(a) No telecommunications carrier offering or providing noncompetitive telecommunications service pursuant to a valid Certificate of Service Authority or certificate of public convenience and necessity shall discontinue or abandon such service once initiated until and unless it shall demonstrate, and the Commission finds, after notice and hearing, that such discontinuance or abandonment will not deprive customers of any necessary or essential telecommunications service or access thereto and is not otherwise contrary to the public interest. No telecommunications carrier offering or providing competitive telecommunications service shall completely discontinue or abandon such service to an identifiable class or group of customers once initiated except upon 60 days’ notice to the Commission and affected customers. The Commission may, upon its own motion or upon complaint, investigate the proposed discontinuance or abandonment of a competitive telecommunications service and may, after notice and hearing, prohibit such proposed discontinuance or abandonment if the Commission finds that it would be contrary to the public interest. If the Commission does not provide notice of a hearing within 60 calendar days after the notification or holds a hearing and fails to find that the proposed discontinuation or abandonment would be contrary to the public interest, the provider may discontinue or abandon such service after providing at least 30 days’ notice to affected customers. This Section does not apply to a Large Electing Provider proceeding under Section 13-406.1.
     (b) A Small Electing Provider may choose to cease offering or providing a telecommunications service pursuant to either this Section or Section 13-406.1 of this Act in the same manner as a Large Electing Provider. A Small Electing Provider that elects to cease offering or providing a telecommunications service pursuant to Section 13-406.1 shall be subject to all of the provisions that apply to a Large Electing Provider under Section 13-406.1. In this subsection (b), “Small Electing Provider” means an incumbent local exchange carrier, as defined in Section 13-202.5 of this Act, that is an Electing Provider, as defined in Section 13-506.2 of this Act, and that, together with all of its incumbent local exchange carrier affiliates offering telecommunications services within the State of Illinois, has fewer than 40,000 subscriber access lines as of January 1, 2020.