(a) Any third-party nonprofit community access provider serving six municipalities, one of which has a population of more than one hundred thirty thousand, shall, upon request from any town organization, authority, body or official within its service territory, provide written consent, pursuant to its service provider agreements, for said town organization, authority, body or official to (1) operate education and government public access channels in that town, and (2) engage freely and directly the community antenna television company providing services in that town to use their headend equipment for dissemination of town-specific community access programming on such channels. Said third-party nonprofit community access provider must grant such written consent to said requesting town organization, authority, body or official within three business days. Written consent not provided within three business days shall be deemed granted.

(b) If a third-party nonprofit provider fails to provide written consent within three days, pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority shall, upon a request from a town organization, authority, body or official within the service territory of that third-party nonprofit community access provider serving six municipalities, one of which has a population of more than one hundred thirty thousand, (1) terminate, revoke or rescind such third party nonprofit provider's service agreement to provide public access programming within one hundred eighty days, and (2) reopen the application process to secure a community access provider for each of the towns within the affected service territory.

(P.A. 08-159, S. 1; P.A. 11-80, S. 1.)

History: P.A. 08-159 effective June 12, 2008 (Revisor's note: In 2009, a reference to “Department of Public Utility and Control” in Subsec. (b) was changed editorially by the Revisors to “Department of Public Utility Control” for accuracy); pursuant to P.A. 11-80, “Department of Public Utility Control” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “Public Utilities Regulatory Authority” in Subsec. (b), effective July 1, 2011.