220 ILCS 5/13-502.5

(220 ILCS 5/13-502.5)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2030)

Sec. 13-502.5. Services alleged to be improperly classified.

(a) Any action or proceeding pending before the Commission upon the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly in which it is alleged that a telecommunications carrier has improperly classified services as competitive, other than a case pertaining to Section 13-506.1, shall be abated and shall not be maintained or continued.

(b) All retail telecommunications services provided to business end users by any telecommunications carrier subject, as of May 1, 2001, to alternative regulation under an alternative regulation plan pursuant to Section 13-506.1 of this Act shall be classified as competitive as of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly without further Commission review. Rates for retail telecommunications services provided to business end users with 4 or fewer access lines shall not exceed the rates the carrier charged for those services on May 1, 2001. This restriction upon the rates of retail telecommunications services provided to business end users shall remain in force and effect through July 1, 2005; provided, however, that nothing in this Section shall be construed to prohibit reduction of those rates. Rates for retail telecommunications services provided to business end users with 5 or more access lines shall not be subject to the restrictions set forth in this subsection.

(c) All retail vertical services, as defined herein, that are provided by a telecommunications carrier subject, as of May 1, 2001, to alternative regulation under an alternative regulation plan pursuant to Section 13-506.1 of this Act shall be classified as competitive as of June 1, 2003 without further Commission review. Retail vertical services shall include, for purposes of this Section, services available on a subscriber's telephone line that the subscriber pays for on a periodic or per use basis, but shall not include caller identification and call waiting.

(d) Any action or proceeding before the Commission upon the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly, in which it is alleged that a telecommunications carrier has improperly classified services as competitive, other than a case pertaining to Section 13-506.1, shall be abated and the services the classification of which is at issue shall be deemed either competitive or noncompetitive as set forth in this Section. Any telecommunications carrier subject to an action or proceeding in which it is alleged that the telecommunications carrier has improperly classified services as competitive shall be deemed liable to refund, and shall refund, the sum of $90,000,000 to that class or those classes of its customers that were alleged to have paid rates in excess of noncompetitive rates as the result of the alleged improper classification. The telecommunications carrier shall make the refund no later than 120 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly.

(e) Any telecommunications carrier subject to an action or proceeding in which it is alleged that the telecommunications carrier has improperly classified services as competitive shall also pay the sum of $15,000,000 to the Digital Divide Elimination Fund established pursuant to Section 5-20 of the Eliminate the Digital Divide Law, and shall further pay the sum of $15,000,000 to the Digital Divide Elimination Infrastructure Fund established pursuant to Section 13-301.3 of this Act. The telecommunications carrier shall make each of these payments in 3 installments of $5,000,000, payable on July 1 of 2002, 2003, and 2004. The telecommunications carrier shall have no further accounting for these payments, which shall be used for the purposes established in the Eliminate the Digital Divide Law.

(f) All other services shall be classified pursuant to Section 13-502 of this Act.

(Source: P.A. 100-20, eff. 7-1-17.)