City Code, ExplainedBetaPardon our dust while we build this out — expect some changes along the way.

This chapter sets the rules for how a cable television company can operate in Pottsville, including how the City grants and renews a cable franchise, and what construction, service, billing, and privacy standards a cable provider must follow.

Who this affects

It applies mainly to the cable television company (the "grantee" or "franchisee") operating in the City, but many provisions directly affect residents who subscribe to cable service, covering their billing, service, complaint, and privacy rights.

Key rules

• No cable system may occupy or use City streets or operate without a franchise granted under this ordinance.
• A franchise term may run no more than 15 years unless the franchise agreement states otherwise.
• Franchises are nonexclusive; the City may grant additional franchises to other providers.
• The grantee must pay the City an annual franchise fee of 5% of gross annual revenues, or the maximum permitted under federal law if greater, paid quarterly no later than 45 days after each calendar quarter ends.
• Transfer of 51% or more of ownership or control of the franchise requires prior City consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.
• The City may revoke a franchise for defaults such as failure to maintain required insurance/bonds, fraud, insolvency, failure to restore service after 96 consecutive hours of interruption citywide, or failure to pay taxes/assessments within 60 days after a final court order.
• Before revocation, the City must give written demand to cure, allow 60 days to respond, and hold a Council meeting with published notice at least seven days in advance.
• New installations must be underground in areas where telephone and electric utilities are already underground.
• The grantee must extend service to new areas with a density of 30 residential units per aerial mile (or 50 units per underground mile) of cable plant within 90 days of a City request.
• The grantee must maintain a local office within 10 miles of the franchise area and a toll-free or collect-call phone line available 24/7.
• Under normal operating conditions, telephone hold/transfer time may not exceed 30 seconds, met at least 90% of the time; busy signals must occur less than 3% of the time.
• Standard installation and service call appointments must be offered within a four-hour window during normal business hours, and appointments cannot be canceled after close of business the day before.
• Service interruptions must generally be responded to within 24 hours, with no-picture/no-sound reports responded to within 24 hours and most other repairs completed within 72 hours.
• Subscribers get a pro rata service credit for any interruption over 4 hours in a 24-hour period, and a refund for outages of 48 hours or more, upon request.
• Late payment fees cannot be added less than 30 calendar days after the bill date, and "negative option billing" (charging for unrequested services) is prohibited unless federal law requires otherwise.
• The grantee cannot sell or disclose subscriber names, addresses, viewing habits, or personal data without giving subscribers the chance to opt out, except as needed to conduct legitimate business related to the service.
• The grantee must provide a lockout device to block video/audio channels upon a subscriber's request.
• No resident may be arbitrarily refused service; the grantee must extend service at no extra cost to areas meeting the line-extension density and distance thresholds in the ordinance.
• The grantee must submit quarterly and annual reports to the City covering repairs, outages, customer service metrics, finances, and ownership.

Penalties

The City may impose liquidated damages as agreed to in the franchise agreement after giving written notice of a violation and allowing the grantee 60 days (or longer, as the City specifies) to correct it. Separately, failure to make a required franchise fee payment triggers an interest charge at the commercial prime rate from the due date, and the franchise itself may be revoked or terminated through the notice-and-cure and Council hearing process described in § A226-4Q for specified defaults.

Notable and archaic details

• The ordinance explicitly references and applies the USA PATRIOT Act (P.L. 107-56) to the subscriber privacy provisions.
• "Force majeure" excusing performance is defined to include acts of God, acts of public enemies, insurrections, riots, epidemics, landslides, lightning, earthquakes, volcanic activity, and explosions, among others.
• This ordinance repealed and replaced a prior cable ordinance, No. 215-76, from an earlier era of cable regulation.
• A grantee whose facilities are used by a financial institution taking control after default cannot exercise control over the cable system for more than one year without City approval.