HB2002 SFA #1 Plymale 4-9

Toney  7816

 

Senator Plymale moved to amend the bill on page eighteen, section six, after line three by inserting a new section, designated section seven, to read as follows:

§31G-1A-7. Creation and Administration of Broadband Funds.

(a) There is hereby created in the State Treasury a fund known as the Broadband Middle Mile Fund. The fund shall be administered by and under the control of the Office of Broadband. Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes set forth in this section and are to be made only in accordance with appropriation by the Legislature and in accordance with the provisions of article two, chapter eleven-b of this code.

(1) The fund shall consist of moneys appropriated by the Legislature. The amount appropriated shall be transferred to the fund to be used solely for the purposes provided by this section.

(2) Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes of constructing middle mile fiber broadband to unserved and unfunded areas on the broadband availability map as so designated by the Office of Broadband and pursuant to this code: Provided, That if a broadband project is funded solely with public money, the project shall be an open access project.

(b) There is hereby created in the State Treasury a fund known as the Broadband Grant Matching Fund. The fund shall be administered by and under the control of the Office of Broadband. Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes set forth in this section and are to be made only in accordance with appropriation by the Legislature and in accordance with the provisions of article two, chapter eleven-b of this code.

(1) The fund shall consist of moneys appropriated by the Legislature. The amount appropriated shall be transferred to the fund to be used solely for the purposes provided by this section.

(2) Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes of facilitating broadband projects which require up to a 50% match from sources other than the primary grantor and which extends or improves broadband access in this state. No expenditures shall be made from this fund until and unless satisfactory documentation of financial need is provided to the office and approved by the director: Provided, That but for this assistance, the grantee would be unable to be awarded or benefited by a grant.

(c) There is hereby created in the State Treasury a fund known as the Broadband Provider Expansion Fund. The fund shall be administered by and under the control of the Office of Broadband. Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes set forth in this section and are to be made only in accordance with appropriation by the Legislature and in accordance with the provisions of article two, chapter eleven-b of this code.

(1) The fund shall consist of moneys appropriated by the Legislature. The amount appropriated shall be transferred to the fund to be used solely for the purposes provided by this section.

(2) Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes of supporting existing broadband providers to extend their last mile networks within unserved and unfunded areas as indicated on the broadband availability map as so designated by Office of Broadband and pursuant to this code. The following amounts shall be made available to broadband providers, not receiving any other financial support in the eligible area, to provide service to unserved and unfunded areas after the provider demonstrates to the director that they have completed the necessary infrastructure build to serve a home or business premises including verifiable speed test data with GPS coordinates and a signed affidavit indicating under criminal penalties that to the best of the provider’s knowledge no other terrestrial broadband service was available to the premises at the time of installation:

(A) A provider shall receive $2,000 per premises for completing infrastructure installation to a residence or business with

(i) an actual downstream data rate of at least 1,000 megabits per second; and

(ii) an actual upstream data rate of at least 50 megabits per second; and

(iii) unlimited data usage without overage charges; and

(iv) unlimited data usage without “throttling” or reduction of downstream or upstream data rate due, in whole or in part, to the amount of data transferred in any period; or

(B) A provider shall receive $500 per premises for completing infrastructure installation to a residence or business with a terrestrial wired or fixed wireless connection with

(i) an actual downstream data rate of at least 25 megabits per second; and

(ii) an actual upstream data rate of at least three megabits per second; and

(iii) unlimited data usage without overage charges; and

(iv) unlimited data usage without “throttling” or reduction of downstream or upstream data rate due, in whole or in part, to the amount of data transferred in any period.

(3) Disbursements from this fund shall be made available on a first-come, first-served basis and shall be expended and made available to providers until the fund is depleted. Upon additional legislative appropriation into this fund, disbursements shall be disbursed again in like fashion until the fund is depleted.

Adopted

Rejected