HB 1372 - AS INTRODUCED
2000 SESSION
HOUSE BILL 1372
AN ACT relative to open access over some cable facilities in public rights-of-way if used for 2-way telecommunications and if market share of certain users of those facilities is sufficiently large.
SPONSORS: Rep. MacGillivray, Hills 21
COMMITTEE: Science, Technology and Energy
This bill requires that certain telecommunications facilities be available to all competitors if a user of those facilities has a sufficiently large share of the relevant telecommunications services market.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
00-2574
03/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand
AN ACT relative to open access over some cable facilities in public rights-of-way if used for 2-way telecommunications and if market share of certain users of those facilities is sufficiently large.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Findings. The general court finds that:
I. Certain local exchange carriers have been required to open their telecommunications facilities to competitors under the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. Whenever other facilities located in public rights-of-way, including cable facilities, are used for 2-way communications by a sufficiently large share of the market in any municipality for any one telecommunications service, those facilities shall be opened to access by competitors as well.
II. Other facilities located in public rights-of-way, including cable facilities, used for 2-way communications, but only by a relatively small share of the market, need not yet be required to open access to competitors. This will allow owners of such facilities an opportunity to compete for a small share of the market or to resolve technical difficulties in opening access, but does not allow their market share to grow too large before facilities have been opened to all competitors.
2 New Subdivision; Open Access to Certain Telecommunications Facilities in Public Rights-of-Way. Amend RSA 374 by inserting after section 59 the following new subdivision:
Open Access to Certain Telecommunications Facilities in Public Rights-of-Way
374:60 Open Access to Certain Telecommunications Facilities in Public Rights-of-Way.
I. Definitions. In this section:
(a) "Facilities" means any equipment, including wires, poles, cables, and conduits, located in public rights-of-way used for any telecommunications service. "Facilities" also means any system of such equipment which is primarily located in public rights-of-way.
(b) "Market share" means the fraction of the total customers in a municipality for any one telecommunications service that receive that telecommunications service over facilities owned by that facilities owner in that municipality.
(c) "Opened to access" means that those facilities have been made available to all competitors in a manner analogous to that required of local exchange carriers under the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.
(d) "Telecommunications service" means any service involving 2-way transmission of data or voice, excluding cable television operations or requests by customers for additional cable transmission services over the facilities.
II. No facilities owner shall allow facilities in a municipality to be used for a telecommunications service by users with a combined market share for that telecommunications service of greater than 30 percent without first certifying to the public utilities commission that those facilities have been opened to access.
III. No facilities owner shall allow facilities in a municipality to be used for a telecommunications service by users with a combined market share for that telecommunications service of greater than 15 percent without first certifying to the public utilities commission that those facilities will have been opened to access not later than 12 months after the date of such certification.
IV. No facilities owner, who in accordance with paragraph III has certified more than 12 months previously that those facilities would be opened to access within 12 months, shall allow facilities in a municipality to be used for a telecommunications service by users with a combined market share for that telecommunications service of greater than 5 percent without first certifying to the public utilities commission that those facilities have been opened to access.
V. If the commission finds that any provider of telecommunications services or any facilities owner is violating this section, or that any facilities owner has certified under paragraph II, III, or IV that facilities have been opened to access when they have not, or that any facilities owner has certified under paragraph III that facilities would be opened to access and they have not been opened to access, then the commission is authorized to order the telecommunications services provider or the facilities owner to reduce its number of customers, to fine the telecommunications services provider or the facilities owner not more than $100 per customer per day, or to order the telecommunications service provider or the facilities owner to cease providing any or all telecommunications services in any part or all of the state.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.