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[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1127 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1127

To stimulate the deployment of advanced telecommunications services in 
                  rural areas, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 28, 2001

Mr. Brownback (for himself and Mr. Enzi) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To stimulate the deployment of advanced telecommunications services in 
                  rural areas, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rural Broadband Deployment Act of 
2001''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Consumers living in rural areas require access to 
        advanced telecommunications services in order to be full 
        participants in the American economy.
            (2) The current rate of deployment of advanced 
        telecommunications services in rural areas is inadequate and 
        must be accelerated.
            (3) Certain regulations issued by the Federal 
        Communications Commission make the deployment of advanced 
        telecommunications services cost prohibitive in rural areas.
    (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act to stimulate the 
deployment of advanced telecommunications services in rural areas by 
exempting carriers serving such areas from regulations that make the 
deployment of such services cost prohibitive.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON REGULATING ADVANCED TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES 
              IN RURAL AREAS.

    (a) In General.--Part 1 of Title II of the Communications Act of 
1934 (47 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new section:

``SEC. 232. ADVANCED TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS.

    ``(a) In General.--The provisions of this Act shall not apply to 
advanced telecommunications service deployed by a carrier in a rural 
area.
    ``(b) Rural Area Defined.--In this section, the term `rural area' 
means any place or territory, whether incorporated or unincorporated, 
that--
            ``(1) is located outside of a Metropolitan Statistical Area 
        (as determined by the Office of Management and Budget); and
            ``(2) has a population of less than 50,000.''.
    (b) Advanced Telecommunications Service Defined.--Section 3 of that 
Act (47 U.S.C. 153) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (51) as 
        paragraphs (2) through (52), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting before paragraph (2) the following new 
        paragraph (1):
            ``(1) Advanced telecommunications service.--The term 
        `advanced telecommunications service' means any service that 
        consists of or includes the offering of a capability to 
        transmit, using a packet-switched or successor technology, 
        information at a rate that is generally not less than 384 
        kilobits per second in at least one direction. Such term does 
        not include special access service offered through dedicated 
        transport links between a customer's premises and an 
        interexchange carrier's switch or point of presence.''.
                                 <all>
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