§ 63.143. Code of conduct.
All LECs, unless otherwise noted, shall comply with the following requirements:
(1) Nondiscrimination.
(i) A local exchange telecommunications company may not give itself, including any local exchange affiliate or division or other corporate subunit that performs that function, or any competitive telecommunications carrier any preference or advantage over any other competitive telecommunications carrier in the preordering, ordering, provisioning, or repair and maintenance of any goods, services, network elements (as defined under section 3(35) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.A. § 153(35)), or facilities.
(ii) A local exchange telecommunications company may not condition the sale, lease or use of any noncompetitive service on the purchase, lease or use of any other goods or services offered by the local exchange telecommunications company or on a written or oral agreement not to deal with any CLEC. In addition, a LEC may not condition the sale, lease or use of any noncompetitive service on a written or oral agreement not to deal with any other LEC. Nothing in this paragraph prohibits a local exchange telecommunications company from bundling noncompetitive services with other noncompetitive services or with competitive services so long as the local exchange telecommunications company continues to offer any noncompetitive service contained in the bundle on an individual basis.
(iii) local exchange telecommunications company shall offer to competitive telecommunications carriers for resale any bundled competitive and noncompetitive services it provides to end-users at the same price it offers the bundled services to end-users less any applicable wholesale discount approved by the Commission, and shall make the unbundled network elements associated with those services available to competitive telecommunications companies as may be required by any applicable State or Federal law.
(2) Employee conduct.
(i) A LEC employee, while engaged in the installation of equipment or the rendering of services to any end-user on behalf of a competitor, may not disparage the service of the competitor or promote any service of the LEC to the end-user.
(ii) A LEC employee, while processing an order for the repair or restoration of service or engaged in the actual repair or restoration of service on behalf of a competitor, may not either directly or indirectly represent to any end-user that the repair or restoration of service would have occurred sooner if the end-user had obtained service from the LEC.
(3) Corporate advertising and marketing.
(i) A LEC may not engage in false or deceptive advertising with respect to the offering of any telecommunications service in this Commonwealth.
(ii) A LEC may not state or imply that the services provided by the LEC are inherently superior when purchased from the LEC unless the statement can be factually substantiated.
(iii) A LEC may not state or imply that the services rendered by a competitor may not be reliably rendered or are otherwise of a substandard nature unless the statement can be factually substantiated.
(iv) A local exchange telecommunications company may not state or imply that the continuation of any requested service from the local exchange telecommunications company is contingent upon taking other services offered by the local exchange telecommunications company that are not technically necessary to provide the requested service.
(4) Cross subsidization.
(i) A local exchange telecommunications company may not use revenues earned or expenses incurred in conjunction with noncompetitive services to subsidize or support any competitive services.
(5) Information sharing and disclosure.
(i) A local exchange telecommunications company shall simultaneously make available to competitive telecommunications carriers network information not in the public domain that is used for sales purposes by the local exchange telecommunications company or its local exchange affiliate or division or other corporate subunit that performs that function.
(A) The term ‘‘network information’’ means information concerning the availability of unbundled network elements or information necessary for interconnection to the local exchange telecommunications company’s network.
(B) Network information does not include information obtained during the processing of an order or service on behalf of the local exchange telecommunications company or the local exchange telecommunications company’s competitive local exchange affiliate or division or other corporate subunit that performs that function.
(ii) A local exchange telecommunications company’s employees, including its wholesale employees, shall use competitive telecommunications carrier proprietary information (that is not otherwise available to the local exchange telecommunications company) received in the preordering, ordering, provisioning, billing, maintenance or repairing of any telecommunications services provided to the competitive telecommunications carrier solely for the purpose of providing the services to the CLEC. Local exchange telecommunications company employees may not disclose the competitive telecommunications carrier proprietary information to other employees engaged in the marketing or sales of retail telecommunications services unless the competitive telecommunications carrier provides prior written consent to the disclosure. This provision does not restrict the use of aggregated competitive telecommunications carrier data in a manner that does not disclose proprietary information of any particular competitive telecommunications carrier.
(iii) Subject to customer privacy or confidentiality constraints, a LEC employee may not disclose, directly or indirectly, any customer proprietary information to the LEC’s affiliated or nonaffiliated entities unless authorized by the customer under § 63.135 (relating to customer information).
(6) Sharing of employees and facilities. Local exchange telecommunications company’s wholesale employees who are responsible for the processing of a competitive telecommunications carrier order or service of the operating support system on behalf of a competitive telecommunications carrier may not be shared with the retail portion of the local exchange telecommunications company’s business, shall have offices physically separated from the local exchange telecommunications company’s retail employees and shall have their own direct line of management.
(7) Adoption and dissemination. Every LEC shall formally adopt and implement the applicable code of conduct provisions as company policy or modify its existing company policy as needed to be consistent with the applicable code of conduct provisions. Every LEC shall also disseminate the applicable code of conduct provisions to its employees and take appropriate steps to train and instruct its employees in their content and application.
Authority The provisions of this § 63.143 amended under 66 Pa.C.S. § 3019(b)(2) and (3).
Source The provisions of this § 63.143 amended August 12, 2022, effective August 13, 2022, 52 Pa.B. 5049. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (301449) to (301451).
Cross Referencs This section cited in 52 Pa. Code § 63.141 (relating to statement of purpose and scope).
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