PROHIBITED ACTIONS In order to ensure that this state provides an attractive environment for investment in broadband technology by establishing certainty regarding the regulatory treatment of that technology, consistent with the decisions of the federal communications commission to preempt certain state actions that are not in accordance with such commission's policies, present law prohibits the Tennessee public utility commission from exercising jurisdiction of any type over or relating to broadband services, regardless of the entity providing the service, except as provided in present law. Present law provides that the prohibitions of present law as described above do not permit a carrier to treat services that constitute telecommunications services under federal law as nontelecommunications services for any purpose under state law. This bill removes the provisions above and, instead, prohibits a government entity within this state, including the public utility commission and any agency or subdivision of this state, from enacting, adopting, or enforcing any law, rule, regulation, ordinance, standard, order, or other provision with the force of law that has the effect of regulating the entry, rates, terms, or conditions of any broadband internet access service or interconnected VoIP service, or otherwise treating a provider of either broadband internet access service or interconnected VoIP service as a carrier. This bill also clarifies that such prohibited actions do not do any of the following:  Restrict authority delegated to the public utility commission or another state agency to administer a federal grant program under federal statute, rule, or order.  Restrict the application to broadband internet access service, or providers thereof, of any law that applies generally to the conduct of business in this state related to consumer protection and fair competition.  Modify or affect the rights or obligations of any carrier under the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.  Restrict the assessment of nondiscriminatory fees against interconnected VoIP service associated with enhanced 911 service, telecommunications relay services, or universal service assessments. This bill replaces the definition of "broadband services" with a definition for "broadband internet access services," which gives the term the same meaning as defined in federal regulations while preserving from the existing definition that such term includes an intrastate service that was tariffed with the public utility commission and in effect as of May 15, 2006. ANNUAL REPORTING REQUIREMENT REMOVED Present law requires the commission to annually prepare and submit to the general assembly a report describing the competitive nature of the communications market in this state. This bill removes this reporting requirement. ON MARCH 3, 2025, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 1136, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 makes the following changes:  Removes the present law provision that provides that nothing in the "Broadband Business Certainty Act of 2006" permits any carrier to treat services that constitute telecommunications services under federal law as nontelecommunications services for any purpose under state law and, instead, adds that broadband internet access services are not telecommunications services under the laws of this state.  Removes a provider, owner, operator, or manager of broadband internet access services as described in the "Broadband Business Certainty Act of 2006" from regulation by present law provisions relative to regulation of public utilities by the Tennessee public utility commission and provisions under the "Rural Electric and Community Services Cooperative Act."

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 65-5-202(a), 65-5-202, 65-5-202(b), 65-5-203, 65-5-109(q), 65-5-109