Sign Up
HB 5473 Connecticut House · 2026 Regular Session

AN ACT CONCERNING THE SATISFACTION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS QUALITY OF SERVICE STANDARDS AND SETTLEMENTS IN CONTESTED PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES REGULATORY AUTHORITY.

This bill updates definitions and procedures for how the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority monitors telecommunications service quality. It clarifies terms like "facilities-based carrier" and "competitive service" to ensure consistent language when regulating different types of telecom providers. The authority must adopt and enforce quality-of-service standards covering customer complaints, service outages, and installation timeliness for all telecom and VoIP providers using state infrastructure. The law also requires the authority to include input from telecom employees, including union members, when developing monitoring methods. These changes take effect on October 1, 2026.
Issues: ✓ TechnologySupports TechnologyBill strengthens telecom service quality standards and consumer protections, ensuring consistent regulation of providers and addressing outages and complaints.85% confidence
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Mar 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Mar 5, 2026 Last action Apr 7, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Raised Bill → ET Joint Favorable Substitute · 4 edits
MODERATE
The bill was renamed from a 'Raised Bill' to a 'Substitute Bill,' indicating it has been amended and is now a joint version favored by both legislative chambers. The most significant substantive change involves redefining key terms: 'Incumbent local exchange carrier' is now defined by when a company started service (pre-1996), while 'Facilities-based carrier' is newly defined by ownership of infrastructure like fiber and switches. These definitions determine which companies must comply with new quality-of-service standards.
Scope change
The scope of entities required to comply with the bill's quality-of-service standards was expanded to include 'Facilities-based carriers' and 'Incumbent local exchange carriers' specifically, alongside other providers, ensuring the rules apply to companies owning physical network infrastructure.
DEFINITION

The definition of 'Incumbent local exchange carrier' was moved from position (5) to (4) and redefined to focus on companies providing service before the 1996 Telecommunications Act, rather than just owning infrastructure.

A new definition for 'Facilities-based carrier' was added, defining it as a provider that owns or controls physical infrastructure like fiber cables, switches, and lines.

ELIGIBILITY

The list of entities subject to quality-of-service standards was updated to explicitly include 'Facilities-based carriers' and 'Incumbent local exchange carriers' alongside other providers.

TECHNICAL

The bill title was changed from 'Raised Bill' to 'Substitute Bill,' and the page headers were updated to reflect this new status.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
9
Key actions
1
Committee
2
Mar 19, 2026
Lower · Passed
Joint Favorable Substitute
lower
Mar 5, 2026
Committee
REF. TO JOINT COMM. ON Energy and Technology
lower
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.