The N.Y. PSC on Wed. approved state cable rule revisions it said ...

have to complete preliminary steps required when granting an initial franchise, the PSC said. The franchising process could be streamlined further if a competitor agrees to the terms and conditions of an incumbent’s franchise. A new provision requires a level playing field for economic and regulatory requirements for competitors. The changes won’t impact existing consumer protections on credit for service outages, late charges, downgrade charges, reconnection charges, billing disputes, rates and disconnection of service. To conform the rules to federal law, a state requirement to provide semi-annual billing has been changed to an annual notice. As for public, educational and govt. (PEG) access channels, the rules retain the requirement for a minimum of 2 PEG channels. However, municipalities will have the option of allowing additional PEG channels for the basic service package, the PSC said. The new rules give cities the option of negotiating 15-year franchises as opposed to 10 years. A 15-year franchise would give municipalities leverage to get more commitments from cable operators, the PSC said. Cable companies should keep adhering to existing customer service standards governing response time to telephone calls, installation of service and repairs, but the revisions reduce reporting requirements from quarterly to annual. If a cable company meets or exceeds customer service requirements, it can seek a waiver of reporting requirements for telephone answering and service data. This waiver is intended to encourage companies to provide “excellent service,” the PSC said.