Section PSC 168.04 - Providers subject to reseller certification(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.Wis. Admin. Code Public Service Commission PSC 168.04
CR Register, November, 1997, No. 503, eff. 12-1-97.