I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1149 

To prohibit a State or political subdivision thereof from providing or offering 

for sale to the public retail or wholesale broadband internet access 

service, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 18, 2021 

Mr. LONG introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To prohibit a State or political subdivision thereof from 

providing or offering for sale to the public retail or 

wholesale broadband internet access service, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Communities Over5 regulating Networks Need Economic Competition Today 

6 Act’’ or the ‘‘CONNECT Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON GOVERNMENT OWNED 

2 BROADBAND NETWORKS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsections 

4 (b)(1) and (c), a State or political subdivision thereof may 

5 not provide or offer for sale to the public, a telecommuni6 cations provider, or to a commercial provider of broadband 

7 internet access service, retail or wholesale broadband 

8 internet access service. 

9 (b) TRANSITIONAL RULE.—Any State or political 

10 subdivision thereof providing or offering for sale, either 

11 to the public, a telecommunications provider, or to a pro12 vider of broadband internet access service, retail or whole13 sale broadband internet access service, before the date of 

14 the enactment of this section— 

15 (1) notwithstanding subsection (a), may con16 tinue to provide or offer for sale such service if the 

17 Commission finds there is no more than one other 

18 commercial provider of broadband internet access 

19 that provides competition for that service in a par20 ticular area; 

21 (2) shall notify each subscriber of the State or 

22 political subdivision if a commercial provider of re23 tail broadband internet access enters the market; 

24 and 

25 (3) may not construct or extend facilities used 

26 to deliver broadband internet access service beyond 


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1 the geographic area in which the State or political 

2 subdivision thereof lawfully operates. 

3 (c) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding subsection (a), 

4 this section does not apply to the Tennessee Valley Au5 thority. 

6 (d) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—This section may not be con8 strued to restrict a State or political subdivision 

9 thereof, from allowing the nondiscriminatory use of 

10 its rights-of-way, including access to utility poles, 

11 conduits, ducts, or similar support structures used 

12 for the deployment of facilities necessary to deliver 

13 broadband internet access service. 

14 (2) PUBLIC SAFETY.—This section may not be 

15 construed to restrict a State or political subdivision 

16 thereof, from providing broadband facilities or serv17 ices for 9–1–1, enhanced 9–1–1 service, or Next 

18 Generation 9–1–1. 

19 (e) LIMITATION OF COMMISSION AUTHORITY.—Not20 withstanding any provision of law, including section 706 

21 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 706), the 

22 Commission may not pre-empt State laws to permit a 

23 State or political subdivision thereof to provide or offer 

24 for sale to the public retail or wholesale broadband inter25 net access service. 


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1 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

2 (1) 9–1–1 REQUEST FOR EMERGENCY ASSIST3 ANCE.—The term ‘‘9–1–1 request for emergency as4 sistance’’ means a communication, such as voice, 

5 text, picture, multimedia, or any other type of data 

6 that is sent to an emergency communications center 

7 for the purpose of requesting emergency assistance. 

8 (2) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 

9 The term ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ has 

10 the meaning given that term in section 8.1(b) of title 

11 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor 

12 regulation. 

13 (3) COMMONLY ACCEPTED STANDARDS.—The 

14 term ‘‘commonly accepted standards’’ means— 

15 (A) the technical standards followed by the 

16 communications industry for network, device, 

17 and Internet Protocol connectivity, including 

18 standards developed by the Third Generation 

19 Partnership Project, the Institute of Electrical 

20 and Electronics Engineers, the Alliance for 

21 Telecommunications Industry Solutions, the 

22 Internet Engineering Taskforce, and the Inter23 national Telecommunications Union; and 


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1 (B) standards that are accredited by a rec2 ognized authority such as the American Na3 tional Standards Institute. 

4 (4) EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS CENTER.— 

5 The term ‘‘emergency communications center’’ 

6 means a facility that is designated to receive a 9– 

7 1–1 request for emergency assistance and perform 

8 one or more of the following functions: 

9 (A) Process and analyze 9–1–1 requests 

10 for emergency assistance and other gathered in11 formation. 

12 (B) Dispatch appropriate emergency re13 sponse providers. 

14 (C) Transfer or exchange 9–1–1 requests 

15 for emergency assistance and other gathered in16 formation with other emergency communica17 tions centers and emergency response providers. 

18 (D) Analyze any communications received 

19 from emergency response providers. 

20 (E) Support incident command functions. 

21 (5) EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROVIDER.—The 

22 term ‘‘emergency response provider’’— 

23 (A) has the meaning given that term under 

24 section 2 of the Homeland Security Act (47 

25 U.S.C. 101); and 


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1 (B) includes Federal, State, and local gov2 ernmental and nongovernmental emergency 

3 public safety, fire, law enforcement, emergency 

4 response, emergency medical (including hospital 

5 emergency facilities), and related personnel, 

6 agencies, and authorities. 

7 (6) ENHANCED 9–1–1 SERVICE.—The term ‘‘en8 hanced 9–1–1 service’’ has the meaning given that 

9 term in section 7(10) of the Wireless Communica10 tions and Public Safety Act of 1999 (47 U.S.C. 

11 615b(10)). 

12 (7) INTEROPERABLE.—The term ‘‘interoper13 able’’ means the capability of emergency communica14 tions centers to receive 9–1–1 requests for emer15 gency assistance and related data such as location 

16 information and callback numbers from the public, 

17 then process and share the 9–1–1 requests for emer18 gency assistance and related data with other emer19 gency communications centers and emergency re20 sponse providers, regardless of jurisdiction, equip21 ment, device, software, service provider, or other rel22 evant factors, and without the need for proprietary 

23 interfaces. 


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1 (8) NEXT GENERATION 9–1–1.—The term 

2 ‘‘Next Generation 9–1–1’’ means an interoperable, 

3 secure, Internet Protocol-based system that— 

4 (A) employs commonly accepted standards; 

5 (B) enables the appropriate emergency 

6 communications centers to receive, process, and 

7 analyze all types of 9–1–1 requests for emer8 gency assistance; 

9 (C) acquires and integrates additional in10 formation useful to handling 9–1–1 requests for 

11 emergency assistance; and 

12 (D) supports sharing information related 

13 to 9–1–1 requests for emergency assistance 

14 among emergency communications centers and 

15 emergency response providers. 

16 (9) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any 

17 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 

18 Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the United 

19 States Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Is20 lands, and any other territory or possession of the 

21 United States. 

22 (10) TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER.—The 

23 term ‘‘telecommunications provider’’ means an eligi24 ble telecommunications carrier as designated under 


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1 section 214(e)(2) of the Communications Act of 

2 1934 (47 U.S.C. 214(e)(2)). 

Æ 


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