Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Section 19A of chapter 159 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1998 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out the second paragraph and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-

For the purpose of this section, "directory assistance service" or "directory assistance call" shall mean information given to a customer of a telecommunications company to provide such customer with a telephone number for another customer within the commonwealth. A telecommunications company that provides a service which gives customers information about telephone numbers in another state shall not be required to file a schedule with the department to offer such service and the department shall have no authority to review or approve the offering of such service. Each customer shall be entitled without charge to a directory for each area within the commonwealth.