AN ACT CONCERNING CONSUMER PROTECTION IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES.

This bill requires the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) to modify, by August 1, 2009, its telecommunications quality-of-service regulations.

By law, DPUC had to adopt regulations to establish performance standards and performance-based reporting requirements for services provided by a telephone company to certified telecommunications providers. Telephone companies (AT&T in most of the state, Verizon in part of Greenwich) provide a number of services on a wholesale basis to other telecommunications companies, such as facility maintenance and repair, and customer billing. The bill requires DPUC, by August 1, 2009, to also adopt regulations addressing number portability (provisions that allow customers to keep their telephone number when they change telecommunications companies) and preparing infrastructure for additional facilities. The bill eliminates a requirement that these standards be comprehensive enough to ensure that a telephone company meets its requirements under federal law. It requires that the regulations include provisions for enforcing the standards.

The bill requires DPUC to impose a significant daily fine after a telecommunications company fails to meet any of these standards for any consecutive two-month period or any three months in a 12-month period. The fine must equal a standard percentage of the company's annual gross revenue earned in the state and continue to be assessed until the company meets the standard. Any company providing wholesale service that causes its wholesale customer to fail to meet the retail standards under the bill must pay any fines incurred by the wholesale customer. DPUC must transfer the proceeds from the fines to the General Fund.

The law required DPUC to establish quality of service regulations for the services telephone companies and certified telecommunications providers provide to their customers. By law, these regulations apply to all companies and all services. The bill specifically requires that the regulations apply to all services, regardless of whether they are competitive. It requires that the standards apply to both business and residential customers, but be measured and met separately for business and residential customers. It requires that the standards be measured monthly.

By law, the standards must address customer trouble reports and timeliness in responding to complaints and reports. The bill additionally requires that for these calls and customer service center calls, the regulations specify the maximum allowable average holding time before a call is answered by a person or a maximum allowable holding time before the system takes the caller's information for customers choosing to use an automated system.

By law, the standards must address repeat problems. The bill specifically requires that they establish a maximum number of times within three months that a customer may experience line troubles or billing and customer service errors.

By law, the standards must have measures related to installations. The bill requires that they set a maximum allowable time between ordering an installation and the in-service date.

By law, the standards must cover timeliness in responding to complaints or reports. The bill specifies that the standards impose a specified maximum amount of time for the company to respond to complaints or reports, whether from the customer, DPUC, or the Office of Consumer Counsel. It is unclear whether this provision applies to providers.

By law, the standards must address service outages. The bill requires that they include requirements that 90% of repairs be made within 72 hours of the company's or provider's first notification of the outage.

The bill also requires the regulations to set a maximum allowable (1) number of troubles per one hundred lines, and (2) percentage of missed appointments based on the number of installation service orders for the time period. Under the bill, the standards must also include requirements that each company or provider include the telephone number of DPUC's customer service unit on its monthly bills.

The law requires DPUC to monitor compliance with the standards. The bill specifically requires that the monitoring at least include monthly reports by the companies and providers to DPUC containing performance results for each standard and an explanation of any failure to meet a standard with plans to improve performance.

Yea

Nay

(03/19/2009)