Wisconsin Administrative Code › Public Service Commission › Chapter PSC 168 - Telecommunications Resellers And Resale › Section PSC 168.04 - Providers subject to reseller certification

Current through June 24, 2024
(1) Any entity
			 offering resold telecommunications services is a reseller requiring
			 certification under this chapter, unless it is an exempt entity under sub. (2)
			 or it is certificated as an alternative telecommunications utility, other than
			 a reseller pursuant to s.
			 196.01(1d)
			 (c), Stats., and its certification includes
			 authorization to resell intrastate telecommunications services.
Note
New and existing telecommunications utilities
				certified pursuant to s.
				196.50(2),
				Stats., and telecommunications carriers certified pursuant to s.
				196.499,
				Stats., are, under statutory or certificate specification of statewide
				authority to engage in telecommunications, necessarily authorized to engage in
				resale without need of express certification. Such authority narrowed the
				application of this chapter as specified in s.
				PSC
				168.01(2). Section
				PSC
				168.07(4) governs the treatment of
				certificates containing resale authority issued to alternative
				telecommunications utilities, reseller or otherwise, prior to December 1,
				1997.
(2) An entity that
			 otherwise must be certified under sub. (1) need not obtain certification under
			 this chapter if the entity, as a whole, is one or more of the following:
(a) A marketing agent or employee that has no
			 discretion with respect to the prices, discounts, terms or conditions of the
			 resale of any telecommunications service.
(b) A broker, acting as an intermediary, that
			 assists end-user customers to obtain services directly from underlying
			 providers at rates, terms and conditions that the customers could normally
			 obtain on their own.
(c) A wholly
			 owned subsidiary that is doing business in Wisconsin and is owned by a reseller
			 previously certificated under this chapter, if the owning reseller notifies the
			 commission in writing that it desires to extend its authorization to the
			 subsidiary and will consolidate all requested or reportable revenue and service
			 information of the subsidiary in its own responses or reports when complying
			 with the information filing requirements of this chapter and ch. PSC 160,
			 governing the Wisconsin Universal Service Fund. Upon the commission's receipt
			 of a notice under this paragraph, the owning and subsidiary entities shall be
			 considered a single certificated entity for all purposes under this chapter.
(d) A vendor of prepaid calling
			 cards, provided that another telecommunications provider certificated by this
			 commission supplies the underlying telecommunications services for the prepaid
			 cards and that the viability of the prepaid cards does not depend on actions of
			 the vendor.
(e) A member of a
			 definable class or type of reseller that the commission by order under this
			 subsection has excluded from those resellers requiring certification under this
			 chapter.
(f) A provider or a
			 reseller of service that is exempt from commission regulation under s.
			 196.202,
			 Stats.
Note
Under this paragraph, cellular mobile radio
				telecommunications utilities that are exempt from commission regulation under
				s.
				196.202,
				Stats., are not required to obtain certification to resell telecommunications
				services obtained from other providers. This rule also exempts from
				certification those entities engaged solely in the resale of cellular services.
				If a cellular service reseller, however, seeks to resell services from other
				providers other than cellular mobile radio telecommunications utilities, it
				would no longer be able to characterize its operations as wholly cellular
				resale and would be obliged under s. PSC 168.04(1) to secure certification
				under this chapter.
(g) A
			 reseller whose telecommunications reselling activities are exempt from
			 commission regulation by federal statute or a rule or order of the federal
			 communications commission.