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(Original Signature of Member) 107TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. ll IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. CONYERS (for himself, Mr. CANNON, Mr. NADLER, and Mr. ISSA) intro-duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on lllllllllllllll A BILL To amend the Clayton Act to ensure the application of the antitrust laws to local telephone monopolies; and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Broadband Competi- 4 tion and Incentives Act of 2001’’. 5 TITLE I—PROTECTION OF 1 BROADBAND SERVICES FROM 2 CONTINUING MONOPOLIZA- 3 TION 4 SEC. 101. AMENDMENT TO THE CLAYTON ACT TO INCLUDE 5 MARKET POWER ENTRY TEST. 6 The Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 15 et seq.) is amended 7 by adding at the end the following: 8 ‘‘SEC. 28. BROADBAND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES. 9 ‘‘(a) DETERMINATION BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.—A 10 Bell operating company or an affiliate of a Bell operating 11 company may not provide interLATA services in any of 12 its in-region States under the authority of any amend- 13 ments to section 271 of the Communications Act of 1934 14 (47 U.S.C. 271) enacted after April 24, 2001, unless the 15 Attorney General of the United States determines that 16 such company or such affiliate does not have market 17 power in the provision of wireline telephone exchange serv- 18 ice in the State involved. 19 ‘‘(b) MARKET POWER.—For purposes of this section, 20 a Bell operating company or an affiliate of a Bell oper- 21 ating company shall be deemed to have market power in 22 the provision of wireline telephone exchange service in the 23 State involved if such company or such affiliate provides 24 service to more than 85 percent of the business sub- 25 3 scribers, or more than 85 percent of the residential sub- 1 scribers, in such State at the time such company or such 2 affiliate requests that the Attorney General make a deter- 3 mination under subsection (a). 4 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 5 ‘‘(1) AFFILIATE.—The term ‘affiliate’ means a 6 person that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls, 7 is owned or controlled by, or is under common own- 8 ership or control with, another person. For purposes 9 of this paragraph, the term ‘‘own’’ means to own an 10 equity interest (or equivalent thereof) of more than 11 10 percent. 12 ‘‘(2) BELL OPERATING COMPANY.—The term 13 ‘Bell operating company’ has the meaning given 14 such term in section 3 of the Communications Act 15 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153).’’. 16 TITLE II—BROADBAND DEPLOY- 17 MENT INCENTIVES FOR SERV- 18 ICES TO ELIGIBLE RURAL 19 COMMUNITIES AND UNDER- 20 SERVED AREAS 21 SEC. 201. ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATORY TAXES ON 22 BROADBAND SERVICE PROVIDERS. 23 (a) PROHIBITION.—No State or political subdivision 24 of a State may impose— 25 4 (1) discriminatory taxes on broadband services; 1 or 2 (2) a tax or fee imposed on telecommunications 3 carriers or affiliates thereof, other than incumbent 4 local exchange carriers and affiliates thereof, for the 5 use of public rights-of-way that is greater than the 6 tax or fee imposed on incumbent local exchange car- 7 riers or affiliates thereof for their use of public 8 rights-of-way. 9 (b) LIABILITIES AND PENDING CASES.—Subsection 10 (a) shall not affect liability for taxes or fees accrued and 11 enforced before the date of the enactment of this Act or 12 to ongoing litigation relating to such taxes or such fees. 13 SEC. 202. LOAN PROGRAM FOR ELIGIBLE RURAL COMMU- 14 NITIES AND FOR UNDERSERVED COMMU- 15 NITIES. 16 (a) AUTHORITY TO MAKE DIRECT LOANS AND LOAN 17 GUARANTEES.—The Attorney General of the United 18 States may make direct loans or loan guarantees to eligi- 19 ble broadband service providers in accordance with this 20 section to finance the deployment of broadband services 21 to eligible rural communities and to underserved areas. 22 (b) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.—To be eligible to 23 receive a loan or loan guarantee under this section, a 24 broadband service provider shall submit to the Attorney 25 5 General an application containing such information and 1 assurances as the Attorney General may require by rule, 2 including— 3 (1) information demonstrating that such pro- 4 vider is capable of delivering broadband service; 5 (2) a description of the proposed project to de- 6 ploy broadband service to an eligible rural commu- 7 nity or to an underserved area where broadband 8 service is not otherwise generally available through- 9 out such community or such area; and 10 (3) an assurance that such provider will meet 11 the standards for service and area wide coverage es- 12 tablished by the Attorney General. 13 (c) TERMS AND CONDITIONS.—Direct loans and loan 14 guarantees made under this section— 15 (1) shall be made available in accordance with 16 the requirements of the Federal Credit Reform Act 17 of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661 et seq.); 18 (2) in the case of direct loans and loans guar- 19 anteed, shall bear interest at an annual rate of not 20 more than 2 percent per annum; and 21 (3) shall be made for the longer of— 22 (A) a term of 30 years; or 23 (B) the useful life of the assets con- 24 structed, reconstructed, or acquired with any 25 6 part of the proceeds of such loan or of the loan 1 guaranteed. 2 (d) LIMITATIONS.— 3 (1) TECHNOLOGY NEUTRALITY.—In making di- 4 rect loans and loan guarantees under this section, 5 the Attorney General may not take into consider- 6 ation the technology proposed to be employed by the 7 applicants for such loans or such guarantees. 8 (2) SECURITY INTEREST.—The Attorney Gen- 9 eral may take a security interest in assets or revenue 10 streams, in connection with a direct loan or loan 11 guarantee made under this section, of not more than 12 the amount sufficient to cover the assets financed by 13 such loan or such guarantee. 14 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 15 authorized to be appropriated to the Attorney General to 16 carry out this section $3,000,000,000 for fiscal years 17 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. 18 SEC. 203. DEFINITIONS. 19 (a) IN GENERAL.—In this title: 20 (1) AFFILIATE.—Term ‘‘affiliate’’ means a per- 21 son that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls, is 22 owned or controlled by, or is under common owner- 23 ship or control with, another person. For purposes 24 of this paragraph, the term ‘‘own’’ means to own an 25 7 equity interest (or equivalent thereof) of more than 1 10 percent. 2 (2) ASSESSMENT.—The term ‘‘assessment’’ 3 means valuation for a property tax levied by a taxing 4 State or political subdivision thereof. 5 (3) ASSESSMENT JURISDICTION.—The term 6 ‘‘assessment jurisdiction’’ means a geographical area 7 in a State used in determining the assessed value of 8 property for ad valorem taxation. 9 (4) BROADBAND SERVICE.—The term 10 ‘‘broadband service’’ includes, without regard to any 11 particular transmission medium or technology, high- 12 speed, switched, broadband telecommunications ca- 13 pable of delivering not less than 1.5 megabits of 14 data per second to the user and 128,000 bits of data 15 per second from the user that enables users to origi- 16 nate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, 17 and video telecommunications. 18 (5) COMMERCIAL BUSINESS.—The term ‘‘com- 19 mercial business’’ means a business, other than a 20 broadband service provider, devoted to a commercial 21 use. 22 (6) COMMERCIAL PROPERTY.—The term ‘‘com- 23 mercial property’’ means property, other than prop- 24 8 erty owned by a broadband service provider, devoted 1 to a commercial use. 2 (7) DISCRIMINATORY TAX.—The term ‘‘dis- 3 criminatory tax’’ means any tax imposed by a State 4 or political subdivision of a State on a broadband 5 service provider that— 6 (A) uses an assessment of property owned 7 by broadband service providers at a value that 8 has a higher ratio to the true market value of 9 the broadband service provider’s property than 10 the ratio that the assessed value of other com- 11 mercial property in the same assessment juris- 12 diction has to the true market value of the 13 other commercial property value; 14 (B) uses an assessment of property owned 15 by broadband service providers at a value that 16 encompasses factors other than tangible assets, 17 such as intangible assets and a going concern 18 component, and bases the assessed value of 19 other commercial property on a local assess- 20 ment process of only tangible assets; 21 (C) is not generally imposed and legally 22 collectible by such State or such political sub- 23 division on commercial businesses; or 24 9 (D) is imposed without 180 days advance 1 notification of the imposition of such tax. 2 (8) ELIGIBLE RURAL COMMUNITY.—The term 3 ‘‘eligible rural community’’ means any census tract 4 which— 5 (A) is not within 10 miles of any incor- 6 porated or unincorporated place containing 7 more than 25,000 people, and 8 (B) is not within a county or county equiv- 9 alent which has an overall population density of 10 more than 500 people per square mile of land. 11 (9) INCUMBENT LOCAL EXCHANGE CARRIER.— 12 The term ‘‘incumbent local exchange carrier’’ means, 13 with respect to an area, the local exchange carrier 14 that— 15 (A) on the date of enactment of this Act, 16 is providing telephone exchange service in such 17 area; and 18 (B)(i) is deemed to be a member of the ex- 19 change carrier association pursuant to section 20 69.601(b) of title 47 of the Code of Federal 21 Regulations, as in effect on such date; or 22 (ii) on or after such date, is a successor or 23 assign of a member described in clause (i). 24 10 (10) TAX.—The term ‘‘tax’’ has the meaning 1 given such term in section 1104 of the Internet Tax 2 Freedom Act (47 U.S.C. 151 note). 3 (11) TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIER.—The 4 term ‘‘telecommunications carrier’’ has the meaning 5 given such term by section 3(44) of the Communica- 6 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153 (44)), but— 7 (A) includes all members of an affiliated 8 group of which a telecommunications carrier is 9 a member, and 10 (B) does not include a commercial mobile 11 service carrier. 12 (12) UNDERSERVED AREA.—The term ‘‘under- 13 served area’’ means any census tract which is lo- 14 cated in— 15 (A) an empowerment zone or enterprise 16 community designated under section 1391 of 17 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; 18 (B) the District of Columbia Enterprise 19 Zone established under section 1400 of such 20 Code; 21 (C) a renewal community designated under 22 section 1400E of such Code; or 23 (D) a low-income community designated 24 under section 45D of such Code. 25 11 (b) DESIGNATION OF CENSUS TRACTS.—The Sec- 1 retary of the Treasury shall, not later than 90 days after 2 the date of the enactment of this Act, designate and pub- 3 lish those census tracts meeting the criteria described in 4 paragraphs (8) and (12) of subsection (a). 5 |