44th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2000

RELATING TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS; ESTABLISHING PROHIBITIONS AND REQUIREMENTS TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSUMERS; PROVIDING PENALTIES; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

Section 1. SHORT TITLE.--This act may be cited as the "Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights Act".

Section 2. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.--The legislature finds that there is an enormous disparity of bargaining power between telecommunications providers and consumers. That disparity sometimes results in abusive practices on the part of the providers. The existing powers of the public regulation commission are insufficient to deal with those abusive practices. The purpose of the Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights Act is to protect telecommunications consumers from those abusive practices.

Section 3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights Act:

A. "commission" means the public regulation commission;

B. "consumer" means any purchaser of a public telecommunications service;

C. "private telecommunications service" means a system, including the construction, maintenance or operation thereof, for the provision of telecommunications service, or any portion of that service, by a person for the sole and exclusive use of that person and not for resale, directly or indirectly. For purposes of this definition, the person that may use such service includes any affiliates of the person if at least eighty percent of the assets or voting stock of the affiliates is owned by the person. If any other person uses the telecommunications service, whether for hire or not, the private telecommunications service is a public telecommunications service;

D. "public telecommunications service" means the offering or the providing of the transmission between or among points specified by the user and originating and terminating in this state regardless of actual call routing of telecommunications information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received, for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the infrastructure used. "Public telecommunications service" does not include the provision of infrastructure or of terminal equipment used to originate or terminate such service; private telecommunications service; broadcast transmissions by radio, television and satellite broadcast stations regulated by the federal communications commission; or one-way cable television service; and

E. "telecommunications provider" means a person that provides any public telecommunications service, regardless of the facilities used.

Section 4. CONSUMER PROTECTIONS.--Not later than October 1, 2000, the commission shall adopt rules that establish minimum consumer protections applicable to all telecommunications providers. These rules shall provide at a minimum that each telecommunications provider shall:

A. provide each consumer with comprehensive notification of all services, options, rates and restrictions at the time the consumer places a service order with the telecommunications provider;

B. cooperate with the commission in constructing a generic rate display matrix for use by consumers in comparing prices for public telecommunications offerings;

C. provide a consumer who places a verbal service order with a written confirmation of the order within five business days;

D. allow a consumer to cancel a service order for any reason within fifteen business days of receiving written confirmation of the order from the telecommunications provider;

E. regularly notify their consumers that they may, upon request, receive at no charge a guide containing clear and easily understandable descriptions of all service options that are relevant to the public telecommunications services provided to the consumer by the telecommunications provider, and promptly provide the guide upon consumer request;

F. provide affected consumers with prior written notice of changes in rates, terms or conditions of public telecommunications services provided by the telecommunications provider and allow affected consumers to cancel the affected telecommunications service within fifteen business days of receiving the notice;

G. not commit a deceptive, unfair or unconscionable practice in connection with the provision of public telecommunications services;

H. not initiate or cancel any consumer service without the consumer's express authorization;

I. not retaliate against a consumer for any complaint made by the consumer to the commission or any other person, public or private;

J. not attempt to evade responsibility for a consumer complaint or refer a dissatisfied consumer to another telecommunications provider for resolution of a problem that the telecommunications provider knows or should reasonably know it has the responsibility for resolving;

K. be primarily responsible for resolving consumer problems with public telecommunications services that the telecommunications provider provides, whether directly or on a resale basis;

L. reasonably compensate consumers for poor public telecommunications service quality; and

M. not disclose to any person, other than employees of the telecommunications provider who have a need to know such information in the course of providing public telecommunications service, information about any consumer, including the consumer's calling patterns, without the express and affirmative consent of the consumer, except:

(1) information of the type generally included in telephone directories;

(2) aggregate information from which the identity of no consumer or small group of consumers can be discerned; and

(3) information provided to law enforcement agencies in connection with the performance of their duties.

Section 5. PENALTIES.--The commission may impose an administrative fine pursuant to Section 63-7-23 NMSA 1978 on a telecommunications provider for any act of omission that results in a violation of the Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights Act.

Section 6. APPROPRIATION.--Thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the public regulation commission for expenditure in fiscal year 2001 for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of the Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights Act. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2001 shall revert to the general fund.

Section 7. EMERGENCY.--It is necessary for the public peace, health and safety that this act take effect immediately.