Substitute Bill No. 447 Summary

• Modernizes telecommunications service classification by allowing providers to elect exemption from tariff filing requirements for competitive and emerging competitive services, instead making terms available through customer service guides filed annually with the authority.

• Eliminates pricing standards that previously restricted competitive service rates, removing requirements for cost-based pricing and regulatory approval processes for competitive telecommunications services.

• Simplifies tariff filing procedures for competitive services (effective on five days' notice) and emerging competitive services (effective on twenty-one days' notice), with promotional offerings effective on three business days' notice.

• Expands exemptions from annual audit requirements for telephone companies, community antenna television companies, and certified competitive video service providers whose accounts are already audited under federal law.

• Prohibits state regulation of interconnected VoIP services, while preserving consumer protection laws, emergency services fees, and wholesale interconnection rights under federal law.

• Authorizes out-of-state telecommunications workers to perform electrical work during declared disaster emergencies without Connecticut licensure upon employer certification.

• Streamlines telecommunications tower and equipment placement on state property, parks, and forests by designating such construction as a public purpose and requiring state agencies to make property available on fair and reasonable terms by February 1, 2013.