Amendment offered by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Rep. Sawyer to HR 1542, the "Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001." Date: April 26, 2001. Source: House Commerce Committee and office of Rep. Rush. Disposition: Rep. Rush offered and later withdrew this amendment.

AMENDMENT TO H.R. _____
OFFERED BY MR. RUSH OR MR. SAWYER

(broadband deployment)

At the end of the bill add the following new section:

SEC. 7. ACCELERATED DEPLOYMENT OF BROADBAND SERVICES.

Title VII of the Communications Act of 1934 is amended by inserting after section 714 (47 U.S.C. 714) the following new section:

SEC. 715. ACCELERATED DEPLOYMENT OF BROADBAND SERVICES.

‘‘(a) BROADBAND SERVICES PLANS.—

‘‘(1) PLAN REQUIRED.—Within 180 days after the date of enactment of this section, each local exchange carrier shall submit to the State commission in each State in which such carrier does business a plan to provide broadband telecommunications service to underserved subscribers in all local exchange areas in which such carrier has telephone exchange service customers, as soon as such broadband telecommunications service is technically feasible. The plan shall include all terms and conditions, including pricing, under which the services shall be provided. The test of technical feasibility shall be made separately by the local exchange carrier for each local ex- change, and the plan shall be considered certified 45 days after submission, unless the State commission rejects the plan within such 45 days. Upon rejection of a plan, successive plans shall be submitted until approval is obtained.

‘‘(2) IMPLEMENTATION; SUNSET.—The plan shall be implemented within 180 days of the certification of the plan in each local exchange in which the provision of the service is technically feasible. Upon certification of its plan, the carrier shall be obligated by terms of the plan (including any modifications that it requests that are thereafter certified), but shall otherwise provide such services free of Federal and State price, rate, rate of return, and profit regulation. Upon a determination by the State commission that a local exchange is served by another provider of broadband telecommunications services, or any broadband Internet access transport provider, or upon a determination by such State commission that the local exchange carrier makes broadband telecommunications services available to percent of the access lines in an exchange, a local exchange carrier shall no longer be obligated by the terms of any such plan in such local exchange.

‘‘(3) STATE MODIFICATIONS PROHIBITED.—Except upon request of the carrier, the State commission shall have no authority to modify any plan submitted pursuant to paragraph (1).

‘‘(4) NO COMMISSION AUTHORITY.—Except as provided in subsection (b)(2), the Commission shall have no authority with respect to the terms of any plan submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection and shall have no authority with respect to the approval or rejection of any such plan.

‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—

‘‘(1) UNDERSERVED SUBSCRIBER.—

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘under-served subscriber’ means a residential subscriber residing in a dwelling located in an underserved area or a rural area, or nonresidential subscriber maintaining a permanent place of business located in an underserved area or a rural area.

‘‘(B) UNDERSERVED AREA.—The term ‘underserved area’ means any census tract—

‘‘(i) the poverty level of which is at least 30 percent (based on the most recent census data); or

‘‘(ii) the median family income of which does not exceed—

‘‘(I) in the case of a census tract located in a metropolitan statistical area, 70 percent of the greater of the metropolitan area median family income or the statewide median family income; and

‘‘(II) in the case of a census tract located in a nonmetropolitan statistical area, 70 percent of the non-metropolitan statewide median family income.

‘‘(C) RURAL AREA.—The term rural area’ means any census tract which—

‘‘(i) is not within 10 miles of any incorporated or census designated place containing more than 25,000 people; and

‘‘(ii) is not within a county or county equivalent which has an overall population density of more than 500 people per square mile of land.

‘‘(2) DESIGNATION OF CENSUS TRACTS.—The Commission shall, not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this section, designate and publish those census tracts meeting the criteria de- scribed in paragraph (1)(B) or (1)(C).