A-1782

Sponsored by: Assemblyman WAYNE P. DEANGELO District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

STATEMENT

This bill imposes certain obligations on a provider of cable television service, telephone service using any telephony other than wireless telephone service, or Internet access service, that provides these services individually or, in combination with any of the aforementioned services, via a contract or service agreement with a subscriber.

Specifically, if a subscriber of the aforementioned service or services (subscriber) experiences and reports to the provider of the service or services (provider) a service outage occurring more than three times in any 30-day period, the provider: 1) is prohibited from imposing any early termination, cancellation, or any otherwise applicable fee or charge on the subscriber for terminating service with the provider prior to the expiration of the service contract; 2) is to refund to the subscriber any applicable fee or charge paid by the subscriber for establishing or activating service with the provider; and 3) is to refund to the subscriber the amount of any early termination, cancellation, or any otherwise applicable fee or charge that the subscriber paid for terminating service with the subscriber’s previous provider. A subscriber requesting a refund of the charge for terminating service with the subscriber’s previous provider is required to submit to the provider a copy of the statement of payment to the subscriber’s previous provider as acceptable evidence that the fee or charge was paid.

The bill requires providers to keep a record of the dates of all telecommunications service outages that its subscribers have reported to the provider and to notify each subscriber that has experienced a service outage occurring more than three times in any 30-day period of that situation.

Any violation of the provisions of this bill is to be deemed an unlawful practice subject to the penalties applicable pursuant to section 1 of P.L.1966, c.39 (C.56:8-13) and section 2 of P.L.1999, c.129 (C.56:8-14.3).