Bill Text: NJ S1986 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires certain companies providing local telephone service within 10-mile radius of nuclear electric generating facility to adhere to certain service quality standards.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-05-24 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee [S1986 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-S1986-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator JEFF VAN DREW
District 1 (Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland)
SYNOPSIS
Requires certain companies providing local telephone service within 10-mile radius of nuclear electric generating facility to adhere to certain service quality standards.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning telephone service provided by certain telephone companies and supplementing chapter 17 of 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 this act:
"Board" means the Board of Public Utilities.
"Central office" has the same meaning as that term is defined in 47 C.F.R. Part 36, Appendix.
"Major service interruption" means any telephone utility network condition that causes 1,000 or more customers to be out of service for 30 or more minutes, causes an unplanned outage of, or completely isolates, a central office for 30 minutes, or disrupts 9-1-1 emergency call processing at a public safety answering point for any period.
"Public safety answering point" has the same meaning as that term is defined in section 1 of P.L.1989, c.3 (C.52:17C-1).
"Telephone utility" means either a telephone company providing local exchange telephone service that is regulated by the Board of Public Utilities pursuant to R.S.48:2-13 or a "local exchange telecommunications company," as that term is defined in section 2 of P.L.1991, c.428 (C.48:2-21.17).
2. a. The board shall require a telephone utility whose facilities or equipment are located within a 10-mile radius of a nuclear electric generating facility located in the State, to maintain its equipment and facilities as necessary to ensure the provision of safe, adequate, and proper telephone service at all times by meeting the following service quality standards, that shall include, but not be limited to the following:
(1) Ninety-nine percent of a telephone utility's customer dialed calls shall be completed without encountering an all individual or trunk line busy or equipment irregularity measured as Statewide monthly averages;
(2) Ninety-nine percent of a telephone utility's originating customer direct-dialed toll calls shall reach the toll network without experiencing blockage or failure;
(3) A telephone utility shall ensure that its average rate of customer service trouble reports to the telephone utility from customers receiving service within such 10-mile radius shall not exceed five per 100 lines per month;
(4) All telephone utility customer equipment loops shall meet the resistance design standards and trunk facilities shall conform to the transmission design factors required for meeting the objectives of direct distance dialing;
(5) Each telephone utility shall (a) take all appropriate measures to minimize service interruptions, (b) make provisions to address emergencies resulting from failure of power, sudden and prolonged increases in traffic, absences of employees, or from fire, storm, natural disasters, attacks or similar contingencies, and (c) inform its employees as to procedures to be followed in the event of such contingencies in order to prevent or mitigate interruption or impairment of service;
(6) Each central office, and each remote central office that carries inter-community calls without routing them to the main central office, shall contain sufficient battery reserve to keep the office operational until auxiliary power can be placed into service;
(7) In exchanges exceeding 5,000 lines, the telephone utility shall install a source of permanent auxiliary power; and
(8) Each telephone utility shall inform board staff on the same business day or, if the outage occurs outside the board's normal business hours, at the beginning of the next business day, of any major service interruption, by telephone at a telephone number posted for that purpose on the board's website. The telephone utility contact person shall:
(a) Explain what the telephone utility believes to be the cause of the service interruption;
(b) Describe the measures the telephone utility is taking to remedy the problem; and
(c) Provide board staff with the telephone number of a utility contact that board staff can reach at all times in order to monitor the situation.
b. The service quality standards that the telephone utility shall meet pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall apply without exception, regardless of seasonality, weather, work stoppage, accident, sabotage, acts of God or nature, or any other reason. The board may, however, after investigation, suspend application of any provision of this section for periods of emergency, catastrophe, natural disaster, severe storm, or other extraordinary events beyond the control of the telephone utility.
3. This act shall take effect immediately, but shall remain inoperative for 90 days following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Board of Public Utilities ("board") to adopt service quality standards by which a telephone utility, whose facilities or equipment are located within a 10-mile radius of a nuclear electric generating facility located in New Jersey, shall maintain its equipment and facilities in order to ensure the provision of safe, adequate, and proper telephone service at all times. The availability of communications by telephone for those who live or work in close proximity to nuclear power plants is necessary to ensure the safety and well being of those residents and workers during periods of emergency.
Specifically, the service quality standards, as detailed in the bill, shall apply to a telephone utility without exception, regardless of seasonality, weather, work stoppage, accident, sabotage, acts of God or nature, or any other reason. The board may, however, after investigation, suspend application of any provision of this section for periods of emergency, catastrophe, natural disaster, severe storm, or other extraordinary events beyond the control of the telephone utility.
