Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 38, September 21, 2024
All LECs, unless otherwise noted, shall comply with the
following requirements:
(1)
Nondiscrimination.
(i) A
local exchange telecommunications company may not give itself, including any
local exchange affiliate or division or other corporate subunit that performs
that function, or any competitive telecommunications carrier any preference or
advantage over any other competitive telecommunications carrier in the
preordering, ordering, provisioning, or repair and maintenance of any goods,
services, network elements (as defined under section 3(35) of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.A. §
153(35)), or
facilities.
(ii) A local exchange
telecommunications company may not condition the sale, lease or use of any
noncompetitive service on the purchase, lease or use of any other goods or
services offered by the local exchange telecommunications company or on a
written or oral agreement not to deal with any CLEC. In addition, a LEC may not
condition the sale, lease or use of any noncompetitive service on a written or
oral agreement not to deal with any other LEC. Nothing in this paragraph
prohibits a local exchange telecommunications company from bundling
noncompetitive services with other noncompetitive services or with competitive
services so long as the local exchange telecommunications company continues to
offer any noncompetitive service contained in the bundle on an individual
basis.
(iii) local exchange
telecommunications company shall offer to competitive telecommunications
carriers for resale any bundled competitive and noncompetitive services it
provides to end-users at the same price it offers the bundled services to
end-users less any applicable wholesale discount approved by the Commission,
and shall make the unbundled network elements associated with those services
available to competitive telecommunications companies as may be required by any
applicable State or Federal law.
(2)
Employee conduct.
(i) A LEC employee, while engaged in the
installation of equipment or the rendering of services to any end-user on
behalf of a competitor, may not disparage the service of the competitor or
promote any service of the LEC to the end-user.
(ii) A LEC employee, while processing an
order for the repair or restoration of service or engaged in the actual repair
or restoration of service on behalf of a competitor, may not either directly or
indirectly represent to any end-user that the repair or restoration of service
would have occurred sooner if the end-user had obtained service from the
LEC.
(3)
Corporate advertising and marketing.
(i) A LEC may not engage in false or
deceptive advertising with respect to the offering of any telecommunications
service in this Commonwealth.
(ii)
A LEC may not state or imply that the services provided by the LEC are
inherently superior when purchased from the LEC unless the statement can be
factually substantiated.
(iii) A
LEC may not state or imply that the services rendered by a competitor may not
be reliably rendered or are otherwise of a substandard nature unless the
statement can be factually substantiated.
(iv) A local exchange telecommunications
company may not state or imply that the continuation of any requested service
from the local exchange telecommunications company is contingent upon taking
other services offered by the local exchange telecommunications company that
are not technically necessary to provide the requested service.
(4)
Cross
subsidization.
(i) A local exchange
telecommunications company may not use revenues earned or expenses incurred in
conjunction with noncompetitive services to subsidize or support any
competitive services.
(5)
Information sharing and disclosure.
(i) A local exchange telecommunications
company shall simultaneously make available to competitive telecommunications
carriers network information not in the public domain that is used for sales
purposes by the local exchange telecommunications company or its local exchange
affiliate or division or other corporate subunit that performs that function.
(A) The term "network information" means
information concerning the availability of unbundled network elements or
information necessary for interconnection to the local exchange
telecommunications company's network.
(B) Network information does not include
information obtained during the processing of an order or service on behalf of
the local exchange telecommunications company or the local exchange
telecommunications company's competitive local exchange affiliate or division
or other corporate subunit that performs that function.
(ii) A local exchange telecommunications
company's employees, including its wholesale employees, shall use competitive
telecommunications carrier proprietary information (that is not otherwise
available to the local exchange telecommunications company) received in the
preordering, ordering, provisioning, billing, maintenance or repairing of any
telecommunications services provided to the competitive telecommunications
carrier solely for the purpose of providing the services to the CLEC. Local
exchange telecommunications company employees may not disclose the competitive
telecommunications carrier proprietary information to other employees engaged
in the marketing or sales of retail telecommunications services unless the
competitive telecommunications carrier provides prior written consent to the
disclosure. This provision does not restrict the use of aggregated competitive
telecommunications carrier data in a manner that does not disclose proprietary
information of any particular competitive telecommunications carrier.
(iii) Subject to customer privacy or
confidentiality constraints, a LEC employee may not disclose, directly or
indirectly, any customer proprietary information to the LEC's affiliated or
nonaffiliated entities unless authorized by the customer under §
63.135 (relating to customer
information).
(6)
Sharing of employees and facilities. Local exchange
telecommunications company's wholesale employees who are responsible for the
processing of a competitive telecommunications carrier order or service of the
operating support system on behalf of a competitive telecommunications carrier
may not be shared with the retail portion of the local exchange
telecommunications company's business, shall have offices physically separated
from the local exchange telecommunications company's retail employees and shall
have their own direct line of management.
(7)
Adoption and
dissemination. Every LEC shall formally adopt and implement the
applicable code of conduct provisions as company policy or modify its existing
company policy as needed to be consistent with the applicable code of conduct
provisions. Every LEC shall also disseminate the applicable code of conduct
provisions to its employees and take appropriate steps to train and instruct
its employees in their content and application.
The provisions of this § 63.143 amended under
66 Pa.C.S. §
3019(b)(2) and
(3).
