Massachusetts Statutes

Section 22L. If at any time one or more but less than all of the municipalities in which the customers of any one utility are located adopt an ordinance or by-law forbidding new installation of overhead facilities under section twenty-two C, the department of telecommunications a…

Section 22M. In addition to all other rates, charges and fees it may otherwise be authorized to impose and collect any utility shall impose and collect as a capital contribution towards the cost of construction a surcharge of two per cent on its total billing to each customer loc…

Section 22N. Any ordinance or by-law adopted under the provisions of section twenty-two C or section twenty-two D shall become effective on the first day of January next following a date nine months subsequent to the date of its enactment.

Section 23. Selectmen may authorize citizens of the commonwealth to establish and maintain, in their town, poles, wires and other apparatus for telegraphic and telephonic communication, in conformity with this chapter and other laws applicable to telegraph or telephone companies.

Section 24. The selectmen may, upon terms and conditions prescribed by them, and subject to the provisions of this chapter, so far as applicable, authorize a person to construct for private use upon, along and under the public ways of the town telegraph and telephone lines and li…

Section 25. The selectmen may, within their towns, permit telegraph, telephone or television lines to be laid under any public way or place, and may establish reasonable regulations for the erection and maintenance of all lines for the transmission of intelligence by telegraph, t…

Section 25A. The following terms as used in this section shall have the following meanings: ''Utility'', means any person, firm, corporation or municipal lighting plant that owns or controls or shares ownership or control of poles, ducts, conduits or rights of way used or useful,…

Section 26. The selectmen shall forthwith give written notice in detail to the owner, constructor or person using any line constructed or maintained in violation of such regulations; and if thereafter such unlawful construction is continued or if said lines are not within a reaso…

Section 27. No ordinance or regulation of a city or town, or regulation or restriction imposed in a grant of location, affecting the erection, maintenance or operation of a line for the transmission of electricity for light, heat or power extending or intended to extend from some…

Section 28. Any company subject to this chapter, except a telegraph or telephone company, desiring to construct a line for the transmission of electricity which will of necessity pass through one or more cities or towns to connect the proposed termini of such line, whose petition…

Section 29. An owner of land abutting upon a public way along which telegraph or telephone, television, electric light, heating or power lines are constructed, erected or altered in location or construction by any telegraph or telephone, television, electric light, heating or pow…

Section 3. The president and treasurer of such company shall be jointly and severally liable for all its indebtedness, in case of wilful neglect or omission on their part to comply with any provision of section one, two or eleven.

Section 30. A person or a corporation, private or municipal, owning or operating a line of wires over or under streets or buildings shall use only strong and proper wires safely attached to strong and sufficient supports and insulated at all points of attachment; shall remove all…

Section 31. Such person or corporation shall plainly mark each pole, pier, abutment or other fixture supporting wires or cables containing wires over streets or buildings with the name or initials of the owner of such pole, pier, abutment or other fixture. Wherever cross arms or …

Section 32. A city or town shall, by ordinance, vote or by-law, appoint an inspector of wires. Said inspector shall be a licensed electrician. Two or more cities or towns may vote to form a district and shall appoint an inspector of wires, whose compensation shall be fixed by the…

Section 32A. In a city, town or district which accepts this section, a licensed electrician who is appointed inspector of wires may practice for hire or engage in the business for which licensed under the applicable provisions of chapter one hundred and forty-one while serving as…

Section 33. The supreme judicial or superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity upon petition of the inspector designated or appointed as aforesaid, to enforce the three preceding sections and to restrain the use or maintenance, or to cause the removal, of any wire, pole or …

Section 34. Poles and other structures used to support lines for the transmission of electricity shall be insulated in such manner as to protect employees and other persons from accidents. If such poles and other structures are of any material except wood, and support lines which…

Section 35. A corporation or person maintaining or operating telephone, telegraph, television or other electric wires or any other person who in any manner affixes or causes to be affixed to the property of another any pole, structure, fixture, wire or other apparatus for telepho…

Section 36. A corporation or person maintaining or operating telephone, telegraph, television or other electric wires shall, at all places where such wires are affixed by any pole, structure or fixture to the property of another, mark such pole, structure or fixture in a clear, d…

Section 37. No enjoyment, for the purposes specified in section twenty-one, for any length of time of the privilege of having or maintaining poles, wires or apparatus in, upon, over or attached to any building or land of other persons shall give a legal right to the continued enj…

Section 38. Whoever unlawfully and intentionally injures, molests or destroys any line, wire, pole, pier or abutment, or any of the materials or property of any street railway company, of any electric railroad company, or of any city or town engaged in the manufacture and sale of…

Section 39. Whenever, in order to move a building or for any other necessary purpose, a person desires that the wires of any such company be cut, disconnected or removed, the company shall forthwith cut, disconnect or remove the same, if the person desiring this to be done has fi…

Section 4. Such company shall issue only such amount of stock and bonds, and of coupon notes and other evidences of indebtedness payable at periods of more than three years, as the department of telecommunications and cable may from time to time approve as reasonably necessary fo…

Section 40. Whoever wilfully cuts, disconnects, removes or otherwise interrupts the use of the wires of any such company, without first giving notice as provided in the preceding section, shall be punished as provided in section thirty-eight.

Section 41. The two preceding sections shall not apply to any wires attached to poles not erected in compliance with law.

Section 42. A telegraph company shall be liable in damages to a person injured in his person or property by the poles, wires or other apparatus of such company. If they are erected upon a public way, the city or town shall not, by reason of anything contained in this chapter or d…

Section 42A. Whoever, with intent to defraud, obtains, or attempts to obtain, or aids or abets another in obtaining, any telecommunications services valued less than five thousand dollars by any false representation, false statement, or stratagem, by unauthorized charging to the …

Section 42B. Whoever makes any instrument, apparatus, equipment or device which is designed, adapted or which is used to fraudulently obtain telecommunication service in the manner prohibited by section forty-two A or which is used to conceal, or to assist another to conceal, or …

Section 43. Owners and associations engaged in the business specified in section twenty-one although not incorporated shall be subject to this chapter so far as applicable.

Section 44. Service Observing, Interception.—Service observing of telephone lines conducted by telephone companies for the purpose of determining the quality of transmission or for any other purpose shall cease as soon as a connection is established between the users of the telep…

Section 5. The supreme judicial or superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, upon the application of the department, attorney general, any stockholder or interested party, to enforce the preceding section and all lawful orders and decisions, conditions or requirements of …

Section 6. A director, treasurer or other officer or agent of any such company who knowingly votes to authorize the issue of, or knowingly signs, certifies or issues, stock or bonds contrary to section four, or who knowingly votes to authorize the application, or knowingly applie…

Section 7. If any such company increases its capital stock, such new shares necessary to produce the amount of increased capital stock authorized shall, except as provided in the following section, be offered proportionately to its stockholders at not less than the market value t…

Section 8. If such increase does not exceed four per cent of the existing capital stock of the corporation, the directors, without first offering the same to the stockholders, may sell them by auction to the highest bidder at not less than the par value thereof to be actually pai…

Section 9. No such company established under the laws of this commonwealth shall declare any stock or scrip dividend or divide the proceeds of the sale of stock or scrip among its stockholders; nor shall any such company issue any share of stock to any person unless the par value…

Section 1. The following terms as used in this chapter shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Community antenna television system'' or ''CATV system'', a facility as defined by federal law at 47 USC section 522 (7). ''CATV operator'' or ''Op…

Section 10. Complaints by any person as to the operation of any CATV system may be filed in writing with the department or with the issuing authority, each of which shall within ten days forward copies of such complaints to the other. The issuing authority and the department shal…

Section 11. Any license issued hereunder may after hearing be revoked by the issuing authority or the department for any of the following reasons:— (a) for false or misleading statements in, or material omissions from any application submitted under section four, five, or any ann…

Section 12. The department shall have the right to institute, or to intervene as a party in, any action in any court of competent jurisdiction seeking mandamus, injunctive or other relief to compel compliance with any provision of this chapter or any rule, regulation or order ado…

Section 13. Any license issued hereunder may be renewed after hearing by the issuing authority for additional periods each not to exceed ten years. An application for renewal shall be on forms to be prescribed by the department. Such forms shall set forth such facts as the depart…

Section 14. Any applicant for a license or renewal of a license who is aggrieved by a denial of its application by the issuing authority or by its failure to act within the period of sixty days, or any licensee who is aggrieved by the action of an issuing authority in modifying, …

Section 15. For a period of three years from the effective date of this chapter, the department shall study the necessity and desirability of rate regulation, and thereafter it may, upon its own motion or upon request of any issuing authority or licensee, after due hearing and in…

Section 16. The department may after hearing issue such standards and regulations as it deems appropriate to carry out the purpose of this chapter for which purpose it may employ such expert assistants as it deems necessary. The department shall have the authority to mediate betw…

Section 17. The department or its employees may visit the places of business and other premises and examine the records and facilities of all CATV companies to ascertain if all rules and regulations and orders of the department have been complied with, and any cases of non-compli…

Section 18. Any person or the officer, agent, or employee of any organization who willfully violates any provision of this chapter or of any rule, regulation, or order adopted thereunder, or who willfully procures, aids, or abets any violation of such a provision shall be punishe…