Ohio Code 4927.08 – Basic local exchange service standards
(A) A telephone company providing basic local exchange service shall conduct its operations so as to ensure that the service is available, adequate, and reliable, consistent with applicable industry standards.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 4927.08
- Basic local exchange service: means residential-end-user access to and usage of telephone-company-provided services over a single line or small-business-end-user access to and usage of telephone-company-provided services over the primary access line of service, which in the case of residential and small-business access and usage is not part of a bundle or package of services, that does both of the following:
(a) Enables a customer to originate or receive voice communications within a local service area as that area exists on September 13, 2010, or as that area is changed with the approval of the public utilities commission;
(b) Consists of all of the following services:
(i) Local dial tone service;
(ii) For residential end users, flat-rate telephone exchange service;
(iii) Touch tone dialing service;
(iv) Access to and usage of 9-1-1 services, where such services are available;
(v) Access to operator services and directory assistance;
(vi) Provision of a telephone directory in any reasonable format, which includes, at the telephone company's option, an internet-accessible database of directory listings, for no additional charge and a listing in that directory, with reasonable accommodations made for private listings, and for a telephone company that no longer offers a printed directory, provision of reasonable customer notice of the available options to obtain directory information;
(vii) Per call, caller identification blocking services;
(viii) Access to telecommunications relay service; and
(ix) Access to toll presubscription, interexchange or toll providers or both, and networks of other telephone companies. See Ohio Code 4927.01
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Telephone company: means a company described in division (A) of section 4905. See Ohio Code 4927.01
(B) The public utilities commission shall adopt rules prescribing the following standards for the provision of basic local exchange service, and shall adopt no other rules regarding that service except as expressly authorized in this chapter:
(1) Basic local exchange service shall be installed within five business days of the receipt by a telephone company of a completed application for that service.
(2) A basic local exchange service outage or service-affecting problem shall be repaired within seventy-two hours after it is reported to the telephone company, and the telephone company shall make reasonable efforts to repair a basic local exchange service outage within twenty-four hours, excluding Sundays and legal holidays, after the outage is reported to the telephone company.
(3)(a) Except as provided in division (B)(3)(b) of this section, if a basic local exchange service outage is reported to the telephone company and lasts more than seventy-two hours, the telephone company shall credit every affected customer, of which the telephone company is aware, in the amount of one month’s charges for basic local exchange service.
(b) If the outage is caused by a customer, the telephone company may elect not to credit that customer.
(4) No telephone company shall establish a due date earlier than fourteen consecutive days after the date the bill is postmarked for a bill for basic local exchange service provided to end users.
(5) A telephone company may disconnect basic local exchange service for nonpayment of any amount past due on a billed account not earlier than fourteen days after the due date of the customer’s bill, provided that the customer is given notice of the disconnection seven days before the disconnection.
(6) A telephone company may require a deposit, not to exceed two hundred thirty per cent of a reasonable estimate of one month’s service charges, for the installation of basic local exchange service for any person that it determines, in its discretion, is not creditworthy.
(7) A telephone company shall, unless prevented from doing so by circumstances beyond the telephone company’s control or unless the customer requests otherwise, reconnect a customer whose basic local exchange service was disconnected for nonpayment of past due charges not later than one business day after the day the earlier of the following occurs:
(a) The receipt by the telephone company of the full amount of past due charges;
(b) The receipt by the telephone company of the first payment under a mutually agreed-upon payment arrangement.
(C) The rules described in division (B) of this section shall provide for a waiver of the standards described in that division in circumstances determined appropriate by the commission.