Rep. Anne Hughes On The "Equity and Access to Broadband" Proposal

When the Governor and legislature introduced the "Equity and Access to Broadband" proposal, we applauded the initiative and the overdue attention to broadband access in underserved areas.

On June 3rd, the Connecticut State House passed a version of House Bill 6442 that contained almost entirely new language submitted less than 36 hours prior to the vote. The nearly complete rewrite of the legislation meant there was no opportunity for public comment, discussion or debate. The legislation that passed essentially removed all features of the original version which promoted equitable access to broadband through incentives and placed demands on incumbent carriers like Optimum, Frontier and others. I spoke on the floor against this bill and voted against the measure.

Among the items removed were imperatives for universal coverage by video and internet providers, consumer protections and broadband reliability enhancements, demands of increased PURA oversight and public notice, clarifications on CGS §16-233 enabling municipal broadband networks, and requirements for per-house information from carriers, to create accurate broadband mapping. It gives the big corporate telecom monopolies access to government grants without any requirements or obligation to build-out. The only positive feature for consumers remaining in the bill is a requirement that carriers provide the number of homes they serve per census block, a significant improvement over what they provide now.

This was a bill submitted by the Governor, and after being amended, missed the boat.

Removed from the Governor’s version were consumer protection measures such as credits for outages; industry directives to enhance pricing transparency; and oversight of consumer complaints regarding broadband services.

Also removed were provisions to review the resiliency of telecommunications and broadband networks and services.

A mapping element remained in the final bill but accountability by providers has been weakened. Mapping is critical to developing data on which households, businesses, and communities have the option to subscribe to broadband services – and which ones do not. Mapping data can be used for the most beneficial deployment of local, state, or federal subsidies for broadband.

Unfortunately, the current version seems to eliminate the requirement that broadband providers file an annual report to various state agencies and the Legislature concerning their operations within the state. The report would have required providers to include information about the availability of service, speeds in each service area, service outages and other requirements that PURA determined.

The last-minute manner in which this legislation was rushed through with its bold section protecting GIS public information as "Trade Secrets" not available to the public, are BIG red flags to slow this down, or stop this in its tracks. Time to strip the concept of equity in the legislative intent, and rename the proposal as Friends of Telecoms, Inc, and let it proceed or wither, on its own merits. I hope the Senate does not pass this bill in the waning days of Session.

Rep. Anne Hughes, 135th District