Opinion ID: 2050767
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Effect of Filing Exchange-Service Map.

Text: On December 10, 1942, the PSC entered an order making it optional for any public utility to file with the PSC a statement accompanied by an exchange-area map indicating the territory in any town or towns of this state in which said telephone utility presently proposes, subject to its filed extension rules, to make extensions of its lines and service at any time when such service may be requested or demanded by any person within the territory as thus designated. [6] The order further provided that, unless the commission within sixty days after the presentation of this statement and map should find that any of the proposed extensions of service are not required by public convenience and necessity, the filing of the statement and accompanying map should be deemed full compliance by the utility with the notice requirements of sec. 196.50 (2), Stats. The order also contained this significant provision: Neither the presentation nor the filing of any statement and map pursuant to the provisions of this order shall be determinative of the restriction of the undertaking of service of the utility presenting the same to service within the territory designated in such statement and map, nor shall it be construed as limiting any statutory power of the commission. The proceeding which resulted in the promulgation of this order was initiated by a petition filed by the Wisconsin State Telephone Association, of which more than 90 per cent of this state's telephone utilities were members. This petition requested that an order be entered providing that, where possible, all telephone utilities in the state enter into agreements fixing their exchange-area boundaries, and, in case of disagreement, that the PSC establish the boundaries. The PSC filed an opinion in the matter in which it explained why the relief requested was denied. The opinion stated that (27 P.S.C.W., p. 15): A determination and an exact definition of the territorial scope of any utility's undertaking of service would often be advantageous from the standpoint of utility management as well as of regulation. But such undertakings neither are nor ought to be static; and, moreover, their territorial scope is not always what the utility management at any particular time may think or claim that it is. We do not think that the territorial scope of the separate undertakings of two or more telephone utilities operating in a single town of this state is properly the subject of bargain or compromise as between such utilities alone. The PSC opinion also stated that the twenty-day notice period of sec. 196.50 (2), Stats., was entirely inadequate to permit the commission to investigate and determine whether a proposed extension met the requirement of public convenience and necessity. The only stated objective of the order was to obviate this unsatisfactory notice procedure by substituting, on a voluntary basis, the one set forth in the order. From the foregoing, it is clear that the filing of an exchange-area map by Wis. Tel. Co. as authorized by the PSC order of December 10, 1942, in no way limited any obligation on its part, to extend service in the town of Royalton, which may have arisen from its indeterminate permit.