1. Petition. Upon written petition of 50 or more customers of a local exchange carrier who receive local, flat-rate, basic service within no more than a single exchange area, the commission shall open a proceeding to investigate expanding that basic service calling area. The commission shall hold at least one public hearing. The commission, within 6 months of the filing of the written petition, shall issue an order that must either expand the basic service calling area or state the commission’s reasons for refusing to expand the basic service calling area. If the commission expands the basic service calling area pursuant to this subsection, the commission may allow a carrier affected by the expansion to recover, to the extent reasonable, its costs, including lost revenues, attributable to the expansion.

2. Rules; limitation on petitions. No later than 30 days after the effective date of this subsection, the commission shall by rule establish standards for expanding single-exchange basic service calling areas pursuant to this section. Rules adopted pursuant to this section are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter II?A. A petition may not be filed with or accepted by the commission pursuant to subsection 1 prior to 30 days after the effective date of this subsection.