Oklahoma Telecommunications Act

The act governs the provision of telecommunications service within the state, requiring telecommunications providers to register, exempting private telecommunications service from its coverage, and giving the regulatory commission broad rulemaking authority along with jurisdiction over complaints about the costs of services and over nondiscriminatory intercarrier compensation and billing records. Its central mechanism is a framework for interconnection among carriers: providers owe a duty to interconnect, agreements are reached through voluntary negotiation with mediation and arbitration available when negotiation fails, and both arbitration decisions and the resulting agreements are subject to commission approval. The act also sets wholesale pricing standards and rules for pricing individual network elements, prohibits certain subsidies, creates an expedited complaint proceeding, provides for determining which carriers are eligible for universal service support, and preserves the operation of laws governing anticompetitive conduct.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.