Report Title:

PUC Jurisdiction; Exclude Wireless Communication Service

Description:

Excludes from the jurisdiction of the public utilities commission wireless communication services.

 

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

594

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 269-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended as follows:

1. By adding a new definition to be appropriately inserted and to read:

""Wireless communications service" means radiocommunications that may provide fixed, mobile, radiolocation or satellite communication services to individuals and businesses within their assigned spectrum block and geographical area. For purposes of this definition:

(1) "Radiocommunication" means telecommunication by means of radio waves;

(2) "Radiodetermination" means the determination of the position, velocity or other characteristics of an object or both, or the obtaining of information relating to these parameters, by means of the propagation properties of radio waves;

(3) "Radiolocation" means radiodetermination used for purposes other than those of radionavigation; and

(4) "Radionavigation" means radiodetermination used for the purposes of navigation, including obstruction warning."

2. By amending the definitions of "public utility" and "telecommunications service or telecommunications" to read:

""Public utility" includes every person who may own, control, operate, or manage as owner, lessee, trustee, receiver, or otherwise, whether under a franchise, charter, license, articles of association, or otherwise, any plant or equipment, or any part thereof, directly or indirectly for public use, for the transportation of passengers or freight, or the conveyance or transmission of telecommunications messages, or the furnishing of facilities for the transmission of intelligence by electricity by land or water or air within the State, or between points within the State, or for the production, conveyance, transmission, delivery, or furnishing of light, power, heat, cold, water, gas, or oil, or for the storage or warehousing of goods, or the disposal of sewage; provided that the term:

(1) Shall include any person insofar as that person owns or operates a private sewer company or sewer facility;

(2) Shall include telecommunications carrier or telecommunications common carrier, excluding that portion of the carrier's business or service involving wireless communications service;

(3) Shall not include any person insofar as that person owns or operates an aerial transportation enterprise;

(4) Shall not include persons owning or operating taxicabs, as defined in this section;

(5) Shall not include common carriers transporting only freight on the public highways, unless operating within localities or along routes or between points that the public utilities commission finds to be inadequately serviced without regulation under this chapter;

(6) Shall not include persons engaged in the business of warehousing or storage unless the commission finds that regulation thereof is necessary in the public interest;

(7) Shall not include:

(A) The business of any carrier by water to the extent that the carrier enters into private contracts for towage, salvage, hauling, or carriage between points within the State and the carriage is not pursuant to either an established schedule or an undertaking to perform carriage services on behalf of the public generally; and

(B) The business of any carrier by water, substantially engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, transporting passengers on luxury cruises between points within the State or on luxury round-trip cruises returning to the point of departure;

(8) Shall not include any person who:

(A) Controls, operates, or manages plants or facilities for the production, transmission, or furnishing of power primarily or entirely from nonfossil fuel sources; and

(B) Provides, sells, or transmits all of that power, except such power as is used in its own internal operations, directly to a public utility for transmission to the public;

(9) Shall not include a telecommunications provider only to the extent determined by the commission pursuant to section 269-16.9;

(10) Shall not include any person who controls, operates, or manages plants or facilities developed pursuant to chapter 167 for conveying, distributing, and transmitting water for irrigation and such other purposes that shall be held for public use and purpose; [and]

(11) Shall not include any person who owns, controls, operates, or manages plants or facilities for the reclamation of wastewater; provided that:

(A) The services of the facility shall be provided pursuant to a service contract between the person and a state or county agency and at least ten per cent of the wastewater processed is used directly by the State or county which has entered into the service contract;

(B) The primary function of the facility shall be the processing of secondary treated wastewater that has been produced by a municipal wastewater treatment facility that is owned by a state or county agency;

(C) The facility shall not make sales of water to residential customers;

(D) The facility may distribute and sell recycled or reclaimed water to entities not covered by a state or county service contract; provided that, in the absence of regulatory oversight and direct competition, the distribution and sale of recycled or reclaimed water shall be voluntary and its pricing fair and reasonable. For purposes of this [[]subparagraph[]], "recycled water" and "reclaimed water" mean treated wastewater that by design is intended or used for a beneficial purpose; and

(E) The facility shall not be engaged, either directly or indirectly, in the processing of food wastes[.];

and

(12) Shall not include wireless communications services.

In the event the application of this chapter is ordered by the commission in any case provided in paragraphs (5), (6), (9), and (10), the business of any public utility that presents evidence of bona fide operation on the date of the commencement of the proceedings resulting in the order shall be presumed to be necessary to public convenience and necessity, but any certificate issued under this proviso shall nevertheless be subject to such terms and conditions as the commission may prescribe, as provided in sections 269-16.9 and 269-20.

"Telecommunications service" or "telecommunications" means the offering of transmission between or among points specified by a user, of information of the user's choosing, including voice, data, image, graphics, and video without change in the form or content of the information, as sent and received, by means of electromagnetic transmission, or other similarly capable means of transmission, with or without benefit of any closed transmission medium, and does not include cable service as defined in section 440G-3[.] and wireless communications service."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________