SB 545 — AN ACT CONCERNING THE SATISFACTION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS QUALITY OF SERVICE STANDARDS AND PROHIBITING REMOTE RECONNECTION FEES.

OFA Fiscal Note State Impact:

Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 26 $ FY 27 $ DEEP/PURA CC&PUCF - Cost 400,263 400,263 DEEP/PURA CC&PUCF – Minimal Minimal Potential Revenue Gain Note:

CC&PUCF=Consumer Counsel and Public Utility Control Fund Municipal Impact:

None Explanation The bill results in additional annual costs to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), beginning in FY 26, of approximately $400,263, associated with broadening telephone and telecommunications quality of service standards and requiring PURA to adopt semiannual quality of service report requirements on compliance.

PURA would require two additional full-time staff to complete the requirements contained within the bill.

The new positions would include:

one full-time Supervisor of Technical Analysis, with an approximate annual salary of $139,819 (plus $116,413 in fringe benefits) and one full-time Consumer Information Representative, with an approximate annual salary of $78,594 ($65,437 in fringe benefits).

The new staff would be responsible for quality of service standards and The fringe benefit costs for employees funded out of other appropriated funds are budgeted within the fringe benefit account of those funds, as opposed to the fringe benefit accounts within the Office of the State Comptroller.

The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost associated with most personnel changes for other appropriated fund employees is 83.26% of payroll in FY 26.

sSB545 / File No.

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421 reporting requirements associated with telephone and telecommunication companies.

The bill adds two new fines for telecommunication companies:

1) a fine of up $2,000 for any company or any incumbent local exchange carriers (ILEC) that fails to comply with semiannual or exception reporting requirements and 2) a $1,000 per violation, per customer fine for companies who donot comply withthereconnection prohibition.

To theextentthatthesenewfinesresultinadditionalviolations,therecould be a revenue gain to the Consumer Counsel and Public Utility Control Fund.

It is unknown how many additional violations would occur annually, but the revenue increase is anticipated to be minimal.

Rate Payer Impact The rate payer impact is indeterminate as the various services described in the bill are not rate regulated utilities.

However, there could be a minimal savings to various rate payers associated with the prohibition of reconnection fees.

The Out Years The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would continue into the future subject to inflation.

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421 OLR Bill Analysis sSB 545 AN ACT CONCERNING THE SATISFACTION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS QUALITY OF SERVICE STANDARDS AND PROHIBITING REMOTE RECONNECTION FEES.

SUMMARY This bill broadens telephone and telecommunications quality of service standards by (1) explicitly applying them to incumbent local exchange carriers(ILECs)andtelecommunicationsprovidersregardless of technology (e.g., voice over internet protocol (VOIP) services) and (2) adding reporting requirements and a maximum $2,000 fine for companies that fail to comply with them.

The bill also prohibits telecommunications companies from (1) charging a customer a reconnection fee to remotely reconnect service after a disconnection or (2) requiring customers in households where all adults are older, blind, or living with a disability to pay an outstanding balance before restoring service.

Under the bill, companies that violate these prohibitions are subject to a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation, per customer, and must reimburse customers for any unlawfully charged reconnection fees.

The bill requires the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA)to enforce these prohibitions and allows PURA to designate a member from its consumer affairs or enforcement unit to conduct investigations and enforcement activities.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

October 1, 2025 QUALITY OF SERVICE STANDARDS Current law requires PURA to adopt quality of service standards for telephone companies, certified telecommunications providers, and all telecommunications services.

By law, a certified telecommunications provider is a person PURA certifies to provide intrastate sSB545 / File No.

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421 telecommunications services.

A telephone company is a telecommunications company that providesat least onenoncompetitive or emerging competitive service (see BACKGROUND).

Quality of service standards include measures related to customer trouble reports, service outages, installation appointments, repeat problems, and timeliness in responding to complaints or reports.

The bill removes a provision requiring the standards to apply to all telecommunications services, instead applying them regardless of the transmission technology used, including VOIP.

It specifies that these requirements also apply to ILECs, which are telephone companies that began providing telephone service in the state before the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Reports, Reviews, and Penalties The bill requires PURA to adopt semiannual quality of service report requirements on compliance.

Each telephone company, ILEC, and certified telecommunications provider must submit the reports to PURA by the last day of the month following the reporting period PURA establishes.

Under the bill, companies, ILECs, and providers that fail to meet any quality of service standard for more than two consecutive months must submit an exception report to PURA by the last day of the month immediately following those two months of failing to meet the standards.

PURA must adopt exception report requirements.

The bill establishes a fine of up to $2,000 for any company, ILEC, or provider that fails to comply with semiannual or exception reporting requirements.

The fine is in addition to any fines for failing to meet a quality of service standard.

Reporting requirement violations are a continued violation from the date the company, ILEC, or provider fails to timely file a report until the date PURA receives the report.

By law, for a continued violation, each day is deemed a separate offense.

The bill requires PURA’s chairperson to designate a consumer affairs or enforcement unit representative to review the quality of service sSB545 / File No.

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The representative must do this in consultation with the Office of Consumer Counsel and report to PURA any failure to meet any quality of service standards indicated in any semiannual report.

PROHIBITED FEES AND PAYMENTS The bill prohibits telecommunications companies from charging a customer a reconnection fee to remotely reconnect service after a service disconnection.

Under the bill, a reconnection fee is a charge to restore telephone or telecommunications service that has been temporarily disconnected (i.e.

interrupted for fewer than 14 days) for any reason.

The prohibition applies regardless of (1) why the disconnection occurred (e.g., nonpayment or a breach of service agreement) or (2) whether the reconnection was initiated by the company or at the customer’s request.

The bill also prohibits a telecommunications company from making a customer pay an outstanding balance before restoring service if each adult resident in the dwelling unit associated with the account is over age 60, blind, or living with a physical or intellectual disability (see BACKGROUND).

It otherwise allows these companies to require a customer to pay the outstanding balance before restoring service.

The bill’s prohibitions apply to telecommunications companies, which are any public service company, telephone company, or certified telecommunications provider that offers telephone or telecommunicationsservices,including VOIPservices, ableto accessthe 9-1-1 service.

They do not apply to any fee to establish a new account or activate new equipment with a telecommunications company.

BACKGROUND Telecommunications Regulation The law subjects telecommunications services to varying levels of regulationbased ontheservice’sdegree ofcompetitivenessandthetype of company providing the service.

Generally, it applies more stringent regulation of telephone companies providing noncompetitive services (i.e., legacy utility phone companies) and less stringent regulatory sSB545 / File No.

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421 requirements for telecommunications providers providing competitive services.ThisframeworkemergedafterthefederalTelecommunications Act of 1996 as a way to implement deregulation by creating a process for providers to certify that their services are competitive and therefore subject to lighter regulation.

Disability Definitions By law, a person is blind if the person’s central visual acuity does not exceed 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses, or if the person’s visual acuity is greater than 20/200 but vision fields are limited such that the visual field’s widest diameter subtends an angle no greater than degrees (CGS § 1-1f).

A physical disability is any chronic physical handicap, infirmity, or impairment, whether congenital or due to bodily injury, organic processes, or changes from an illness (e.g., epilepsy, deafness, hearing impairment, or reliance on a wheelchair) (CGS § 1-1f).

An intellectual disability is a significant limitation in intellectual functioning existing concurrently with adaptive behavior deficits that began during the developmental period before age 18 (CGS § 1-1g).

COMMITTEE ACTION Energy and Technology Committee Joint Favorable Yea 16 Nay 9 (03/13/2025) sSB545 / File No.

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