(A) The franchisee shall make repairs promptly, and interrupt cable service only if necessary and for the shortest period possible.
(B) Under normal operating conditions, the franchisee shall promptly notify the franchise authority of any “significant service interruption” in the operation of the cable system. For the purposes of this section, a SIGNIFICANT SERVICE INTERRUPTION in the operation of the cable system shall mean any outage a duration of at least two continuous hours between the hours of 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and four continuous hours between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., to at least 10% of the subscribers in the area served by the head-end. The franchise authority will provide the required telephone number to the franchisee on an annual basis by January 1, or as needed.
(C) The franchisee shall exercise its best efforts to limit any significant service interruption for the purpose of maintaining, repairing or construction of the cable system. Except in an emergency or other situation necessitating a more expedited or alternative notification procedure, the franchisee may schedule a significant service interruption only after the franchise authority has been given reasonable prior notice of the proposed interruption.
(D) Technicians employed by the franchisee and capable of performing emergency repairs and maintenance must be available 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays.
(E) The franchisee shall provide upon request of the franchise authority, a summary of service calls received by category to the franchise authority. The definitions used to classify service calls for FCC required reports shall be used in such reports. The report shall be compiled for the franchise area.
(F) Under normal operating conditions, the franchisee will begin repairing service interruptions promptly and in no event later than 24 hours after the interruption becomes known (including weekends and holidays) unless the subscriber requests an appointment later than 24 hours after the interruption.
(G) Under normal operating conditions, the franchisee must begin actions to correct cable service problems other than service interruptions the next business day after notification by a subscriber of the cable service problem unless the subscriber requests an appointment at a later date.
(H) Under normal operating conditions, service-related subscriber complaints, if possible, must be resolved within 48 hours (provided that the schedule or preferences of the person requesting service have not been responsible for the delay) and in any event, resolution must occur within one week (provided that the schedule or preferences of the person requesting service have not been responsible for the delay). A complaint shall be considered to be resolved when signals received by the subscriber have been brought into compliance with applicable FCC standards. Those matters requiring additional maintenance, repair or technical adjustments that necessitate an excess of one week to reasonably complete, must be finally resolved, if technically feasible, within 30 days of the initial complaint if the complaint has been determined to be the fault of the franchisee. The franchise authority may require reasonable documentation to be provided by the franchisee to substantiate the additional time to resolve a complaint. The foregoing does not apply to service interruptions that occur on an intermittent basis.
(I) Under normal operating conditions, upon request by the subscriber within 30 days of the outage, the franchisee shall provide a credit to subscriber when there is an outage of all channels for a period of six consecutive hours or more that affects the discrete definable portion of the franchise area. The credit for such an outage shall equal, at a minimum, the value of one-thirtieth of subscriber’s current monthly bill, excluding premium, pay-per-view and special events, for the first six consecutive-hour period and for each additional six-hour period or portion thereof that the outage continues.
(J) Under normal operating conditions, upon request by the subscriber within 30 days of the outage, the franchisee shall provide a credit to subscriber when there is an outage of any premium cable service for a period of six consecutive hours or more that affects a discrete, definable service area. The credit shall equal, at a minimum, the value of one thirtieth of the subscriber’s current monthly bill, for affected premium services, for the first six consecutive-hour period and for each additional six-hour period or portion thereof that the outage continues.
(K) The franchisee shall, upon request, provide information to the franchise authority, regarding the amount of credits that were issued to subscribers for loss or degradation of service. The report shall be compiled for the franchise area.
(L) Repeated failure to provide the proper credit for outages shall be grounds for enforcement as provided by the franchise.
(Ord. 1196-98, passed 11-2-1998)