(A) As used in this section:

(1) "Service provider" means any public or private provider of services, including, but not limited to, all of the following services:

(a) Electricity, gas, water, wastewater, solid waste collection, or similar utility;

(b) Communications involving the transmission, conveyance, or routing of voice, data, audio, video, or any other information or signals, through any medium or method now in existence or hereafter devised, including, but not limited to, cable, internet access, voice over internet, telephone, or wireless telephone.

(2) "Waiver of customer obligation" means an optional agreement between a service provider and the service provider's customer under which the service provider agrees, in return for a specified charge payable by the customer to the service provider, to waive all or a portion of the customer's financial obligation to the service provider for charges incurred during a defined period and upon the occurrence of a qualifying event. For purposes of this division, "qualifying event" may include the customer's call to active military service, involuntary unemployment, death, disability, hospitalization, marriage, divorce, evacuation, displacement due to a natural disaster or other cause, qualification for family leave, or similar occurrence.

(B) A waiver of customer obligation is not insurance and the laws of this state relating to insurance shall not govern the sale or issuance of such a waiver.

(C) A waiver of customer obligation may be a portion of a larger agreement or a separate agreement.

Effective Date: 10-12-2006 .