Peter Orne Broadband Wireless Communities Blog

2006 U.S. State Wireless Legislation Summary

MultiState Associates, a U.S.-based state and local government-relations and procurement resource service, provides this overview of enacted, pending, and defeated stage legislation in the United States as of July 2006.

By Mitch Gorsen

State legislation during 2006 will not significantly impact the broadband-wireless industry.

The few states (Idaho, Kentucky, and Maine) that provided funding for underserved areas appropriated an insignificant amount of money to accomplish the purposes of reducing the digital divide especially in underserved areas. Connecticut, Florida, and Vermont declined to provide money for Internet digital divide/broadband activities.

The deregulation of advanced Internet services such as broadband and VoIP in Indiana and BPL in Texas was a positive step. The failure of Louisiana to enact legislation exempting parishes from limits on free municipal wireless was a step in the wrong direction.

California legislation allowing municipal utilities to provide communications services, while technically still pending, never even got out of the first policy committee. Imagine the impact on the municipal market in Los Angeles and other key markets were the publicly owned power company provided subsidized or free Internet.

Part I: Enacted Legislation

• IDAHO DEDICATES $5 MILLION FUND FOR RURAL BROADBAND
  - Idaho S.B. 1498 creates a $5,000,000 Rural Broadband Development Matching Fund by the Department of Commerce and Labor for fiscal years 2007 and 2008 for rural broadband investment plans. The fund shall be used to make available matching funds, on a reimbursement basis, for rural broadband investment plans. The maximum amount that may be expended on any given project shall not exceed $ 1,000,000.
  
  
• INDIANA DEREGULATES VOIP, BROADBAND, INFORMATION SERVICES
  - Indiana H.B. 1279: Effective June 30, 2007, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission will not have jurisdiction over businesses that transmit communications over Internet Protocol advanced broadband services and information services.
  
  
• KENTUCKY FUNDS AREAS UNDERSERVED BY BROADBAND
  - Kentucky H.B. 550: Areas with less than 20% of households with broadband access will qualify for grants from the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority. The evaluation shall be undertaken with consideration given to input from area development districts, telecommunications businesses, information services, technology industries, governmental entities, and Kentucky-based nonprofit organizations, including ConnectKentucky.
  
  
• MAINE CREATES $500,000 ANNUAL FUNDING FOR BROADBAND
  - Maine L.R. 3122: With previously collected money from the Universal Access Fee, Maine will use up to $500,000 annually for at least two years to accelerate private investment in communication services including wireless, broadband, cellular, and satellite infrastructure especially in underserved areas.
  
  
• TEXAS DEREGULATES BROADBAND OVER POWER LINE SERVICES
  - Texas S.B. 5B: Municipalities shall not have jurisdiction over the BPL system, services, and telecommunications using BPL services, rates, operations or services of the electric utility or transmission and distribution utility that are related to the construction, maintenance or operation of a BPL system used to provide BPL services to other entities.

Part II: Pending Legislation

• CALIFORNIA UNLIKELY TO ALLOW UTILITY-RUN WI-FI OR WIMAX
  - California S.B. 1803: Legislation enabling municipal utilities to acquire, construct, own, operate, or lease a communications system employing wireless local area network communication technology (i.e., Wi-Fi or WiMAX) was scheduled for a hearing but never made it out of the first policy committee and is unlikely to be reconsidered in 2006.

Part III: Defeated Legislation

• CONNECTICUT GIVES NO MONEY TO CITIES FOR BROADBAND
  - Connecticut H.B. 5263: Last Action: Lawmakers voted against making Local Capital Improvement Funds available to municipalities for the planning and installation of certain broadband Internet networks.
  
  
• FLORIDA WON’T PUSH BROADBAND PROVIDERS TO BRIDGE DIGITAL DIVIDE
  - Florida S.B. 502: Legislation was defeated to create a program to offer discounted computers and Internet access to public school students in grades 5 through 12 by authorizing the Department of Education to negotiate terms with broadband Internet access providers.
  
  
• LOUISIANA FAILS TO ENACT MUNICIPAL WIRELESS INTERNET ACT
  - Louisiana H.B. 1174: Legislation allowing a Parish President to decide if the Parish may provide wireless Internet access at less than 1024 kbps for free or for a charge was defeated. The bill would have allowed the Parish President to increase the speed above 1024 kbps during an emergency.
  
  
• VERMONT WON’T CREATE RURAL BROADBAND TASKFORCE
  - Vermont S.B. 316: A proposal to create a broadband task force to oversee and coordinate broadband expansion projects and develop innovative approaches for rural broadband deployment and appropriate $1,500,000 for a competitive community broadband grant program that provides subsidies for broadband infrastructure deployment projects in difficult-to-serve areas of the state was defeated.

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