STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 10999 IN ASSEMBLY September 9, 2020 ___________ Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Sayegh) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions 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