I. The commission is authorized to require telephone utilities that are also providers of competitive telephone services within New Hampshire or outside of New Hampshire to provide information to the commission concerning potential separation or divestiture. The information shall include the costs and other adverse consequences of requiring the separation of these businesses into 2 separate subsidiaries or the divestiture of one or the other into a completely separate corporate entity. This information may be required of any telephone utility which is engaged in any competitive business and which is also engaged either in any non-competitive business, or in any competitive business in which it has a market share exceeding 80 percent.
II. The commission is authorized to require telephone utilities that are required to make services available to competitive resellers to provide information to the commission concerning potential separation or divestiture. The information shall include the costs and other adverse consequences of requiring the separation or divestiture of the competitive portion of their business which competes with the competitive resellers. It should be assumed that the separated or divested portion would then be removed from price regulation.
III. The commission may require information pursuant to this section from all telephone utilities, or from telephone utilities larger than a specified size with or without a representative sample of telephone utilities smaller than that size, at the commission’s discretion.
IV. The commission shall not mandate separation or divestiture without legislative approval unless so required by federal law.