2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-SEVEN - Public Service (§§ 1 — 2641) › PART II - Communications (§§ 265 — 539) › Chapter 19 - Puerto Rico Telecommunications Act of 1996 (§§ 265 — 272) › Subchapter III - Regulation and Supervision (§§ 269 — 269l) › § 269d - Procedure for negotiation, arbitration and approval of agreements

(a) Agreements arrived at through negotiation.—
(1) Voluntary negotiations.— Upon receiving a request for interconnection services, or access to network elements pursuant to § 269c of this title, an incumbent local exchange service carrier may negotiate and enter an agreement with the requesting telecommunications carrier without regard to the standards set forth in subsections (a), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (i) and (j) of § 269c of this title. The agreement shall include a detailed schedule of individual charges for interconnection and each service or access to network elements included in the agreement. Said agreement, as well as any interconnection agreement negotiated before the date of enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, shall be submitted to the Board under subsection (e) of this section.
(2) Mediation.— Any party negotiating an agreement under this section may, at any point in the negotiation, request the Board to participate in the negotiation and to resolve any differences arising in the course of the negotiation.
(b) Agreements arrived at through compulsory arbitration.—
(1) Arbitration.— During the period from the 135th through the 160th day (inclusive) from the date on which an incumbent local exchange service carrier receives a petition to negotiate under this section, any of the parties to the negotiation may petition the Board to arbitrate any open issues.
(2) Duty of petitioner.—
(A) The party that petitions the Board to arbitrate under clause (1) of this subsection shall, at the same time it files its petition, provide all relevant documentation concerning:
(i) The unresolved issues;
(ii) the position of each of the parties with respect to those issues, and
(iii) any other issue discussed and resolved by the parties.
(B) A party petitioning for arbitration under clause (1) of this subsection shall provide a copy of the petition and any other pertinent documentation to the other party or parties, no later than the day on which the Board receives said petition.
(3) Opportunity to respond.— The non-petitioning party in a negotiation under this section may respond to the other party’s petition and provide such additional information it deems pertinent within twenty-five (25) days after the date the Board receives the petition.
(4) Action by the Board.—
(A) The Board shall limit its consideration of any petition under clause (1) of this subsection as well as the response, if any, to the issues set forth by the parties.
(B) The Board may require the petitioning party and the respondent party to provide the information it deems is necessary for it to reach a decision on the unresolved issues. If any party refuses to respond or does not comply within a reasonable period of time, without justification to a request of the Board, then the Board may resolve the issues on the basis of the best information available to it regardless of its source.
(C) The Board shall resolve each issue set forth in the petition and the response thereto, if any, by imposing appropriate conditions as required, to implement subsection (c) of this section upon the parties to the agreement. The Board shall conclude the resolution of any unresolved issues within the nine months following the date on which the local exchange service carrier received the request of the petitioner as provided in § 269c of this title.
(5) Refusal to negotiate.— The refusal of any other party to the negotiation [sic] to continue negotiating, to cooperate with the Board in performing its functions as arbitrator, or to continue to negotiate in good faith in the presence, or with the assistance of the Board, shall be deemed as a failure to negotiate in good faith.
(c) Standards for arbitration.— In resolving any open issue by arbitration under subsection (b) of this section and imposing conditions upon the parties to the agreement, the Board shall:
(1) Ensure that such solution and conditions meet the requirements of § 251 of the Federal Communications Act and the regulations approved by the Federal Communications Commission pursuant thereto;
(2) establish any rates for interconnection, services, or access to network elements according to subsection (d) of this section, and
(3) establish a schedule for the implementation of the terms and conditions for the parties to the agreement.
(d) Pricing standards.—
(1) Charges for interconnection and access to network elements.— Determinations by the Board as to what constitutes fair and reasonable rates for the interconnection of facilities and equipment for the purposes of the interconnection provided in § 269c of this title as well as to what constitutes fair and reasonable rates for the use of network elements for segregated access purposes provided in said section:
(A) Shall be based on:
(i) The cost of providing the interconnection or access to network elements which shall be applicable without reference to a rate-of-return or other rate-based formula, and in
(ii) nondiscriminatory criteria[;]
(B) May include a reasonable profit.
(2) Charges for transport and termination of traffic.—
(A) In general.— For the purposes of compliance by an incumbent local exchange service carrier with the reciprocal compensation requirement provided in § 269c of this title, the Board shall not consider the terms and conditions of reciprocal compensation to be fair and reasonable unless:
(i) Such terms and conditions provide for the mutual and reciprocal recovery by each carrier of the costs associated to the transport and termination on each carrier’s network facilities of calls that originate on the network facilities of the other carrier, and
(ii) such terms and conditions establish said costs on the basis of a reasonable approximation of the additional costs of terminating such calls.
(B) Rules of construction.— This paragraph shall not be construed:
(i) To preclude arrangements that afford the reciprocal recovery of costs through the offsetting of reciprocal obligations, including arrangements that do not contemplate reciprocal recovery such as bill-and-keep arrangements, and
(ii) to authorize the Board to engage in any rate regulation procedure to particularly establish the additional costs of transporting or terminating calls, or to require carriers to keep records with respect to the additional costs of such calls.
(3) Wholesale prices for telecommunications services.— For the resale requirement purposes provided in § 269c of this title, the Board shall determine wholesale rates on the basis of retail rates charged to subscribers for the telecommunications service requested, excluding the portion thereof attributed to any cost for marketing, billing, collection, and other costs not incurred by the local exchange service carrier.
(e) Approval by the Board.—
(1) Approval required.— Any interconnection agreement adopted by negotiation or arbitration shall be submitted for the approval of the Board. The Board shall approve or reject the agreement, with written findings of facts as to any deficiencies it finds.
(2) Grounds for rejection.— The Board may reject agreements if it finds that:
(A) The agreement or any portion thereof adopted by negotiation under subsection (a) of this section:
(i) Discriminates against a telecommunications carrier which is not a party to the agreement, or
(ii) the implementation of such agreement or portion thereof is not consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity.
(B) The agreement or any portion thereof adopted by arbitration under subsection (b) of this section does not meet the requirements of § 251 of the Federal Communications Act, including the regulations promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission pursuant to said § 251, or the standards set forth in subsection (d) of this section.
(3) Preservation of authority.— Regardless of the provisions of clause (2) of this subsection, but subject to § 253 Federal Communications Act, nothing in this subsection shall prohibit the Board from establishing or enforcing other requirements of [the] laws of Puerto Rico in the process to review an agreement, including compliance with intrastate telecommunications service quality standards or requirements.
(4) Term for decision.— If the Board does not act to approve or reject an agreement adopted by negotiation under subsection (a) of this section submitted [for] its consideration within ninety (90) days after filing the same, or within thirty (30) days in the case of an agreement adopted by arbitration under subsection (b) of this section, the agreement shall be deemed as approved. No court of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall have jurisdiction to review the determination adopted by the Board to such effect.
(5) Review of the Board’s actions.— In any case in which the Board makes a determination under this section, any party affected thereby may file an appropriate action in the Federal District Court for the District of Puerto Rico to determine whether the agreement meets the requirements of §§ 251 and 252 of the Federal Communications Act.
(f) General statements of terms.—
(1) A telecommunications company may prepare and file with [the] Board a statement of the terms and conditions that [said] company generally offers in Puerto Rico to comply with the requirements of § 251 of the Federal Communications Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder by the Federal Communications Commission and the standards that are applicable under this section.
(2) Board review.— The Board shall not approve said statement unless it complies with subsection (d) of this section, § 251 of the Federal Communication Act, and the regulations promulgated thereunder by the Federal Communications Commission. Except as provided in § 253 of the Federal Communications Act, nothing in this section shall prohibit the Board from establishing or enforcing any other requirements of the laws of Puerto Rico in its review of such statement, including compliance with quality standards and requirements applicable to intrastate telecommunications services.
(3) Term for review.— Within sixty (60) days following the date in which a statement has been submitted, the Board shall:
(A) Complete the review of [said] statement under clause (2) of this subsection, including any reconsideration thereof, unless the filing carrier agrees to an extension of the period for such review, or
(B) permit said statement to take effect.
(4) Authority to continue review.— Clause (3) of this subsection shall not preclude the Board from continuing to review a statement whose effectiveness is based on paragraph (B) of said clause, or from allowing or disallowing such statement under clause (2) of this subsection.
(5) Duty to negotiate not affected.— The submission or approval of a statement under this subsection shall not relieve the incumbent local exchange service carrier of its duty to negotiate the terms and conditions of an agreement under § 269c of this title.
(g) Consolidation of procedures.— When not inconsistent with the requirements of this chapter, the Board may, to the extent which is practical, consolidate procedures in order to reduce administrative burdens imposed on telecommunications carriers to the other parties to the procedures, and to the Board in performing its responsibilities under this chapter.
(h) Filing required.— The Board shall make a copy of the agreements approved under subsection (e) of this section, and each statement approved under subsection (f) of this section, available for public inspection and copying within ten (10) days after this approval. The Board may charge a reasonable and nondiscriminatory fee to the parties to the agreement or to the party filing the statement to recover the costs of approving and filing such agreements or statements.
(i) Availability to other telecommunications carriers.— A local exchange service carrier shall make available any interconnection, service, or access to a network element provided under an agreement approved under this section [to] which it is a party, to any other requesting telecommunications carrier, under the same terms and conditions as those provided in said agreement.
(j) Definition of incumbent local exchange service carrier.— For the purposes of this section, the term “incumbent local exchange service carrier” has the meaning provided in subsection (b) of § 265a of this title.
History —Sept. 12, 1996, No. 213, § III-5, renumbered as § III-6 on Sept. 2, 1999, No. 302, § 2.