Montgomery County Council members are expected to pass an executive resolution today that sets forth customer service standards for all businesses providing Internet service to county consumers.
The measure would work in much the same way as guidelines council members set years ago to enforce the manner in which cable companies deal with the public.
Cliff Royalty, chief of the zoning and economic development divisions for Montgomery’s County Attorney’s office, said the goal is to establish customer service standards so that Internet service providers do not take advantage of county residents.
For instance, the regulation stipulates that the companies’ answering times for customer service phone calls are met at least 75 percent of the time, and that the percentage of time companies schedule and complete service must be at least 90 percent.
The standards also call for Internet companies to repair and maintain service interruptions not requiring workers to enter the subscriber’s building within 36 hours of the problem being reported.
“One of the regulation’s predecessors was enacted under cable law,” Royalty said. “At that time Internet access was basically a service being provided by cable companies, but the technology has evolved, and we wanted this to be a separate category.”
Other protections in the regulation include guidelines for Internet installation.
A vote on the issue is expected to come up during this morning’s council meeting.
The regulation already passed the Management and Fiscal Policy Committee with few revisions.
