By Mr. Ayers of Quincy, petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 3271) of Bruce J. Ayers for legislation to further regulate the operation of cable television systems.  Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PETITION OF:

Bruce J. Ayers

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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

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An Act further regulating the operation of cable television providers by requiring compilation of statistics detailing subscriber satisfaction.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1.  Section 5 of Chapter 166A of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting the following new subsection at the end thereof: —
(p) Cable television providers shall annually insert a comment card inside their customer billing statement which allows subscribers to rate the service provider on quality of signal reception, response to requests for maintenance of lines or equipment, proficiency of customer service in response to customer inquiries or service calls and a section allowing customers to indicate a preference for new programming and to suggest discontinuation of certain existing programming. Within 6 months after receiving the replies to this survey, said cable television providers shall forward the results of such survey to the local entity responsible for implementing cable service or for monitoring its ongoing operations.