephone lines and other switched (packet or circuit) lines connecting the customer premises to the public switched telephone network for the transmission of outgoing voice-grade telecommuni…

A. After July 1, 1998, certificated providers of telecommunications services shall receive reimbursement for eligible relocation costs incurred at the direction of a locality that imposes by ordinance the Public Rights-of-Way Use Fee or the Department of Transportation for new in…

The Commission shall keep itself fully informed of the condition of all the telephone companies of this Commonwealth as to the manner in which they are operated with reference to the accommodation of the public and shall, from time to time, make and enforce such requirements, rul…

No telephone company shall cause the long distance carrier designation of any telephone customer to be changed following such customer's initial selection thereof when establishing or reestablishing telephone service, without having first received a statement from the long distan…

A. No telecommunications service provider shall engage in anti-competitive acts or practices in connection with its provision of telecommunications services including price discrimination, predatory pricing or tying arrangements, as such terms are commonly applied in antitrust la…

A. As used in this section, unless the context requires otherwise: "Billing agent" means any entity that submits charges for products, goods, or services to the billing carrier on behalf of itself or any service provider. "Billing carrier" means any telephone company that issues …

The Commission may designate any commercial mobile radio or cellular telephone service provider as an eligible telecommunications carrier for purposes of providing Lifeline service, in addition to any commercial mobile radio or cellular telephone service providers designated as s…

The reasonableness, justice and validity of any rate, charge, rule, regulation or requirement on file with the Commission for any telephone company shall not be questioned in any suit brought by any person in the courts of this Commonwealth against any such telephone company, whe…

No telephone company shall institute a rate for service contained within the official tariff of the company more than three years from the date such rate is approved by the State Corporation Commission.

No telephone company shall require the deposit of money in any pay station as a prerequisite to reaching the operator from such station.

If under Chapter 10.1 (§ 56-265.1 et seq.) a certificate of public convenience and necessity is issued to a telephone company to provide interexchange service, the Commission may, if it determines that such service will be provided on a competitive basis, approve rates, charges, …

If, under subsection B of § 56-265.4:4, a certificate of public convenience and necessity is issued to a new entrant to provide local exchange telephone service, the Commission shall at the same time adopt a form of regulation for the new entrant's local exchange services and, up…

Upon demand of either party thereto or any person affected thereby all arrangements and agreements whatever between two or more telephone companies doing business in this Commonwealth, affecting or regulating the division of charges, earnings, or the manner of transmission of mes…

Each interexchange telephone company shall provide to the Commission in a timely manner any report or information concerning its usage of local exchange telephone services and facilities required under the effective access charge tariffs or schedules of a local exchange telephone…

Any interexchange company which willfully and knowingly fails to provide on time a report required by § 56-482.1 or willfully and knowingly understates the volume or type of use of service or facilities in such report shall be liable to the local exchange telephone company covere…

Every officer, agent or employee of any telephone company, who shall willfully neglect or refuse to make and furnish any report lawfully required by the Commission for the purposes of this chapter or who shall willfully or unlawfully delay or obstruct the Commission in the discha…

Every telephone or telegraph company, not incorporated by the laws of this Commonwealth, shall, as a condition precedent to the enjoyment of any right or privilege granted by this chapter, first obtain from the Commission a license to do business in this Commonwealth, and pay the…

The following terms, whenever used or referred to in this article, shall have the following meanings, unless a different meaning appears from the context: A. "Commission" shall mean the State Corporation Commission. B. "Exchange" shall mean a geographical area established for the…

A. Upon petition of five percent but in no case less than twenty-five of the subscribers in an established telephone exchange for an extension or reduction of their local service area to include or exclude a contiguous local exchange or exchanges, or upon resolution of the govern…

Nothing in this article shall restrict or alter the power of the Commission to change service areas on its own, on petition of any telephone company, or on petition of any subscriber. The Commission shall promulgate all rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions …

A. A county, city, town, electric commission or board, industrial development authority, or economic development authority, other than one in a locality that (i) is eligible to provide telecommunications services pursuant to § 15.2-2160 and (ii) has a population in excess of 30,0…

The Commission shall find that it is in the public interest to approve the offering of qualifying communications services as defined in § 56-484.7:1 unless it shall be demonstrated to the Commission and found that, within the geographic area specified in the petition: (i) the qua…