Bill > S1755

This bill authorizes the department, which refers to the relevant state agency overseeing telecommunications and utilities, to create and enforce performance-based rates for telephone and telegraph companies operating in the Commonwealth. These performance-based rates will be tied to specific service quality standards that the department will establish, covering areas such as customer satisfaction, service interruptions (outages), upgrades to facilities, repairs and maintenance, customer service interactions, billing accuracy, planned capital projects, actual spending on those projects, the number of employees (staffing levels), and public safety, with specific benchmarks for staffing and employee training programs. Companies will be required to submit an annual report by March 1st comparing their performance to these established standards and any national standards adopted by the department, and failure to meet these standards could result in penalties of up to 4 percent of the company's previous year's revenue.