392.361.  Classification of telecommunications company, services — procedure — effect of classification. — 1.  As an alternative to the provisions of section 392.245, a telecommunications company, including price-cap regulated companies, may file with the commission a petition to be classified as a competitive telecommunications company or a transitionally competitive telecommunications company under this section, or to have services classified as competitive or transitionally competitive telecommunications services under this section.

  2.  The commission shall serve by regular mail a copy of any petition or motion filed under subsection l of this section on all telecommunications companies that have applied for authority to provide or are authorized to provide intrastate telecommunications service within this state.  In response to a petition filed, the commission shall afford all interested persons reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard to determine whether a telecommunications company or service may be subject to sufficient competition to justify a lesser degree of regulation.  In making this determination, the commission shall, within nine months of the filing of the petition under this section, consider all relevant factors and shall issue written findings of fact delineating all factors considered.  In any hearing involving the same telecommunications service or company, the commission may, if appropriate and if no new finding of fact is required, rely on a finding of fact made in a prior hearing.

  3.  The commission may classify a telecommunications company as a competitive telecommunications company upon a finding that a majority of its telecommunications services offered by such company are competitive telecommunications services.

  4.  If, after following the procedures required under subsection 2 of this section, the commission determines that a telecommunications service is subject to sufficient competition to justify a lesser degree of regulation and that such lesser regulation is consistent with the protection of ratepayers and promotes the public interest it may, by order, classify:

  (1)  The subject telecommunications service offered by a telecommunications company as a competitive telecommunications service;

  (2)  The subject telecommunications service offered by a noncompetitive or transitionally competitive telecommunications company as a transitionally competitive telecommunications service;

  (3)  The subject telecommunications company, subject to the condition set forth in subsection 3 of this section, as a competitive telecommunications company; or

  (4)  The subject interexchange telecommunications company as a transitionally competitive telecommunications company.

  5.  By its order classifying a telecommunications service as competitive or transitionally competitive or a telecommunications company as competitive or transitionally competitive, the commission may, with respect to that service or company and with respect to one or more providers of that service, suspend or modify the application of its rules or the application of any statutory provision contained in sections 392.200 to 392.340, except as provided in section 392.390.

  6.  If the commission suspends the application of a statutory requirement under this section, it may require a telecommunications company to comply with any conditions reasonably made necessary to protect the public interest by the suspension of the statutory requirement.  The exchange access rates of an incumbent local exchange company that is declared a competitive telecommunications company shall not exceed the rates that were charged at the time the company became a competitive telecommunications company.  The exchange access rates of an alternative local exchange company shall not exceed the exchange access rates of the incumbent local exchange company against whom the alternative local exchange company is competing.

  7.  A telecommunications company may file a petition to have a telecommunications service it then offers classified as competitive or transitionally competitive under this section no more than once every two years, unless exceptional circumstances are demonstrated.  A telecommunications company shall consolidate in a single petition all telecommunications services the company then offers which it seeks to classify as competitive or transitionally competitive within two years from the date such petition is filed, unless the commission determines, for good cause shown, that a waiver of this provision should be granted.

  8.  Notwithstanding the foregoing or the provisions of section 392.245, intrastate operator and directory services, including directory assistance services, shall be deemed competitive on a statewide basis for all local exchange telecommunications companies.