Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman YVONNE LOPEZ
District 19 (Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Requires electric public utilities and telecommunications service providers to remove certain wires not in use.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning certain wire maintenance measures by certain service providers 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):
"Distribution wire" means a wire or cable composed of metal or fiber and carried between two or more poles owned by an electric public utility or telecommunications service provider located within a public right-of-way. "Distribution wire" shall not include an electric transmission line, a wire or cable carried from a wire or cable within a public right-of-way to an individual customer, or a wire or cable carried over private property to an individual customer.
"Electric public utility" or "utility" means a public utility, as that term is defined in R.S.48:2-13, that is investor-owned, and operates an electric distribution system in this State.
"Electric transmission line" means an electrical line, wire, or cable, having a rating more than 69 kilovolts, that transmits electric power from a generating plant to an electric substation.
"Public right-of-way" means the area devoted to the passage of distribution wire over or along a public street, road, or highway.
"Telecommunications service" means the electronic transmission, conveyance, or routing of voice, data, audio, or video by means of a distribution wire.
"Telecommunications service provider" means any business that provides a customer with a telecommunications service for a fee.
2. Within 30 calendar days of receiving notification from a customer of a disconnected distribution wire or a distribution wire that is otherwise not in use, an electric public utility or a telecommunications service provider having ownership of that distribution wire, as appropriate, shall remove or reconnect that distribution wire.
3. This act shall take effect immediately, but shall remain inoperative for 30 days following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that, within 30 calendar days of receiving notification from a customer of a disconnected distribution wire or a distribution wire that is otherwise not in use, an electric public utility or a telecommunications service provider having ownership of that distribution wire, as appropriate, is to remove or reconnect the distribution wire. The bill defines "distribution wire" as a wire or cable composed of metal or fiber and carried between two or more poles owned by an electric public utility or telecommunications service provider located within a public right-of-way. The term is not to include an electric transmission line, a wire or cable carried from a wire or cable within a public right-of-way to an individual customer, or a wire or cable carried over private property to an individual customer.