                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DUTY TO FURNISH ADEQUATE SERVICE AT REASONABLE AND UNIFORM RATES (§ 56-234)

A. It shall be the duty of every public utility to furnish reasonably adequate
service and facilities at reasonable and just rates to any person, firm or
corporation along its lines desiring same. Notwithstanding any other provision
of law:

   1. A telephone company shall not have the duty to extend or expand its
   facilities to furnish service and facilities when the person, firm or
   corporation has service available from one or more alternative providers of
   wireline or terrestrial wireless communications services at prevailing market
   rates; and

   2. A telephone company may meet its duty to furnish reasonably adequate
   service and facilities through the use of any and all available wireline and
   terrestrial wireless technologies; however, a telephone company, when
   restoring service to an existing wireline customer, shall offer the option to
   furnish service using wireline facilities.
   				For purposes of subdivisions 1 and 2, the Commission shall have the
   authority upon request of an individual, corporation, or other entity, or a
   telephone company, to determine whether the wireline or terrestrial wireless
   communications service available to the party requesting service is a
   reasonably adequate alternative to local exchange telephone service.
   				The use by a telephone company of wireline and terrestrial wireless
   technologies shall not be construed to grant any additional jurisdiction or
   authority to the Commission over such technologies.
   				For purposes of subdivision 1, &#8220;prevailing market rates&#8221; means
   rates similar to those generally available to consumers in competitive areas
   for the same services.

B. It shall be the duty of every public utility to charge uniformly therefor all
persons, corporations or municipal corporations using such service under like
conditions. However, no provision of law shall be deemed to preclude voluntary
rate or rate design tests or experiments, or other experiments involving the use
of special rates, where such experiments have been approved by order of the
Commission after notice and hearing and a finding that such experiments are
necessary in order to acquire information which is or may be in furtherance of
the public interest. The Commission&#8217;s final order regarding any petition
filed by an investor-owned electric utility for approval of a voluntary rate or
rate design test or experiment shall be entered the earlier of not more than six
months after the filing of the petition or not more than three months after the
date of any evidentiary hearing concerning such petition. The charge for such
service shall be at the lowest rate applicable for such service in accordance
with schedules filed with the Commission pursuant to &#xA7; 56-236. But, subject
to the provisions of &#xA7; 56-232.1, nothing contained herein or in &#xA7;
56-481.1 shall apply to (i) schedules of rates for any telecommunications
service provided to the public by virtue of any contract with, (ii) for any
service provided under or relating to a contract for telecommunications services
with, or (iii) contracts for service rendered by any telephone company to, the
state government or any agency thereof, or by any other public utility to any
municipal corporation or to the state or federal government. The provisions
hereof shall not apply to or in any way affect any proceeding pending in the
State Corporation Commission on or before July 1, 1950, and shall not confer on
the Commission any jurisdiction not now vested in it with respect to any such
proceeding.

C. The Commission may conclude that competition can effectively ensure
reasonably adequate retail services in competitive exchanges and may carry out
its duty to ensure that a public utility is furnishing reasonably adequate
retail service in its competitive exchanges by monitoring individual customer
complaints and requiring appropriate responses to such complaints.

D. An electric utility formed under or subject to Chapter 9.1 (&#xA7; 56-231.15
et seq.) may meet its duty to furnish reasonably adequate service through
unregulated sales of electric power directly from one or more of its affiliates
to any customer located within the cooperative&#8217;s certificated service
territory that contracts for electric utility services to serve a demand that is
reasonably expected to exceed 90 megawatts.

HISTORY: Code 1919, § 4066; 1918, p. 675; 1924, p. 540; 1927, p. 125; 1950, p.
55; 1964, c. 195; 1970, c. 258; 1976, c. 290; 1985, cc. 2, 41; 2002, c. 833;
2011, cc. 738, 740; 2018, c. 296; 2025, cc. 499, 598.