HB 4461 West Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Establishing limitations on billing practices of Internet or telecommunications providers that fail to provide subscribed customers service for five or more days

HB 4461 requires internet and telecommunications providers in West Virginia to automatically provide prorated bill credits to customers when service is interrupted for five or more consecutive days (120 hours) due to the provider's fault. It directly affects subscribers who lose service for extended periods, ensuring they aren't charged for unavailable service. The bill mandates credits proportional to the outage duration, excludes outages caused by customers, cyberattacks, or force majeure, and sets civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation. Providers must report outage data monthly to the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division for oversight, though mobile service disruptions are excluded from these rules.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Feb 2026

House of Delegates Passage

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 16, 2026 Last action Feb 9, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Committee Substitute → Engrossed Committee Substitute · 4 edits · Feb 6, 2026

MODERATE

The bill was reclassified from a 'Committee Substitute' to an 'Engrossed' version, indicating it has passed a legislative vote and is ready for final action. The text was updated to reflect this new status, including changing the header and removing the 'Introduced Version' link while adding the 'Engrossed Version' link. The actual legal text regarding service outages, credits, and penalties remained substantively unchanged, with only minor capitalization adjustments (e.g., 'internet' vs 'Internet').

TIMELINE

The bill's status was updated from 'Committee Substitute' to 'Engrossed', reflecting that it has been approved by the committee and is moving to the next stage of the legislative process.

TECHNICAL

Links to the 'Introduced Version' and the original 'Committee Substitute' were removed from the navigation menu.

A link to the new 'Engrossed Version' was added to the navigation menu.

Capitalization was adjusted throughout the legal text, changing specific terms like 'Internet' and 'telecommunications' to lowercase 'internet' and 'telecommunications' for consistency.

Floor votes · House of Delegates Feb 6, 2026

How they voted

92–0

Passed · 7 other

Total votes 99

Feb 6, 2026

D Democratic9

8 Yea 1

88% Yea

R Republican90

84 Yea 6

93% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 9, 2026

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

Feb 6, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed House (Roll No. 54)

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Committee

By substitute, do pass, but first to Judiciary

lower

Jan 16, 2026

Committee

To House Energy and Public Works

lower

Jan 16, 2026

Introduced

Introduced in House

lower

1 primary · 10 co-sponsors