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Draft   to   enact   procedure  
COMM.05   ---   Improving citizens' control over local phone company





DRAFT-1 (to be passed in the Parliament)
  1. The Central Govt will hand over all the powers necessary to regulate local phone wire-based phone exchanges to the Districts, along with powers necessary to lay/remove telecom wires for comminication between phone exchange and telephone at the customer's premises.
  2. The Central Govt will hand over all the powers necessary to regulate communication between two exchanges lying in the SAME district. This will include power to lay/remove cables between exchanges whose areas are adjacent and in the same district.
  3. The center will have power necessary to regulate communication between exchanges across Districts or when communication is via satellites or along the wires laid along the national highways or rail tracks.


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DRAFT-2 (to be passed in the City Council)
 
Section   1   :   Preamble
  The Act is to create an administrative procedure, using which, citizens can improve control over local phone companies.

Section   2   : Appointments of senior officers and their main powers
2.1 [Person responsible for this procedure : Mayor] Within 2 days after passing this law, the Mayor will appoint a Registrar, or ask an existing Registrar to take over the tasks of Registrar under this Act.

Section   3   : Zoning of the City
3.1 [Person responsible for this procedure: Mayor] The Mayor will divide the city into Telephone-zones (zones henceforth) of population of about 10000 to 20000 homes/offices and will allocate at least 5 city-owned building in that zone to District Telecom Regulator.
3.2 [Person responsible for this procedure: Mayor] The Mayor will decide the number of wire phone companies that may operate in each zone.

Section   3   : Initial appointment of the cable company
4.1 The Mayor will also appoint one phone-exchange and phone-wire company per zone. The appointed phone wire/exchange company will get one of the city-owned building in that zone, as decided by the Mayor. The designated company can lay the phone cables network in that zone, and use the building as its central site for the exchange.
4.2 The phone company designated by the Mayor must provide phone connection to every user in that zone for a charge as decided by the City Council. The phone provider cannot charge for any incomeing calls, and cannot have different monthly rates for different customers.
4.3 Any person which intends to provide a landline phone service in a zone will register himself with the Registrar. A citizen residing in that zone can approve upto twice the landline providers, than there are slots as decided by the Mayor. If a comnpany has approval of over 25% of ALL residents, and there is a vacant slot, the Mayor will allocate a slot to him. If there are no vacant slots, and the person's approval is above 25% of ALL residents and it is 5% higher than approval of the least approved slot-holder, the Mayor will expel the landline provider with least approvals, and give the building and slot the the highest approved cable provider.
4.3 The expelled person will have to evacuate the building and remove its wires within 4 weeks, or else the District Telecom Regulator may do it using force if necessary.

Section   5   : Other Details
5.1 If the officer does not execute a procedure or ignores an instruction stated in this Resolution/Act, a citizen can file a complaint before the Grand Jurors. In case there are is no Grand Jury, the citizens can appeal to the Mayor to setup a Grand Jury. But under this law, a citizen cannot complaint before Mayor, Corporators, CM, MLAs, PM, or MPs.
5.2 The Jurors will judge this Act, guidelines, intentions as well as the facts related to the case


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