1. (a) Frequency of bills. The utility shall issue bills monthly unless otherwise authorized by the commission or unless service is for less than one month. Bills shall list all charges due.

2. (b) Billing information.

   1. (1) The utility shall provide free to the customer a breakdown of local service charges at the time the service is initially installed or modified and upon request.
   2. (2) Customer billing sent through the United States mail shall be sent in an envelope.

3. (c) Bill content.

   1. (1) A notice shall be included on the customer's bill of the customer's right to a free annual or monthly itemized breakdown of all local service charges. The itemized breakdown may be on the customer's bill or sent by separate mailing.
   2. (2) If the utility is billing the customer for services from another service provider, the bill shall identify the service provider and provide a toll-free number to call to resolve disputes or obtain information.
   3. (3) The information required by this paragraph shall be arranged to allow the customer to readily compute the bill with the information provided.

   4. (4) Each customer's bill shall include but not be limited to:

      1. (A) the billing period;
      2. (B) the due date of the bill, as specified in §26.27 of this title (relating to Bill Payment and Adjustments);
      3. (C) each applicable telephone number and/or account number;
      4. (D) the total amount due for features and services;

      5. (E) the subtotal for basic local telecommunications service;

         1. (i) if expanded calling scope services are mandatory, charges for the service shall be included in the subtotal for basic local service; or
         2. (ii) if expanded calling scope service is optional, the incremental charges for the service shall be included in the subtotal for optional features;
      6. (F) the sub-total for all optional features or services included in the bill;
      7. (G) any tax, fee, or charge mandated by a federal, state, or local governmental agency that is to be specifically collected from customers;
      8. (H) itemized long distance charges;
      9. (I) any amount owed under a written guarantee contract provided the guarantor was previously notified in writing by the utility as required by §26.24 of this title (relating to Credit Requirements and Deposits);
      10. (J) lease payments, including applicable sales taxes, for customer premises equipment owned by the carrier as part of its nonregulated operations or owned by another entity, which are clearly distinguished from charges for regulated services; and
      11. (K) explanations of any abbreviations, symbols, or acronyms used that identify specific charges.
4. (d) Record retention. Each utility shall maintain monthly billing records for each account for at least two years after the date the bill is mailed. The billing records shall contain sufficient data to reconstruct a customer's billing for a given month. Copies of a customer's billing records may be obtained by that customer upon request.
5. (e) Prepaid Local Telephone Service. To the extent any provisions of this section are applied to customers subscribing to Prepaid Local Telephone Service and are inconsistent with the rates, terms, and conditions of §26.29 of this title (relating to Prepaid Local Telephone Service), the provisions of §26.29 of this title shall apply.

Source Note:The provisions of this §26.25 adopted to be effective May 6, 1999, 24 TexReg 3329.