By Portia Williams
GREENUP COUNTY, Ky. — House Bill 152 is among the laws recently approved during the Kentucky General Assembly’s 2015 regular. HB 152 deals with telephone deregulation, and is aimed at modernizing telecommunications according to reports from the Kentucky State Government. Buford Hurley of Greenup County E- 911 Service, said his office wanted to make Greenup County aware that HB 152 could affect them.
According to reports, HB 152 will allow more investment in modern technologies by ending phone companies’ obligations to provide landline phone services to customers in urban and suburban areas if they provide service through another technology, such as a wireless or Internet-based phone service. While rural customers can keep landline phones they already have, newly constructed homes in rural areas won’t be guaranteed landline services.
“I am not sure of which counties in our area that House Bill 152 will affect, or if it will affect any of them,” Hurley said. “The only thing is, is that people who live in areas that are more rural.and have the landlines now are not going to be affected by this new law, is how how I understand it. However, if somebody new was to move into those rural areas that are going to be affected and they have the capability of having an internet phone, what we call a Void phone or cellphone service would no longer be able to obtain landline service.”
Windstream, the telephone service provider for Greenup County, will determine which areas are affected by the new HB 152.
“So, we do not know yet just what portions of the service area that Windstream is going to affect in Greenup County yet, but we just wanted people to be aware that the law was passed, and there is a possibility that some people could be affected by it,” he said. “So, I am just waiting to hear from Windstream to see whether or not the law will affect anybody in Greenup County. We have cable companies of course, such as Time Warner, and Armstrong Cable who provides Void phones, but that won’t affect anybody that has Void phones, obviously because its about landlines.”
HB 152 will go into effect on Wednesday, June 24.
Reach Portia WIlliams at 740-353-3101, ext. 1929, or on Twitter @PortiaWIllPDT.
