What's happening
This bill requires telephone service providers to publicly report monthly performance data and imposes strict penalties for failing to meet service standards.
Why it matters
Mandates granular, region-specific reporting. By requiring service providers to break down performance data by region and subregion, the law ensures that service quality can be tracked and compared across all geographic areas, highlighting disparities and holding providers accountable to all communities—not just statewide averages.
Removes regulatory flexibility for reporting and standards. The Public Service Commission is explicitly barred from waiving or relaxing service standards or reporting requirements, except in cases of extraordinary events beyond a provider’s control. This closes loopholes and prevents the dilution of consumer protections over time.
Establishes severe financial penalties for poor service. The bill imposes substantial fines (up to $500,000 per violation, or $1 million for repeated failures, or triple the cost of compliance) on providers and their officers, aiming to create a strong financial incentive to maintain high-quality service and deter chronic underperformance.
Restricts transition to wireless services without demonstrated reliability. Telephone companies cannot replace traditional wireline networks with wireless systems—or offer new wireless services—unless they have met all performance standards in every region for at least twelve months, except with explicit customer consent or in emergencies. This protects consumers from being forced onto potentially less reliable systems.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Set Phone Service Standards
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to energy and telecommunications
- Referred to energy and telecommunications
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1268
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 9, 2017
Introduced by Sens. AVELLA, COMRIE, LATIMER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Energy and Telecommunications
AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to service performance standards for telephone corporations
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 95 of the public service law is amended by adding a new subdivision 4 to read as follows:
4. (a) All service providers, as defined in section one hundred three of this article, shall file with the commission for each and every month a report setting forth the compliance rate of the service provider with respect to the monthly service performance standards established by the commission pursuant to section one hundred three of this article. All such reports shall be public documents and shall be posted on the website operated and maintained by the commission. The information or data contained in such reports shall constitute statistical or factual tabulation or data and shall not be exempt from disclosure pursuant to article six of the public officers law.
(b) All such reports shall be disaggregated by service provider; and by regions and subregions, as determined by the commission, to ensure that all geographic areas and customers in the state are equally measured and counted.
(c) The commission shall not be authorized to waive, reduce, relax or eliminate any reporting requirements set forth in this subdivision.
§ 2. The public service law is amended by adding a new section 103 to read as follows:
§ 103. Service performance standards. 1. Definitions. For the purposes of this article, the terms:
(a) "Service performance standards" shall mean any metric or performance standard or threshold established by the commission as of January
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00995-01-7
S. 1268 2
first, two thousand ten that each service provider is expected to meet relating to maintenance service, installations, network performance, answer time, and any other standard that measures quality and adequacy of service.
(b) "Service provider" shall mean a telephone corporation certified by the commission pursuant to this chapter with the authority and tariff to provide local exchange service in this state that is offering fixed wireless telephone services in this state.
2. Service performance standards. (a) The commission shall establish service performance standards that shall be applicable to all service providers. Upon the establishment or approval of any such standard, except during periods of emergency, catastrophe, disaster or any other extraordinary event that is beyond the control of a service provider as determined by the commission, the commission may not waive, reduce, relax or eliminate any service performance standard for any individual service provider.
(b) The existence of alternate or other service providers within the same service area or any other factors relating to competition shall not be a factor, ground or basis in any determination to establish, reduce, relax or eliminate a service performance standard.
3. Reports. All service performance reports submitted to the commission by a service provider or any other entity that provides telephone services shall be prepared, filed and made available pursuant to subdivision four of section ninety-five of this article.
4. Penalties. Notwithstanding the provisions of section twenty-five of this chapter, any service provider and the officers, agents and employees of such corporation that fails or neglects to meet any one of the service performance standards established by the commission shall forfeit to the state of New York a sum not to exceed the greater of:
(a) five hundred thousand dollars constituting a civil penalty for each failure or neglect to meet any one of the service performance standards. The failure or neglect to meet any service performance standard for two consecutive reporting periods shall result in the forfeiture of one million dollars for each failure or neglect; or
(b) three times the amount of the cost of meeting and complying with the service performance standard, as determined by the commission.
5. (a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no service provider may offer or provide fixed wireless telephone or communication systems, services or products, nor may the commission authorize, permit or approve any service provider to offer or provide such systems, services or products, to any person in this state until and unless the commission has determined that such service provider has met, and fully complied with, each and every monthly performance standard established by the commission for such service provider in each and every service region or area served by the service provider for a period of at least twelve months.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subdivision: (i) a service provider may replace a copper-based wireline communication network with a wireless system for any customer who, after receiving appropriate notice and information from the service provider, consents to such replacement on forms prepared or approved by the commission; and (ii) the commission, in the aftermath of a weather-related natural event or emergency, may authorize a service provider to take any actions that are otherwise prohibited by this section.
§ 3. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent juris-
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diction to be invalid, the judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which the judgment shall have been rendered.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public service law, in relation to service performance standards for telephone corporations
Purpose or general idea of bill
To require any telephone corporation that offer fixed wireless telephone services to meet the service performance standards established by the public service commission ("PSC") before it can offer such wireless telephone services to customers.
Summary of specific provisions
Section one of the bill requires providers of telephone service that offer fixed wireless telephone services to file monthly reports with PSC reporting their compliance rate with respect to the service performance standards established by the PSC as of January 1, 2010. The PSC is required to post the reports on its website. The information in the report shall not be exempt from disclosure.
Section two provides the following:
*Prohibits the PSC from waiving, reducing or eliminating a service performance standard for an individual service provider;
*Prohibits the PSC from using potential competition as a factor for establishing or eliminating a service performance standard;
* Provides for a penalty of the greater of $500,000 or three times the cost of meeting such standard for failing or neglecting to meet a service performance standard;
*Prohibits, with certain exceptions, the PSC from authorizing or allowing a service provider to offer wireless services until the service provider has meet all of the performance standards applicable to the provider.
Section three sets for the severability clause.
Section four states that this act shall take effect immediately.
Justification
In a petition, dated April 25, 2012, filed with the PSC, the State Attorney General found that:
*PSC allowed Verizon to subject only a small subset of its customers (8% of its customers) to the service performance standards;
*PSC has relieved Verizon from meeting certain service performance standards;
*PSC has allowed Verizon to aggregate its repair service measurements into five regions, rather than the 28 service repair bureaus;
*Verizon has drastically reduced its workforce with the result that it cannot meet its landline customer repair needs in a timely manner;
*Verizon's policy is to focus on competing for wireless customers, even at the experience of its own traditional wireline business;
*Verizon has chosen to spend the bulk of its investment and manpower on expanding its wireless business. Verizon has relentlessly downsized and avoided upgrading its wireline network;
*The current penalties are not sufficient to deter Verizon from delivering the level of service required by the PSC service performance standards.
This bill would address the problems and weaknesses identified by the Attorney General, and would ensure that telephone corporations that are offering fixed wireless do not abandon or ignore their landline customers.
Prior legislative history
2015-16: S.4937/A.1968 (Brennan) 2014: S.7321 (Tkaczyk)/A.9645 (Brennan)
Fiscal implications
None
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.