NJ Board Updates Telecom Service Regs
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities voted 5-0 Wednesday to update and readopt telecom service rules that were set to expire July 20. Staff sought to respond to technological changes and customer concerns since the rules were last readopted…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
seven years ago, said New Jersey BPU Cable Television and Telecommunications Director Lawanda Gilbert at the livestreamed meeting. Noting “numerous” calls for improved standards, Commissioner Mary-Anna Holden praised updated telecom service rules as “long overdue.” Changes include deleting or revising obsolete definitions, strengthening requirements for carriers to provide complete listings of all rates, terms and conditions on their websites, and ensuring companies give timely notification to customers about changes requiring rescheduling or cancellations of service calls, Gilbert said. Updated rules will modify service-quality standards to require reporting at a more granular level, require submission of annual maintenance plans for poles and wires, and require customer account adjustments within two billing cycles when there are outages, she said. Another change extends the scope of the board's existing mass-migration rules to apply when a carrier withdraws service from the entire customer base within the state without providing a replacement service, she said. Industry had commented in docket TX21040718 that the competitive market makes tightening the board’s rules unnecessary, Gilbert noted. “However, Staff believes measures such as these are needed to address matters that are continually the subject of customer complaints that we receive, including service quality issues and reports of plants in disrepair.” The BPU in March updated cable service-quality rules (see 2203090025).