(a) No person shall provide intrastate telecommunications services, except for private telecommunications service, commercial mobile telecommunications service to the extent regulated by the federal government and any service authorized under a joint or shared user tariff approved by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, unless the person (1) offered, promoted and provided intrastate telecommunications services on or before January 1, 1984, pursuant to a special charter or certificate of public convenience and necessity, or (2) is certified to provide intrastate telecommunications services by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority pursuant to sections 16-247f to 16-247h, inclusive.

(b) Each provider of intrastate telecommunications services, as defined in subsection (a) of this section, or any officer, agent or employee thereof, which the authority finds has failed to obey or comply with any applicable order made or regulation adopted by the authority pursuant to this section shall be fined, by order of the authority, not more than ten thousand dollars for each offense. Each distinct violation of any provision of this section or any such order or regulation shall be a separate offense and, in the case of a continued violation, each day thereof shall be deemed a separate offense. The authority shall impose any such civil penalty in accordance with the procedure established in section 16-41.

(c) The authority shall not prohibit or restrict the competitive provision of intrastate telecommunications services offered by a certified telecommunications provider unless the authority finds that the competitive provision of a telecommunications service would be contrary to the goals set forth in section 16-247a, or would not be in accordance with the provisions of section 16-247a or 16-247b, this section, sections 16-247e to 16-247h, inclusive, or section 16-247k.

(P.A. 85-187, S. 3, 15; P.A. 87-415, S. 1, 2, 13; P.A. 90-221, S. 8, 15; P.A. 93-330, S. 3, 9; P.A. 94-83, S. 4, 16; P.A. 99-222, S. 9, 19; P.A. 11-80, S. 1; P.A. 14-134, S. 128.)

History: P.A. 87-415 amended Subsec. (a) by deleting provisions re plan in Subdiv. (2), deleting Subdiv. (3) and provisions related thereto, deleting compensation provisions, deleting provisions re services provided pursuant to special charter or certificate of public convenience and necessity and inserting reference to Sec. 16-247f to Sec. 16-247h, and amended Subsec. (b) by deleting provisions re specialized telecommunications services, deleting provisions re regulations and inserting reference to Secs. 16-247f to 16-247h, inclusive; P.A. 90-221 made technical change in Subsec. (f); P.A. 93-330 deleted Subsecs. (b) to (e), inclusive, re providers of interstate but not intrastate services, re compensation for prohibited intrastate interexchange services and re blocking unauthorized intrastate interexchange calls, relettered former Subsec. (f) as (b) and amended provisions to clarify its application to each intrastate interexchange services provider, effective July 2, 1993; P.A. 94-83 deleted “interexchange”, changed “service” to “services”, replaced “cellular mobile telephone, radio paging and mobile radio services” with “commercial mobile telecommunications service to the extent regulated by the federal government” in Subsec. (a) and made technical changes and added new Subsec. (c) re competitive provision of intrastate telecommunications services, effective July 1, 1994; P.A. 99-222 made technical changes, amended Subsec. (b) by increasing amount of fine from $5,000 to $10,000 and amended Subsec. (c) by changing reference to person, firm or corporation authorized to provide telecommunications service to “certified telecommunications provider”, effective June 29, 1999; pursuant to P.A. 11-80, “Department of Public Utility Control” and “department” were changed editorially by the Revisors to “Public Utilities Regulatory Authority” and “authority”, respectively, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 14-134 amended Subsec. (a) by deleting reference to Sec. 16-250a, effective June 6, 2014.