Requires utility companies maintain a toll free number for consumers to call to report service outages which shall be made available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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8894
IN SENATE
August 11, 2020
___________
Introduced by Sen. KAPLAN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relating to requiring utility
companies maintain a toll free number for reporting service outages
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public service law is amended by adding a new section
2 119-d to read as follows:
3 § 119-d. Toll free number for service outages. 1. Any gas corpo-
4 ration, electric corporation, gas and electric corporation, water corpo-
5 ration, steam corporation, telegraph corporation, telephone corporation,
6 cable television company, internet service provider or a municipality
7 rendering equivalent utility services is required to establish, provide
8 and maintain a toll free phone number for consumers of such utility to
9 call for reporting service outages. Such toll free number shall:
10 a. be attended twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week;
11 b. have the capacity to adequately address a surge in phone call
12 volume during an emergency situation or extreme weather conditions;
13 c. be posted clearly and conspicuously on the homepage of the utility
14 company's website; and
15 d. be posted clearly and conspicuously on the first page of each
16 consumer's billing statement.
17 2. The failure to comply with the provisions in this section shall
18 subject any gas corporation, electric corporation, gas and electric
19 corporation, water corporation, steam corporation, telegraph corpo-
20 ration, telephone corporation, cable television company, internet
21 service provider or a municipality rendering equivalent utility services
22 to the penalties authorized in section twenty-five of this chapter.
23 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
24 have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD17084-03-0
