BILL NUMBER: AB 57	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Quirk

                        DECEMBER 2, 2014

   An act relating to communications.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 57, as introduced, Quirk. Broadband communications
infrastructure.
   The existing federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 preempts any
state or local statute or regulation that may prohibit or have the
effect of prohibiting the ability of any entity to provide any
interstate or intrastate telecommunications service, but does not
prohibit a state from imposing on a competitively neutral basis,
requirements necessary to preserve and advance universal service,
protect the public safety and welfare, ensure the continued quality
of telecommunications services, and safeguard the rights of
consumers. The prohibition also contains a "safe harbor" that does
not affect the authority of a state or local government to manage the
public rights-of-way or to require fair and reasonable compensation
from telecommunications providers, on a competitively neutral and
nondiscriminatory basis, for use of public rights-of-way on a
nondiscriminatory basis.
   Under existing law, telegraph or telephone corporations may
construct lines of telegraph or telephone lines along and upon any
public road or highway, along or across any of the waters or lands
within the state, and may erect related poles, posts, piers,
abutments, and other necessary fixtures of their lines, but may not
incommode the public use of the road or highway or interrupt the
navigation of the waters. Existing law declares the intent of the
Legislature that consistent with this authorization, municipalities
have the right to exercise reasonable control as to the time, place,
and manner in which roads, highways, and waterways are accessed, but
that for the control to be reasonable it must, at a minimum, be
applied to all entities in an equivalent manner.
   This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation to promote the deployment of communications
infrastructure by removing barriers to investment.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) California consumers and businesses have adopted new,
Internet-based technologies and mobile connections at an
unprecedented rate. Internet-based products and devices, including
smartphones and tablets, are providing consumers everywhere with new
choices to connect, to communicate, and to access information and
entertainment.
   (b) The deployment of faster, more robust, and advanced wireless
and wireline broadband infrastructure is essential to ensuring there
is sufficient capacity and coverage to support the increasing
reliance of California residents on broadband services.
   (c) State and local review of broadband infrastructure deployment
serves important interests, but at the same time, California must
take steps to ensure that requirements do not hinder investment.
State and local permitting processes should be designed to eliminate
unnecessary barriers and spur deployment of infrastructure. This
includes streamlining permitting requirements to reduce delay and
cost, and the creation of uniform processes.
   (d) New and upgraded infrastructure delivers a vast array of
consumer and community benefits, including important improvements to
public safety, education, and healthcare. The power of mobile
communications is a critical tool for first responders in emergency
situations. According to the Federal Communications Commission,
nearly 70 percent of 911 calls are made from mobile telephones, and
that percentage is growing.
   (e) As we continue the transition to a knowledge-based,
technology-driven economy, California must invest in students and
provide them with the proper tools and technologies to bolster
academic achievement, starting with expanding access to high-speed
broadband Internet and next-generation Internet Protocol-based
networks.
   (f) Facilitating broadband deployment additionally plays a key
role in advancing telemedicine and mobile health applications, which
can help Californians remotely monitor their health while reducing
medical costs.
   (g) Wireless broadband is also key to economic development and a
driver for new business and jobs. Businesses increasingly depend on
strong wireless broadband service to carry their employees through
the work day. An estimated 94 percent of small businesses surveyed
use smartphones to conduct business and mobile technologies are
saving the country's small businesses more than sixty-five billion
dollars ($65,000,000,000) a year.
   (h) Broadband infrastructure deployment creates jobs. A 2013 study
conducted by the research firm Information Age Economics projects
that wireless infrastructure investment will generate as much as one
trillion two-hundred billion dollars ($1,200,000,000,000) in economic
growth while creating over 1.2 million new jobs, nationally, over
the next five years.
   (i) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to
promote the deployment of communications infrastructure by removing
barriers to investment. Removing investment barriers is critical to
meeting the surging demand by California residents for advanced
wireless and wireline broadband technologies and services, supporting
and enhancing critical public safety needs, and bridging the digital
divide by increasing access for more Californians to improved
education, health care, and economic development opportunities.