New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 17 - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND UTILITY SERVICES › Chapter 11 - TELECOMMUNICATIONS › Part 698 - ORDER NO. 2681, REGULATIONS PROVIDING FOR THE INTERCHANGE OF TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH MESSAGES AND THE INTERCONNECTION OF TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH LINES › Section 17.11.698.8 - IN THE MATTER OF REGULATIONS PROVIDING FOR THE INTERCHANGE OF TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH MESSAGES AND THE INTERCONNECTION OF TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH LINES, ORDER NO. 2681

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A. WHEREAS,
				Article XI, Section 16, of the Constitution of the State of New Mexico
				provides: "All telephone and telegraph lines, operated for hire, shall receive
				and transmit each other's messages without delay or discrimination, and make
				and maintain connections with each other's lines, under such rules and
				regulations as may be prescribed by the Commission," and
B. WHEREAS, no such rules and regulations
				have ever been prescribed by the Commission; and
C. WHEREAS, it appears certain the facts and
				conditions that may be involved in each case of transmitting messages of other
				carriers without delay or discrimination, or making connections with the lines
				of other carriers, will to a large extent vary from case to case depending upon
				the advantages to the public and the reasonableness of the means and costs that
				may be involved; and
D. WHEREAS,
				the Commission now deems it necessary and advisable to promulgate rules and
				regulations pursuant to the aforesaid constitutional provision, IT IS THEREFORE
				ORDERED:
(1) Upon the petition of any
				telephone or telegraph company operating intrastate in New Mexico, or upon the
				petition of twenty-five (25) of the customers of any such carrier, or upon the
				Commission's own motion, the Commission upon the filing of such a petition
				shall fix a time and place for hearing thereon. All parties shall be given ten
				(10) days' notice of such time and place for hearing by the Commission. The
				Commission shall cause notice of such hearing to be served at least five (5)
				days before the hearing upon any officer or owner of the telephone or telegraph
				company involved in the proposed interchange of messages or interconnection of
				lines and facilities and on other interested parties as determined by the
				Commission, and any such telephone or telegraph company is hereby declared to
				be an interested party in such proceedings and may offer testimony for or
				against the granting of the relief requested in such petition. Any other
				interested person may offer testimony at such hearing. The Commission shall fix
				the time and place for any such hearing. If the Commission, after investigation
				and hearing, finds from the evidence that an interchange of messages or the
				interconnection of lines and facilities will be of advantage to the public and
				best serve the public interest or public convenience and necessity, it may
				issue an order requiring the interchange or interconnection upon such terms and
				conditions as, in its judgment, the public convenience and necessity may
				require; otherwise the relief requested in such petition shall be denied. In
				making any such order the Commission shall take into consideration the matters
				and things set forth in the following paragraphs of these rules.
(2) It is not intended these rules shall
				apply to the interconnection or interchange of messages with so-called "service
				station" lines where the carrier provides the switching, directory and rental
				of equipment service, nor to situations where the purpose of the connection
				primarily involves interchange of local messages within an exchange or
				interconnection of lines and facilities for local calls only, as distinguished
				from long distance calls.
(3) No
				order affecting such interchange of messages or interconnection of lines and
				facilities shall be entered by the Commission without notice and a hearing. All
				parties shall be entitled to be heard, through themselves or their counsel, and
				shall have process to enforce the attendance of witnesses. At the hearing held
				pursuant to such notice, the Commission may take such testimony as may be
				offered or as it may desire, and may make such other and further investigation
				as, in its opinion, is desirable.
(4) Each witness who shall appear before the
				Commission, by its order, shall receive for his attendance the fees and mileage
				provided for witnesses in civil cases in courts of record, which shall be
				audited and paid by the State out of the State Corporation Commission [Public
				Regulation Commission] fund upon the presentation of proper vouchers; but no
				witnesses subpoenaed at the instance of parties other than the Commission shall
				be entitled to compensation from the State for attendance and travel.
(5) No person shall be excused from attending
				and testifying or from producing books and papers before the Commission, or in
				obedience to the subpoena of the said Commission, whether such subpoena be
				signed or issued by one (1) or more of the members of the said Commission, in
				any investigation held by or before the said Commission or in any cause or
				proceeding in any court by or against the said Commission, relative to matters
				provided for in these rules, on the ground or for the reason that the testimony
				or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of him may tend to incriminate
				him or subject him to a penalty or forfeiture; provided, that nothing herein
				contained shall be construed as requiring any person to produce any books or
				papers, or to testify in response to any inquiry, not pertinent to some
				question lawfully before such Commission or court for determination. No person
				shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account
				of any transaction, matter or thing concerning which he may be required to
				testify or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, before said Commission,
				or in obedience to its subpoena, or in any such cause or proceedings; provided,
				that no person testifying shall be exempted from prosecution and punishment for
				perjury committed in so testifying.
(6) In case of failure or refusal on the part
				of any person to comply with any subpoena issued by said Commission or any
				member thereof, or on the refusal of any witness to testify or answer as to any
				matters regarding which he may be lawfully interrogated, any district court in
				this State, or any judge thereof, on application of a member of said Commission
				may issue an attachment for such person and compel him to comply with such
				subpoena and to attend before the Commission and produce such documents and
				give his testimony upon such matters as may be lawfully required and such court
				or judge shall have the power to punish for contempt as in cases of
				disobedience of a like subpoena issued by or from such court, or a refusal to
				testify therein.
(7) Whenever the
				Commission shall make any order or determination, or issue any subpoena, notice
				or writ, notice thereof may be served on the person affected thereby, by
				delivering a copy of such order, subpoena, notice or writ, signed by or in the
				name of the chairman of said Commission to any such person or an officer or
				agent of such person, as in the case of civil process, which service may be
				executed by any member of said Commission, the secretary or any employee
				thereof, or by any sheriff in this State. A copy of such order, subpoena,
				notice or writ, with the service endorsed thereon, must be returned to the said
				Commission and entered of record as a part of the proceedings and such
				endorsement and return shall be prima facie evidence that such order, subpoena,
				notice or writ has been duly served.
(8) Any order issued by the Commission after
				completion of its investigation and hearing shall be a final order within the
				meaning of these rules.
(9) If it
				be determined such an interchange or interconnection is needed and if the
				telephone companies involved cannot agree upon the method of interchange or
				point of interconnection or other conditions including the proration or other
				adjustment of construction costs that may be incurred in making the physical
				arrangements of the facilities of either or both or all carriers involved, then
				the Commission on the basis of the evidence presented to it upon such matters
				will determine the proper method of interchange or point of interconnection
				which will be reasonable and just to the two or more telephone or telegraph
				companies involved and will determine the obligations of each of the telephone
				or telegraph companies.
(10) In any
				proceeding in which a proper point of interconnection is in question, the
				Commission will give consideration to costs that may be required of each of the
				carriers and, where possible, will avoid circuitous routing. Substantial
				consideration will be given to the nearest point at which a connection may be
				made with established or proposed toll routes capable of handling the toll
				messages offered at the point of interconnection.
(11) The Commission will consider and
				determine whether an undue burden will be placed upon any one or more of such
				telephone and telegraph companies involved in the interconnection; whether the
				facilities of the carriers involved in the proposed interconnection or
				interchange of messages are properly qualified; whether the facilities and
				equipment of the carriers whose lines are proposed to be interconnected meet
				the normal construction standards; and particularly the communication
				requirements and community of interest of the public.
(12) In order to better meet and carry out
				the provisions of the constitution as stated above the Commission may provide
				the arrangement for the interchange or interconnection which shall be for a
				limited trial period pending further proceedings before the
				Commission.
(13) The Commission
				shall arrange for the service of all interim and final orders upon each and all
				of the parties to such proceedings before the Commission.
(14)
(a) Any
				telephone or telegraph company, or any other person in interest, being
				dissatisfied with any order or determination of the Commission, not removable
				to the supreme court of the State of New Mexico under the provisions of Section
				7, Article XI of the Constitution of the State of New Mexico, may commence an
				action in the district court for Santa Fe County against the Commission as
				defendant, to vacate and set aside such order or determination, on the ground
				that it is unlawful, unreasonable or confiscates the property of the
				dissatisfied telephone or telegraph carrier. In any such proceeding, the court
				may grant relief by injunction, mandamus or other extraordinary remedy. In such
				action the Complaint shall be served with the Summons.
(b) The answer of the Commission to the
				complaint shall be served and filed within twenty (20) days after service of
				the complaint, whereupon said action shall be at issue without further pleading
				and stand ready for trial upon ten (10) days' notice.
(c) Any person not a party to the action, but
				having an interest in the subject thereof, may be made a party.
(d) All such actions shall have precedence
				over any civil cause of a different nature, and the district court shall always
				be deemed open for the trial thereof, and the same shall be tried and
				determined as other civil actions without a jury.
(15) Every action to vacate or amend any
				determination or order of the Commission or to enjoin the enforcement thereof
				or to prevent such order or determination from becoming effective shall be
				commenced, and every appeal to the courts or right of recourse to the courts
				shall be taken or exercised within ninety (90) days after the entry or
				rendition of such order or determination, the right to commence any such
				action, or to take or exercise any such appeal or right of recourse to the
				courts, shall terminate absolutely at the end of such ninety (90)
				days.
(16) Any party to said
				action, within thirty (30) days after service of a copy of the said order or
				judgment of the district court, may appeal to the Supreme Court, and the cause
				shall be placed on the calendar of the then pending term and shall be assigned
				and brought to a hearing in the same manner as other causes on the
				calendar.
(17) In such actions and
				proceedings in court all processes shall be served and the practice and rules
				of evidence shall be the same as in civil actions, except as otherwise
				provided.
(18) A copy of these
				rules will be mailed to each telephone and telegraph carrier in the State of
				New Mexico subject to the jurisdiction of this Commission.
(19) DONE at Santa Fe, New Mexico, this 19th
				day of September, 1963. STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION OF NEW MEXICO, G.W. Fails,
				Chairman, M.E. Morgan, Commissioner, Columbus Ferguson, Commissioner, ATTEST R.
				C. Cybert, Director, Traffic and Rate Division.