The Legislature finds as follows: (1) That it is a primary goal of the Governor, the Legislature and the citizens of this state, by the year 2020, to make every municipality, community, and rural area in this state, border to border, accessible to Internet communications through the expansion, extension and general availability of broadband services […]
(a) The council shall create guidelines for, and recommend to the Legislature a means of implementing a voluntary donation program to allow for pipeline, railroad, and other similar structures and rights-of-way in the state to be donated to the state for use by public or private entities to facilitate broadband service and availability through placement […]
[Repealed]
(a) Broadband deployment information provided to the council or its consultants and other agents, including, but not limited to, physical plant locations, subscriber levels, and market penetration data, constitutes proprietary business information and, along with any other information that constitutes trade secrets, shall be exempt from disclosure under the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-b of this […]
In order to implement and carry out the intent of this article, the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, at the direction and recommendation of the council, may propose rules for legislative approval, pursuant to the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.
For the purposes of this article: (1) “Broadband” or “broadband service” means any service providing advanced telecommunications capability with the same downstream data rate and upstream data rate as is specified by the Federal Communications Commission and that does not require the end-user to dial up a connection, that has the capacity to always be […]
(a) The Broadband Enhancement Council is hereby continued. The current members, funds, and personnel shall continue in effect and be wholly transferred from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Economic Development; except as may be hereinafter provided. With regard to the terms of the public members appointed under subdivision five, subsection (c) of […]
(a) The council shall: (1) Explore any and all ways to expand access to broadband services, including, but not limited to, middle mile, last mile and wireless applications;
All moneys collected by the council, which may, in addition to appropriations, include gifts, bequests or donations, shall be deposited in a special revenue account in the State Treasury known as the Broadband Enhancement Fund. The fund shall be administered by and under the control of the Secretary of the Department of Commerce. Expenditures from […]
[Repealed]
(a) In order to assist the council with the highly technical task of categorizing the areas of the state, the council may retain outside expert consultants to assist in the purposes of this article. The experts may assist the Council to map the state on the basis of broadband availability, to evaluate and categorize data, […]
In order to implement and carry out the intent of this article, the council may take such actions as it deems necessary or advisable in order to increase awareness of issues concerning broadband services and to educate and inform the public.
[Repealed]
