NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A447 Revised 1/10/2025
SPONSOR: Steck TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general municipal law, in relation to certain
requirements for telecommunications system contracts
PURPOSE:
To require telecommunications companies to provide overage of emergency
911 services should they contract with a municipality or the state
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
state Section 1 - Definitions
Section 2 - Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary,
where a land lease agreement between a telecommunications systems compa-
ny and municipality provides for the operation of a telecommunications
system, such telecommunications systems company's voice service shall
provide coverage of emergency 911.
2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.
JUSTIFICATION:
As of April 2024, 50% of New York State's population. no longer has a
landline, with that number rising among those who rent as opposed to own
their own home. However, the issue remains that while many are dependent
totally on a cell phone for communication, there a re areas of our state
that do not have cell phone coverage which creates a health and safety
issue. The inability to contact emergency 911 services in a crisis due
to spotty or no cell phone coverage is dangerous.
For telecommunications companies to utilize municipal or state rights-
of-way, poles, etc. to install their infrastructure, they must sign a
contractual agreement with that government entity. This legislation
requires that the telecommunications company provide total coverage of
emergency 911 services to contract with the state or local government.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
447
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. STECK -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Local Governments
AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to certain
requirements for telecommunications system contracts
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The general municipal law is amended by adding a new
2 section 109-e to read as follows:
3 § 109-e. Telecommunications system requirements. 1. For the purposes
4 of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
5 (a) "Coverage" shall mean that there are no dropped calls due to lack
6 of cellular service or there are no areas where cellular service is
7 compromised and/or unavailable.
8 (b) "Telecommunications system" shall mean all facilities owned, oper-
9 ated or used by a telecommunications systems company to provide services
10 located within the boundaries of the state, authority or municipality.
11 (c) "Voice service" shall mean any service that is interconnected with
12 the public switched telephone network and that furnishes voice communi-
13 cations to an end user using resources from the North American Numbering
14 Plan or any successor to the North American Numbering Plan adopted by
15 the public service commission under section 251(e)(1) of the Communi-
16 cations Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)); and includes:
17 (i) transmissions from a telephone facsimile machine, computer, or
18 other device to a telephone facsimile machine; and
19 (ii) without limitation, any service that enables real-time, two-way
20 voice communications, including any service that requires internet
21 protocol-compatible customer premises equipment and permits out-bound
22 calling, whether or not the service is one-way or two-way voice over
23 internet protocol.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00417-01-5
A. 447 2
1 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, where a
2 land lease agreement between a telecommunications systems company and
3 municipality provides for the operation of a telecommunications system,
4 such telecommunications systems company's voice service shall provide
5 coverage of emergency 911.
6 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
7 have become a law.
