Bill Text: NJ A234 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires telephone utility to temporarily suspend local exchange telephone service for up to six continuous months when requested by residential customer; allows customer to keep telephone number when resuming service.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-14 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee [A234 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2020-A234-Introduced.html

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ASSEMBLY, No. 234

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2020 SESSION

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  WAYNE P. DEANGELO

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

 

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Peterson

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires telephone utility to temporarily suspend local exchange telephone service for up to six continuous months when requested by residential customer; allows customer to keep telephone number when resuming service.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.

  

An Act concerning the temporary suspension of local exchange telephone service to residential customers and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    As used in P.L.    , c.    (C.        ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):

     "Board" means the Board of Public Utilities or any successor agency.

     "Local exchange telephone service" or "service" means telephone service provided by a telecommunications carrier providing dial tone service and access to 51 percent or more of a local telephone exchange.

     "Residential customer" or "customer" means a customer receiving local exchange telephone service from a telephone public utility under a rate classification deemed by the board as residential.

     "Telephone public utility" means a public utility, as that term is defined in R.S.48:2-13, that provides local exchange telephone service to residential customers in this State.

 

     2.    a.  Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, rule, regulation, or order to the contrary, a telephone public utility shall, at the written request of a residential customer, temporarily suspend that customer's local exchange telephone service, for a period up to six months.  Upon resuming service, the customer may elect to keep the same telephone number assigned to the customer prior to the service suspension.   

     b.    A telephone public utility shall not charge a residential customer any rate or fee during the service suspension period.

 

     3.    This act shall take effect immediately, but remain inoperative for 60 days following the date of enactment.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill requires a telephone public utility (telephone utility), at the request of a residential customer, to temporarily suspend local exchange telephone service.  The temporary service suspension may be for any period up to six months as requested by the residential customer.  The Board of Public Utilities is to require a telephone utility to provide for the allowed temporary service suspension, that a rate or fee shall not be chargeable to a residential customer during the service suspension period, and that the customer may be able to keep the same telephone number assigned to the customer prior to the service suspension upon resuming service.