2023 New York Laws › PBS - Public Service › Article 5 - Provisions Relating to Telegraph and Telephone Lines and to Telephone and Telegraph Corporations › 97 - Rates, Rentals and Service.

§ 97. Rates,  rentals and service. 1. Whenever the commission shall be
  of opinion, after a hearing, had upon its own motion or upon a complaint
  that the rates, charges, tolls or rentals demanded, exacted, charged  or
  collected  by any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation subject
  to its jurisdiction for the transaction of messages or communications by
  telegraph or telephone or for the rental or use of any  telegraph  line,
  telephone  line or any telegraph instrument, wire, appliances, apparatus
  or device or any  telephone  receiver,  transmitter,  instrument,  wire,
  cable, apparatus, conduit, machine, appliance or device or any telephone
  extension  or  extention  system  or  that  the  rules,  regulations  or
  practices  of  any  telegraph  corporation  or   telephone   corporation
  affecting   such   rates,   charges,  rentals  or  service  are  unjust,
  unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory or  unduly  preferential  or  in
  anywise  in  violation  of  law,  or  that the maximum rates, charges or
  rentals chargeable  by  any  such  telegraph  corporation  or  telephone
  corporation  are  insufficient  to yield reasonable compensation for the
  service rendered, the commission shall, with  due  regard,  among  other
  things,  to  a  reasonable average return upon the value of the property
  actually used in the public service  and  to  the  necessity  of  making
  reservation  out  of income for surplus and contingencies, determine the
  just and reasonable rates, charges and rentals to be thereafter observed
  and in force  as  the  maximum  to  be  charged,  demanded,  exacted  or
  collected  for  the  performance  or  rendering of the service specified
  notwithstanding that a higher or lower rate, charge or rental  has  been
  theretofore  prescribed  by general or special statute, contract, grant,
  franchise condition, consent or other agreement and shall fix  the  same
  by  order  to  be  served  upon all telegraph corporations and telephone
  corporations by which such rates, charges or rentals are  thereafter  to
  be observed, and thereafter no increase in any rate, charge or rental so
  fixed  shall  be  made  without  the consent of the commission. Any such
  change in rate, charge or rental shall be upon such terms, conditions or
  safeguards as the commission may prescribe. At any hearing  involving  a
  rate,  charge  or rental, the burden of proof to show that the change in
  the rate, charge or rental, if proposed by  the  person  or  corporation
  operating  the  utility,  or that the existing rate, if on motion of the
  commission or in a complaint filed with the commission it is proposed to
  reduce the rate, charge or rental, is just and reasonable, shall be upon
  the person or corporation operating such utility; and the commission may
  give to the hearing and decision of such question  preference  over  all
  other  questions  pending  before  it and decide the same as speedily as
  possible. If it shall be made to  appear  to  the  satisfaction  of  the
  commission  that  the  public  interest  requires  a change in the rate,
  charge or rental for telephone or telegraph service charged by any  such
  person  or corporation, or that such change is necessary for the purpose
  of providing adequate or sufficient service or for the  preservation  of
  the  property,  the  commission  may,  upon  such  terms,  conditions or
  safeguards as it  deems  proper,  authorize  an  immediate,  reasonable,
  temporary  increase or decrease in such rate, charge or rental pending a
  final determination of the rate,  charge  or  rental  to  be  thereafter
  demanded, exacted or collected by such person or corporation. The terms,
  conditions  or  safeguards  prescribed  may  include  conditions for the
  purposes for which additional revenue derived from  any  such  temporary
  increase  may  be expended and for the impounding thereof until the same
  shall be applied to the purpose so specified.
2. Whenever the commission shall be of the opinion,  after  a  hearing
  had upon its own motion or upon complaint that the rules, regulations or
  practices  of  any  telegraph  corporation  or telephone corporation are
  unjust or unreasonable or that the equipment or service of any telegraph

  corporation  or  telephone  corporation  is   inadequate,   inefficient,
  improper  or  insufficient,  the  commission  shall  determine the just,
  reasonable,  adequate,  efficient  and  proper  regulations,  practices,
  equipment  and  service  thereafter  to be installed, to be observed and
  used, and to fix and prescribe the same by order to be served upon every
  telegraph corporation and telephone corporation to be bound thereby  and
  thereafter  it  shall  be  the  duty  of every telegraph corporation and
  telephone corporation to which such order is directed to obey  each  and
  every  such  order  so  served upon it and to do everything necessary or
  proper in order to secure compliance with and observance of  every  such
  order  by  all  its officers, agents and employees according to its true
  intent and meaning. Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed
  as giving to the commission  power  to  make  any  order,  direction  or
  requirement requiring any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation
  to  perform  any  act which is unjust or unreasonable or in violation of
  any law of this state or of the United States not inconsistent with  the
  provisions of this chapter.
3. The commission shall have power by order to require any two or more
  telegraph  corporations  or any two or more telephone corporations whose
  lines form a continuous line of communication, or could be made to do so
  by the construction and maintenance of suitable connections or  transfer
  of messages at common points, between different localities which are not
  reached  by the line of either company alone, to establish through lines
  within the state between two or more such localities and joint rates  or
  charges  for  service by or over said lines as the commission may by its
  order prescribe and in case such through lines and joint  rates  be  not
  established  by the corporations named in any such order within the time
  therein specified, the commission shall have power by order to establish
  the same and to fix the just and reasonable  rates  and  charges  to  be
  charged  for  such through service and to declare the portion thereof to
  which each of the corporations affected thereby shall  be  entitled  and
  the manner in which the same shall be secured and paid.