47 U.S.C. § 276 — Provision of payphone service

(a) Nondiscrimination safeguards: After the rules under subsection (b) take effect, a Bell operating company providing payphone service (1) cannot subsidize that service, directly or indirectly, from its telephone exchange service or exchange access operations, and (2) cannot prefer or discriminate in favor of its own payphone service. (b) Regulations: (1) Contents of regulations: Within 9 months after February 8, 1996, the Commission had to take all necessary actions to prescribe regulations that (A) establish a compensation plan so all payphone service providers are fairly compensated, and rates and charges are just and reasonable, for completed calls using their payphones — except emergency calls and telecommunications relay service calls for hearing-disabled individuals are not subject to this compensation; (B) discontinue the old intrastate and interstate carrier access charge payphone elements and payments, and all payphone subsidies from basic exchange and exchange access revenues, replacing them with the new compensation plan; (C) prescribe nonstructural safeguards for Bell operating company payphone service, at least as strong as those adopted in the Computer Inquiry-III proceeding; (D) let Bell operating company payphone providers negotiate with the location provider and select carriers for interLATA (long-distance) calls, the same right independent payphone providers already have, unless the Commission decides in its rulemaking that this is not in the public interest; and (E) let all payphone service providers negotiate with the location provider and select carriers for intraLATA calls. (2) Public interest telephones: In this rulemaking, the Commission had to decide whether "public interest payphones" — provided for public health, safety, and welfare, where there would otherwise be no payphone — should be maintained, and if so, make sure they are fairly and equitably supported. (3) Existing contracts: Nothing in this section affects existing contracts between location providers and payphone service providers or interLATA/intraLATA carriers that were in force as of February 8, 1996. (c) State preemption: To the extent state requirements conflict with the Commission's regulations, the Commission's regulations preempt the state requirements. (d) "Payphone service" defined: This means providing public or semi-public pay telephones, plus inmate telephone service and certain advanced communications services (described in section 153(1)(A), (B), (D), and (E)) in correctional institutions, and any related services.