Ohio Revised Code
Chapter 1332 | Fair Competition in Cable Operations
Section 1332.26 | Political Subdivision Authority - Complaints - Standards.

Effective: September 29, 2013
Latest Legislation: House Bill 59 - 130th General Assembly
(A) No political subdivision shall require a video service provider to obtain from it any authority to provide video service within its boundaries.
(B) Except as authorized under division (C) of this section and under sections 1332.30 and 1332.32 of the Revised Code, no political subdivision shall request anything of value from a video service provider for providing video service; impose any fee, license, or gross receipt tax on the provision of video service by such a provider; or impose any franchise or other requirement on the provision of video service by a video service provider, including, but not limited to, any provision regulating rates charged by a video service provider or establishing any build-out requirement or requirement to deploy any facility or equipment.
(C) When requested to do so, a video service provider shall assist a municipal corporation or township in addressing video service subscriber complaints, in a manner consistent with the provider's complaint handling process set forth in its application pursuant to division (A)(7) of section 1332.24 of the Revised Code. Nothing in sections 1332.21 to 1332.34 of the Revised Code affects any authority granted under sections 1345.01 to 1345.13 of the Revised Code.
(D) A video service provider shall meet all of the following customer service standards:
(1) The provider shall restore video service within seventy-two hours after a subscriber reports a service interruption or other problem if the cause was not a natural disaster.
(2) Upon a report by a subscriber of a service interruption and if the interruption is caused by the video service provider and lasts for more than fours hours in a given day, the provider shall give the subscriber a credit in the amount of the cost of each such day's video service as would be billed to the subscriber.
(3) Upon a report by a subscriber of a service interruption and if the interruption is not caused by the video service provider and lasts for more than twenty-four consecutive hours, the provider shall give the subscriber, for each hour of service interruption, a credit in the amount of the cost of per hour video service as would be billed to the subscriber.
(4) The provider shall give a subscriber at least thirty days' advance, written notice before removing a channel from the provider's video service, but no such notice is required if the provider must remove the channel because of circumstances beyond its control.
(5) The provider shall give a subscriber at least ten days' advance, written notice of a disconnection of all or part of the subscriber's video service, except if any of the following apply:
(a) Disconnection has been requested by the subscriber.
(b) Disconnection is necessary to prevent theft of video service.
(c) Disconnection is necessary to prevent the use of video service through fraud.
(d) Disconnection is necessary to reduce or prevent signal leakage as described in 47 C.F.R. 76.611.
(6) The provider shall not establish a due date earlier than fourteen days after a video service bill is issued.
(7) The provider shall not disconnect all or part of a subscriber's video service for failure of the subscriber to pay any amount of its video service bill, until the amount is at least fourteen days past due.
(8) The provider shall give a subscriber at least thirty days' advance, written notice before instituting an increase in video service rates.