Every telegraph and telephone company doing business in this state, under a penalty of five hundred dollars ($500) for each and every refusal to do so, must transmit over its wires to localities on its lines for any individual, corporation, or other telegraph or telephone company such messages, dispatches, or correspondence as may be tendered to it by, or to be transmitted to, any individual, corporation, or other telegraph or telephone companies at the price customarily asked and obtained for the transmission of similar messages, dispatches, or correspondence without discrimination as to charges or promptness. The penalty prescribed in this section shall be recoverable in any court through proper form of law, one-half (½) of which shall go to the prosecutor and one-half (½) to the state.