I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 411

To supersede the Modification of Final Judgment entered August 24, 1982,

in the antitrust action styled United States v. Western Electric, Civil

Action No. 82–0192, United States District Court for the District of

Columbia; to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate the

manufacturing of Bell operating companies, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 4, 1995

Mr. DINGELL (for himself, Mr. MARKEY, and Mr. CONYERS) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce and,

in addition, to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such

provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To supersede the Modification of Final Judgment entered

August 24, 1982, in the antitrust action styled United

States v. Western Electric, Civil Action No. 82–0192,

United States District Court for the District of Columbia; to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate the manufacturing of Bell operating companies, 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,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLES; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

2 (a) SHORT TITLE OF THIS ACT.—This Act may be

3 cited as the ‘‘Antitrust and Communications Reform Act

4 of 1995’’.

5 (b) SHORT TITLE OF TITLE I OF THIS ACT.—Title

6 I of this Act may be cited as the ‘‘Antitrust Reform Act

7 of 1995’’.

8 (c) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—

Sec. 1. Short titles; table of contents.

TITLE I—SUPERSESSION OF THE MODIFICATION OF FINAL

JUDGMENT

Sec. 101. Authorization for Bell operating company to enter competitive lines

of business.

Sec. 102. Authorization as prerequisite.

Sec. 103. Limitations on manufacturing and providing equipment.

Sec. 104. Anticompetitive tying arrangements.

Sec. 105. Enforcement.

Sec. 106. Definitions.

Sec. 107. Relationship to other laws.

Sec. 108. Required regulatory actions.

TITLE II—REGULATION OF MANUFACTURING, ALARM SERVICES,

AND ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING BY BELL OPERATING COMPANIES

Sec. 201. Regulation of manufacturing by Bell operating companies.

Sec. 202. Regulation of entry into alarm monitoring services.

Sec. 203. Regulation of electronic publishing.

Sec. 204. Privacy of customer information.

Sec. 205. Telemessaging services.

Sec. 206. Enhanced services safeguards.

TITLE III—TELECOMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE AND

COMPETITION

Sec. 301. Policy; definitions.

Sec. 302. Equal access and network functionality and quality.

Sec. 303. Telecommunications services for educational institutions, health care

institutions, and libraries.

Sec. 304. Discriminatory interconnection.

Sec. 305. Expedited licensing of new technologies and services.

Sec. 306. New or extended lines.

Sec. 307. Pole attachments.

Sec. 308. Civic participation.

Sec. 309. Competition by small business and minority-owned business concerns.

TITLE IV—COMMUNICATIONS COMPETITIVENESS
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Sec. 401. Cable service provided by telephone companies.

Sec. 402. Review of broadcasters’ ownership restrictions.

Sec. 403. Review of statutory ownership restriction.

Sec. 404. Broadcaster spectrum flexibility.

Sec. 405. Interactive services and critical interfaces.

Sec. 406. Video programming accessibility.

Sec. 407. Public access.

Sec. 408. Automated ship distress and safety systems.

Sec. 409. Exclusive Federal jurisdiction over direct broadcast satellite service.

Sec. 410. Technical amendments.

Sec. 411. Availability of screening devices to preclude display of encrypted programming.

TITLE V—PROCUREMENT PRACTICES OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

PROVIDERS

Sec. 501. Findings.

Sec. 502. Purpose.

Sec. 503. Annual plan submission.

Sec. 504. Sanctions and remedies.

Sec. 505. Definitions.

TITLE VI—FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION RESOURCES

Sec. 601. Authorization of appropriations.

1 TITLE I—SUPERSESSION OF THE

2 MODIFICATION OF FINAL

3 JUDGMENT

4 SEC. 101. AUTHORIZATION FOR BELL OPERATING COM5 PANY TO ENTER COMPETITIVE LINES OF

6 BUSINESS.

7 (a) APPLICATION.—

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—After the applicable date

9 specified in paragraph (2), a Bell operating company

10 may apply to the Attorney General and the Federal

11 Communications Commission for authorization, not12 withstanding the Modification of Final Judgment—

13 (A) to provide alarm monitoring services,

14 or
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1 (B) to provide interexchange telecommuni2 cations services.

3 The application shall describe with particularity the

4 nature and scope of the activity, and of each product

5 market or service market, and each geographic mar6 ket, for which authorization is sought.

7 (2) APPLICABLE DATES.—For purposes of

8 paragraph (1), the applicable date after which a Bell

9 operating company may apply for authorization shall

10 be—

11 (A) the date of the enactment of this Act,

12 with respect to providing interexchange tele13 communications services, and

14 (B) the date that occurs 66 months after

15 the date of the enactment of this Act, with re16 spect to providing alarm monitoring services.

17 (3) INTERAGENCY NOTIFICATION.—Whenever

18 the Attorney General or the Federal Communica19 tions Commission receives an application made

20 under paragraph (1), the recipient of the application

21 shall notify the other of such receipt.

22 (4) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 10 days

23 after receiving an application made under paragraph

24 (1), the Attorney General and the Federal Commu-
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1 nications Commission jointly shall publish the appli2 cation in the Federal Register.

3 (b) SEPARATE DETERMINATIONS BY THE ATTORNEY

4 GENERAL AND THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMIS5 SION.—

6 (1) COMMENT PERIOD.—Not later than 45 days

7 after an application is published under subsection

8 (a)(4), interested persons may submit written com9 ments to the Attorney General, to the Federal Com10 munications Commission, or to both regarding the

11 application. Submitted comments shall be available

12 to the public.

13 (2) INTERAGENCY CONSULTATION.—Before

14 making their respective determinations under para15 graph (3), the Attorney General and the Federal

16 Communications Commission shall consult with each

17 other regarding the application involved.

18 (3) DETERMINATIONS.—(A) After the time for

19 comment under paragraph (1) has expired, but not

20 later than 180 days after receiving an application

21 made under subsection (a)(1), the Attorney General

22 and the Federal Communications Commission each

23 shall issue separately a written determination with

24 respect to granting the authorization for which the

25 Bell operating company has applied.
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1 (B) Such determination shall be based on a pre2 ponderance of the evidence.

3 (C) Any person who would be threatened with

4 loss or damage as a result of the approval of the au5 thorization requested shall be permitted to partici6 pate as a party in the proceeding on which the de7 termination is based.

8 (D)(i) The Attorney General shall approve the

9 granting of the authorization requested in the appli10 cation only to the extent that the Attorney General

11 finds that there is no substantial possibility that

12 such company or its affiliates could use monopoly

13 power to impede competition in the market such

14 company seeks to enter. The Attorney General shall

15 deny the remainder of the requested authorization.

16 (ii) The Federal Communications Commission

17 shall approve the granting of the requested author18 ization only to the extent that the Commission finds

19 that granting the requested authorization is consist20 ent with the public interest, convenience, and neces21 sity. The Commission shall deny the remainder of

22 the requested authorization.

23 (iii) Notwithstanding clauses (i) and (ii), not

24 later than 180 days after the date of the enactment

25 of this Act, the Attorney General and the Federal
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1 Communications Commission shall each prescribe

2 regulations to establish procedures and criteria for

3 the expedited determination and approval of applica4 tions for authorization to provide interexchange tele5 communications services (other than services de6 scribed in section 102(c)) that are incidental to the

7 provision of another service which the Bell operating

8 company may lawfully provide. Before prescribing

9 such regulations, the Attorney General and the Com10 mission shall consult with respect to such regula11 tions, including consultation for the purpose of

12 avoiding unnecessary inconsistencies in such regula13 tions.

14 (E) In making its determination under subpara15 graph (D)(ii) regarding the public interest, conven16 ience, and necessity, the Commission shall take into

17 account—

18 (i) the probability that granting the re19 quested authorization will secure reduced rates

20 for consumers of the services that are the sub21 ject of the application, especially residential

22 subscribers,

23 (ii) whether granting the requested author24 ization will result in increases in rates for con25 sumers of exchange service,
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1 (iii) the extent to which granting the re2 quested authorization will expedite the delivery

3 of new services and products to consumers,

4 (iv) the extent to which the Commission’s

5 regulations, or other laws or regulations, will

6 preclude the applicant from engaging in preda7 tory pricing or other anticompetitive economic

8 practices with respect to the services that are

9 the subject of the application,

10 (v) the extent to which granting the re11 quested authorization will permit collusive acts

12 or practices between or among Bell operating

13 companies that are not affiliates of each other,

14 (vi) whether granting the requested au15 thorization will result, directly or indirectly, in

16 increasing concentration among providers of the

17 service that is the subject of the application to

18 such an extent that consumers will not be pro19 tected from rates that are unjust or unreason20 able or that are unjustly or unreasonably dis21 criminatory, and

22 (vii) in the case of an application to pro23 vide alarm monitoring services, whether the

24 Commission has the capability to enforce effec25 tively the regulations established pursuant to
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1 section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934

2 as added by this Act.

3 (F) A determination that approves the granting

4 of any part of a requested authorization shall de5 scribe with particularity the nature and scope of the

6 activity, and of each product market or service mar7 ket, and each geographic market, to which approval

8 applies.

9 (4) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 10 days

10 after issuing a determination under paragraph (3),

11 the Attorney General or the Federal Communica12 tions Commission, as the case may be, shall publish

13 in the Federal Register a brief description of the

14 determination.

15 (5) FINALITY.—A determination made under

16 paragraph (3) shall be final unless a civil action with

17 respect to such determination is timely commenced

18 under subsection (c)(1).

19 (6) AUTHORIZATION GRANTED.—A requested

20 authorization is granted to the extent that—

21 (A)(i) both the Attorney General and the

22 Federal Communications Commission approve

23 under paragraph (3) the granting of the au24 thorization, and
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1 (ii) neither of their approvals is vacated or

2 reversed as a result of judicial review author3 ized by subsection (c), or

4 (B) as a result of such judicial review of

5 either or both determinations, both the Attor6 ney General and the Federal Communications

7 Commission approve the granting of the re8 quested authorization.

9 (c) JUDICIAL REVIEW.—

10 (1) COMMENCEMENT OF ACTION.—Not later

11 than 45 days after a determination by the Attorney

12 General or the Federal Communications Commission

13 is published under subsection (b)(4), the Bell operat14 ing company that applied to the Attorney General

15 and the Federal Communications Commission under

16 subsection (a), or any person who would be threat17 ened with loss or damage as a result of the deter18 mination regarding such company’s engaging in the

19 activity described in such company’s application,

20 may commence an action in the United States Court

21 of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

22 against the Attorney General or the Federal Com23 munications Commission, as the case may be, for ju24 dicial review of the determination regarding the ap25 plication.
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1 (2) CERTIFICATION OF RECORD.—As part of

2 the answer to the complaint, the Attorney General

3 or the Federal Communications Commission, as the

4 case may be, shall file in such court a certified copy

5 of the record upon which the determination is based.

6 (3) CONSOLIDATION OF ACTIONS.—The court

7 shall consolidate for judicial review all actions com8 menced under this subsection with respect to the ap9 plication.

10 (4) JUDGMENT.—(A) The court shall enter a

11 judgment after reviewing the determination in ac12 cordance with section 706 of title 5 of the United

13 States Code.

14 (B) A judgment—

15 (i) affirming any part of the determination

16 that approves granting all or part of the re17 quested authorization, or

18 (ii) reversing any part of the determination

19 that denies all or part of the requested author20 ization,

21 shall describe with particularity the nature and

22 scope of the activity, and of each product market or

23 service market, and each geographic market, to

24 which the affirmance or reversal applies.
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1 SEC. 102. AUTHORIZATION AS PREREQUISITE.

2 (a) PREREQUISITE.—Until a Bell operating company

3 is so authorized in accordance with section 101, it shall

4 be unlawful for such company, directly or through an af5 filiated enterprise, to engage in an activity described in

6 section 101(a)(1).

7 (b) GENERAL EXCEPTIONS.—Except with respect to

8 providing alarm monitoring services, subsection (a) shall

9 not prohibit a Bell operating company from engaging, at

10 any time after the date of the enactment of this Act—

11 (1) in any activity as authorized by an order

12 entered by the United States District Court for the

13 District of Columbia pursuant to section VII or

14 VIII(C) of the Modification of Final Judgment, if—

15 (A) such order was entered on or before

16 the date of the enactment of this Act, or

17 (B) a request for such authorization was

18 pending before such court on the date of the

19 enactment of this Act,

20 (2) in providing intrastate interexchange tele21 communications services if—

22 (A) after the date of the enactment of this

23 Act, the State involved approves or authorizes

24 such company to provide such services, after

25 taking into account the potential effects of such
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1 approval or authorization on competition and

2 the public interest,

3 (B) not less than 90 days before such com4 pany offers to provide such services, such com5 pany gives notice to the public and the Attorney

6 General that such approval or authorization has

7 been granted by such State, and appoints an

8 agent for the purpose of receiving service of

9 process,

10 (C) the Attorney General—

11 (i) fails to commence a civil action in

12 accordance with subsection (d), not later

13 than 90 days after the Attorney General

14 receives the notice described in subpara15 graph (B), to obtain a preliminary injunc16 tion or temporary restraining order enjoin17 ing such company from providing such

18 services, or

19 (ii) so commences such civil action

20 but—

21 (I) fails to obtain such an injunc22 tion or order from the district court

23 involved enjoining such company from

24 providing such services, or
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1 (II) such injunction issued by

2 such court is vacated on appeal, and

3 (D) the Bell operating company is required

4 by regulations prescribed by the Federal Com5 munications Commission and such State, for

6 the services subject to their respective jurisdic7 tions, to pay a nondiscriminatory access charge

8 to the local exchange carrier (including itself)

9 that provides the Bell operating company with

10 telephone exchange access, and

11 (3) in providing interexchange telecommuni12 cations services through resale of telecommuni13 cations services purchased from a person who is not

14 an affiliated enterprise of such company if—

15 (A) such interexchange telecommunications

16 services involve only telecommunications that

17 originate in a State in which, on the date of the

18 enactment of this Act, such company provided

19 wireline telephone exchange services,

20 (B) such State has approved or authorized

21 persons that are not affiliated enterprises of

22 such company to provide intraexchange toll tele23 communications services in such a manner that

24 customers in such State have the ability to

25 route automatically, without the use of any ac-
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1 cess code, their intraexchange toll telecommuni2 cations to the telecommunications services pro3 vider of the customer’s designation from among

4 2 or more telecommunications services providers

5 (including such company),

6 (C) after the date of the enactment of this

7 Act and not less than 90 days before such com8 pany offers to provide such interexchange tele9 communications services, such company gives

10 notice to the public and the Attorney General

11 that such approval or authorization has been

12 granted by such State, and

13 (D) the Attorney General—

14 (i) fails to commence a civil action in

15 accordance with subsection (d), not later

16 than 90 days after the Attorney General

17 receives the notice described in subpara18 graph (C), to obtain a preliminary injunc19 tion or temporary restraining order enjoin20 ing such company from providing such

21 services, or

22 (ii) so commences such civil action

23 but—

24 (I) fails to obtain such an injunc25 tion or order from the district court
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1 involved enjoining such company from

2 providing such services, or

3 (II) such injunction issued by

4 such court is vacated on appeal.

5 (c) EXCEPTIONS FOR INCIDENTAL SERVICES.—Sub6 section (a) shall not prohibit a Bell operating company,

7 at any time after the date of the enactment of this Act,

8 from providing interexchange telecommunications services

9 for the purpose of—

10 (1)(A) providing audio programming, video pro11 gramming, or other programming services to sub12 scribers to such services of such company,

13 (B) providing the capability for interaction by

14 such subscribers to select or respond to such audio

15 programming, video programming, or other pro16 gramming services, or

17 (C) providing to distributors audio program18 ming or video programming that such company

19 owns, controls, or is licensed by the copyright owner

20 of such programming, or by an assignee of such

21 owner, to distribute,

22 (2) providing a telecommunications service,

23 using the transmission facilities of a cable system

24 that is an affiliate of such company, between ex25 change areas within a cable system franchise area in
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1 which such company is not, on the date of the enact2 ment of this Act, a provider of wireline telephone ex3 change service,

4 (3) providing commercial mobile services in ac5 cordance with section 332(c) of the Communications

6 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(c)) and with the regula7 tions prescribed by the Commission pursuant to

8 paragraph (7) of such section,

9 (4) providing a service that permits a customer

10 that is located in one exchange area to retrieve

11 stored information from, or file information for stor12 age in, information storage facilities of such com13 pany that are located in another exchange area,

14 (5) providing signaling information used in con15 nection with the provision of exchange services to a

16 local exchange carrier that, together with any affili17 ated local exchange carriers, has aggregate annual

18 revenues of less than $100,000,000, or

19 (6) providing network control signaling infor20 mation to, and receiving such signaling information

21 from, interexchange carriers at any location within

22 the area in which such company provides exchange

23 services or exchange access.

24 (d) CIVIL ACTION.—(1) For the purpose of para25 graph (2) or (3) of subsection (b), the Attorney General
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1 shall commence a civil action, not later than 90 days after

2 receiving the notice required by paragraph (2)(B) or

3 (3)(C) of such subsection, respectively, to enjoin such com4 pany from providing interexchange telecommunications

5 services pursuant to such paragraph if the Attorney Gen6 eral determines that the standard specified in the first

7 sentence of section 101(b)(3)(D)(i) is not satisfied with

8 respect to providing such interexchange telecommuni9 cations services.

10 (2) With respect to a civil action commenced for the

11 purpose of paragraph (2) or (3) of subsection (b), venue

12 shall lie in any district court of the United States in the

13 State that granted the approval or authorization referred

14 to in such paragraph.

15 (3) If the Attorney General does not commence a civil

16 action in accordance with paragraph (1) before the expira17 tion of the 90-day period beginning on the date the Attor18 ney General receives such notice, the Attorney General

19 shall publish in the Federal Register a brief statement

20 that the Attorney General has determined not to com21 mence such civil action.

22 SEC. 103. LIMITATIONS ON MANUFACTURING AND PROVID23 ING EQUIPMENT.

24 (a) ABSOLUTE LIMITATION.—Until the expiration of

25 the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment
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1 of this Act, it shall be unlawful for a Bell operating com2 pany, directly or through an affiliated enterprise, to manu3 facture or provide telecommunications equipment, or to

4 manufacture customer premises equipment.

5 (b) QUALIFIED LIMITATION.—

6 (1) REQUIRED CONDITIONS.—After the expira7 tion of the 1-year period beginning on the date of

8 the enactment of this Act, it shall be lawful for a

9 Bell operating company, directly or through an af10 filiated enterprise, to manufacture or provide tele11 communications equipment, or to manufacture cus12 tomer premises equipment, to the extent described in

13 a notification to the Attorney General that meets the

14 requirements of paragraph (2) and only if—

15 (A) such company submits to the Attorney

16 General, at any time after the date of the en17 actment of this Act, the notification described

18 in paragraph (2) and such additional material

19 and information described in such paragraph as

20 the Attorney General may request, and complies

21 with the waiting period specified in paragraph

22 (3), and

23 (B)(i) the waiting period specified in para24 graph (3) expires without the commencement of

25 a civil action by the Attorney General in accord-
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1 ance with paragraph (4) to enjoin such com2 pany from engaging in the activity described in

3 such notification, or

4 (ii) before the expiration of such waiting

5 period, the Attorney General notifies such com6 pany in writing that the Attorney General does

7 not intend to commence such a civil action with

8 respect to such activity.

9 (2) NOTIFICATION.—The notification required

10 by paragraph (1) shall be in such form and shall

11 contain such documentary material and information

12 relevant to the proposed activity as is necessary and

13 appropriate for the Attorney General to determine

14 whether there is no substantial possibility that such

15 company or its affiliates could use monopoly power

16 to impede competition in the market such company

17 seeks to enter for such activity.

18 (3) WAITING PERIOD.—The waiting period re19 ferred to in paragraph (1) is the 1-year period be20 ginning on the date the notification required by such

21 paragraph is received by the Attorney General.

22 (4) CIVIL ACTION.—Not later than 1 year after

23 receiving a notification required by paragraph (1),

24 the Attorney General may commence a civil action in

25 an appropriate district court of the United States to
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1 enjoin the Bell operating company from engaging in

2 the activity described in such notification, if the At3 torney General determines that there is a substantial

4 possibility that such company or its affiliates could

5 use monopoly power to impede competition in the

6 market it seeks to enter with respect to such activ7 ity.

8 (c) EXCEPTION FOR PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED AC9 TIVITIES.—Subsections (a) and (b) shall not prohibit a

10 Bell operating company from engaging, at any time after

11 the date of the enactment of this Act, in any activity as

12 authorized by an order entered by the United States Dis13 trict Court for the District of Columbia pursuant to sec14 tion VII or VIII(C) of the Modification of Final Judg15 ment, if—

16 (1) such order was entered on or before the

17 date of the enactment of this Act, or

18 (2) a request for such authorization was pend19 ing before such court on the date of the enactment

20 of this Act.

21 SEC. 104. ANTICOMPETITIVE TYING ARRANGEMENTS.

22 A Bell operating company with monopoly power in

23 any exchange service market shall not tie (directly or indi24 rectly) in any relevant market the sale of any product or

25 service to the provision of any telecommunications service,
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1 if the effect of such tying may be to substantially lessen

2 competition, or to tend to create a monopoly, in any line

3 of commerce.

4 SEC. 105. ENFORCEMENT.

5 (a) EQUITABLE POWERS OF UNITED STATES ATTOR6 NEYS.—It shall be the duty of the several United States

7 attorneys, under the direction of the Attorney General, to

8 institute proceedings in equity in their respective districts

9 to prevent and restrain violations of this title.

10 (b) CRIMINAL LIABILITY.—Whoever knowingly en11 gages or knowingly attempts to engage in an activity that

12 is prohibited by section 102, 103, or 104 shall be guilty

13 of a felony, and on conviction thereof, shall be punished

14 to the same extent as a person is punished upon conviction

15 of a violation of section 1 of the Sherman Act

16 (15 U.S.C. 1).

17 (c) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—Any person who is

18 injured in its business or property by reason of a violation

19 of this title—

20 (1) may bring a civil action in any district court

21 of the United States in the district in which the de22 fendant resides or is found or has an agent, without

23 respect to the amount in controversy, and
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1 (2) shall recover threefold the damages sus2 tained, and the cost of suit (including a reasonable

3 attorney’s fee).

4 The court may award under this section, pursuant to a

5 motion by such person promptly made, simple interest on

6 actual damages for the period beginning on the date of

7 service of such person’s pleading setting forth a claim

8 under this title and ending on the date of judgment, or

9 for any shorter period therein, if the court finds that the

10 award of such interest for such period is just in the

11 circumstances.

12 (d) PRIVATE INJUNCTIVE RELIEF.—Any person shall

13 be entitled to sue for and have injunctive relief, in any

14 court of the United States having jurisdiction over the

15 parties, against threatened loss or damage by a violation

16 of this title, when and under the same conditions and prin17 ciples as injunctive relief is available under section 16 of

18 the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 26). In any action under this

19 subsection in which the plaintiff substantially prevails, the

20 court shall award the cost of suit, including a reasonable

21 attorney’s fee, to such plaintiff.

22 (e) JURISDICTION.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2),

23 the courts of the United States shall have exclusive juris24 diction to make determinations with respect to a duty,

25 claim, or right arising under this title, other than deter-
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1 minations authorized to be made by the Attorney General

2 and the Federal Communications Commission under sec3 tion 101(b)(3).

4 (2) The United States Court of Appeals for the Dis5 trict of Columbia shall have exclusive jurisdiction to review

6 determinations made under section 101(b)(3).

7 (3) No action commenced to assert or enforce a duty,

8 claim, or right arising under this title shall be stayed

9 pending any such determination by the Attorney General

10 or the Federal Communications Commission.

11 (f) SUBPOENAS.—In an action commenced under this

12 title, a subpoena requiring the attendance of a witness at

13 a hearing or a trial may be served at any place within

14 the United States.

15 (g) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER LAWS TO ENFORCE16 MENT OF THIS TITLE.—

17 (1) SECTION 5 OF THE CLAYTON ACT.—Section

18 5 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 16) shall apply with

19 respect to actions under this section brought by or

20 on behalf of the United States.

21 (2) ANTITRUST CIVIL PROCESS ACT.—Section

22 2(a) of the Antitrust Civil Process Act (15 U.S.C.

23 1311(a)) is amended—

24 (A) in paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at

25 the end,
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1 (B) in paragraph (2) by striking the period

2 at the end and inserting ‘‘and’’, and

3 (C) by adding at the end the following:

4 ‘‘(3) title I of the Antitrust and Commu5 nications Reform Act of 1995.’’.

6 SEC. 106. DEFINITIONS.

7 For purposes of this title:

8 (1) AFFILIATE.—The term ‘‘affiliate’’ means a

9 person that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls,

10 is owned or controlled by, or is under common own11 ership or control with, another person. For purposes

12 of this paragraph, to own refers to owning an equity

13 interest (or the equivalent thereof) of more than 50

14 percent.

15 (2) ALARM MONITORING SERVICE.—The term

16 ‘‘alarm monitoring service’’ means a service that

17 uses a device located at a residence, place of busi18 ness, or other fixed premises—

19 (A) to receive signals from other devices lo20 cated at or about such premises regarding a

21 possible threat at such premises to life, safety,

22 or property, from burglary, fire, vandalism,

23 bodily injury, or other emergency, and

24 (B) to transmit a signal regarding such

25 threat by means of transmission facilities of a
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1 Bell operating company or one of its affiliates

2 to a remote monitoring center to alert a person

3 at such center of the need to inform the cus4 tomer or another person or police, fire, rescue,

5 security, or public safety personnel of such

6 threat,

7 but does not include a service that uses a medical

8 monitoring device attached to an individual for the

9 automatic surveillance of an ongoing medical condi10 tion.

11 (3) ANTITRUST LAWS.—The term ‘‘antitrust

12 laws’’ has the meaning given it in subsection (a) of

13 the first section of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C.

14 12(a)), except that such term includes the Act of

15 June 19, 1936 (49 Stat. 1526; 15 U.S.C. 13 et

16 seq.), commonly known as the Robinson Patman

17 Act, and section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission

18 Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent that such section

19 5 applies to unfair methods of competition.

20 (4) AUDIO PROGRAMMING.—The term ‘‘audio

21 programming’’ means programming provided by, or

22 generally considered comparable to programming

23 provided by, a radio broadcast station.

24 (5) BELL OPERATING COMPANY.—The term

25 ‘‘Bell operating company’’ means—
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•HR 411 IH

1 (A) Bell Telephone Company of Nevada,

2 Illinois Bell Telephone Company, Indiana Bell

3 Telephone Company, Incorporated, Michigan

4 Bell Telephone Company, New England Tele5 phone and Telegraph Company, New Jersey

6 Bell Telephone Company, New York Telephone

7 Company, U S West Communications Com8 pany, South Central Bell Telephone Company,

9 Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Com10 pany, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company,

11 The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania,

12 The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Com13 pany, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone

14 Company of Maryland, The Chesapeake and

15 Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia, The

16 Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company

17 of West Virginia, The Diamond State Tele18 phone Company, The Ohio Bell Telephone

19 Company, The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph

20 Company, or Wisconsin Telephone Company,

21 (B) any successor or assign of any such

22 company, or

23 (C) any affiliate of any person described in

24 subparagraph (A) or (B).
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•HR 411 IH

1 (6) CABLE SYSTEM.—The term ‘‘cable system’’

2 has the meaning given such term in section 602(7)

3 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.

4 522(7)).

5 (7) CARRIER.—The term ‘‘carrier’’ has the

6 meaning given such term in section 3 of the Commu7 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153).

8 (8) COMMERCIAL MOBILE SERVICES.—The term

9 ‘‘commercial mobile services’’ has the meaning given

10 such term in section 332(d) of the Communications

11 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(d)).

12 (9) CUSTOMER PREMISES EQUIPMENT.—The

13 term ‘‘customer premises equipment’’ means equip14 ment employed on the premises of a person (other

15 than a carrier) to originate, route, or terminate tele16 communications, and includes software integral to

17 such equipment.

18 (10) EXCHANGE ACCESS.—The term ‘‘exchange

19 access’’ means exchange services provided for the

20 purpose of originating or terminating interexchange

21 telecommunications.

22 (11) EXCHANGE AREA.—The term ‘‘exchange

23 area’’ means a contiguous geographic area estab24 lished by a Bell operating company such that no ex25 change area includes points within more than 1 met-
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•HR 411 IH

1 ropolitan statistical area, consolidated metropolitan

2 statistical area, or State, except as expressly per3 mitted under the Modification of Final Judgment

4 before the date of the enactment of this Act.

5 (12) EXCHANGE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘ex6 change service’’ means a telecommunications service

7 provided within an exchange area.

8 (13) INFORMATION.—Except as provided in

9 paragraph (17), the term ‘‘information’’ means

10 knowledge or intelligence represented by any form of

11 writing, signs, signals, pictures, sounds, or other

12 symbols.

13 (14) INTEREXCHANGE TELECOMMUNI14 CATIONS.—The term ‘‘interexchange telecommuni15 cations’’ means telecommunications between a point

16 located in an exchange area and a point located out17 side such exchange area.

18 (15) MANUFACTURE.—The term ‘‘manufac19 ture’’ has the meaning given such term under the

20 Modification of Final Judgment.

21 (16) MODIFICATION OF FINAL JUDGMENT.—

22 The term ‘‘Modification of Final Judgment’’ means

23 the order entered August 24, 1982, in the antitrust

24 action styled United States v. Western Electric, Civil

25 Action No. 82–0192, in the United States District
30

•HR 411 IH

1 Court for the District of Columbia, and includes any

2 judgment or order with respect to such action en3 tered on or after August 24, 1982.

4 (17) OTHER PROGRAMMING SERVICES.—The

5 term ‘‘other programming services’’ means informa6 tion (other than audio programming or video pro7 gramming) that the person who offers a video pro8 gramming service makes available to all subscribers

9 generally. For purposes of the preceding sentence,

10 the terms ‘‘information’’ and ‘‘makes available to all

11 subscribers generally’’ have the same meaning such

12 terms have under section 602(13) of the Commu13 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522(13)).

14 (18) PERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ has the

15 meaning given such term in subsection (a) of the

16 first section of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12(a)).

17 (19) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of

18 the several States, the District of Columbia, the

19 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth

20 of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated

21 States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall

22 Islands, Palau, or any territory or possession of the

23 United States.
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•HR 411 IH

1 (20) TELECOMMUNICATIONS.—The term ‘‘tele2 communications’’ means the transmission of infor3 mation between points by electromagnetic means.

4 (21) TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT.—The

5 term ‘‘telecommunications equipment’’ means equip6 ment, other than customer premises equipment, used

7 by a carrier to provide a telecommunications service,

8 and includes software integral to such equipment.

9 (22) TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE.—The

10 term ‘‘telecommunications service’’ means the offer11 ing for hire of transmission facilities or of tele12 communications by means of such facilities.

13 (23) TRANSMISSION FACILITIES.—The term

14 ‘‘transmission facilities’’ means equipment (including

15 wire, cable, microwave, satellite, and fiber-optics)

16 that transmits information by electromagnetic means

17 or that directly supports such transmission, but does

18 not include customer premises equipment.

19 (24) VIDEO PROGRAMMING.—The term ‘‘video

20 programming’’ has the meaning given such term in

21 section 602(19) of the Communications Act of 1934

22 (47 U.S.C. 522(19)).
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•HR 411 IH

1 SEC. 107. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAWS.

2 (a) MODIFICATION OF FINAL JUDGMENT.—This title

3 shall supersede the Modification of Final Judgment, ex4 cept that this title shall not affect—

5 (1) section I of the Modification of Final Judg6 ment, relating to AT&T reorganization,

7 (2) section II(A) (including appendix B) and

8 II(B) of the Modification of Final Judgment, relat9 ing to equal access and nondiscrimination,

10 (3) section IV(F) and IV(I) of the Modification

11 of Final Judgment, with respect to the requirements

12 included in the definitions of ‘‘exchange access’’ and

13 ‘‘information access’’,

14 (4) section VIII(B) of the Modification of Final

15 Judgment, relating to printed advertising directories,

16 (5) section VIII(E) of the Modification of Final

17 Judgment, relating to notice to customers of AT&T,

18 (6) section VIII(F) of the Modification of Final

19 Judgment, relating to less than equal exchange ac20 cess,

21 (7) section VIII(G) of the Modification of Final

22 Judgment, relating to transfer of AT&T assets, in23 cluding all exceptions granted thereunder before the

24 date of the enactment of this Act, and
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•HR 411 IH

1 (8) with respect to the parts of the Modification

2 of Final Judgment described in paragraphs (1)

3 through (7)—

4 (A) section III of the Modification of Final

5 Judgment, relating to applicability and effect,

6 (B) section IV of the Modification of Final

7 Judgment, relating to definitions,

8 (C) section V of the Modification of Final

9 Judgment, relating to compliance,

10 (D) section VI of the Modification of Final

11 Judgment, relating to visitorial provisions,

12 (E) section VII of the Modification of

13 Final Judgment, relating to retention of juris14 diction, and

15 (F) section VIII(I) of the Modification of

16 Final Judgment, relating to the court’s sua

17 sponte authority.

18 (b) ANTITRUST LAWS.—Except as provided in sec19 tion 105(g), nothing in this Act shall be construed to mod20 ify, impair, or supersede the applicability of any of the

21 antitrust laws.

22 (c) FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LAW.—(1) Except

23 as provided in paragraph (2), this title shall not be con24 strued to modify, impair, or supersede Federal, State, or

25 local law unless expressly so provided in this title.
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•HR 411 IH

1 (2) This title shall supersede State and local law to

2 the extent that such law would impair or prevent the oper3 ation of this title.

4 (d) CUMULATIVE PENALTY.—Any penalty imposed,

5 or relief granted, under this title shall be in addition to,

6 and not in lieu of, any penalty or relief authorized by any

7 other law to be imposed with respect to conduct described

8 in this title.

9 SEC. 108. REQUIRED REGULATORY ACTIONS.

10 (a) REGULATIONS TO PROHIBIT CROSS-SUB11 SIDIES.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enact12 ment of this Act, the Federal Communications Commis13 sion shall review its regulations and revise such regula14 tions to the extent necessary to prevent a Bell operating

15 company from engaging in any improper cross-subsidiza16 tion in connection with any of the services described in

17 paragraphs (1) through (6) of section 102(c).

18 (b) MOBILE SERVICE ACCESS.—

19 (1) AMENDMENT.—Section 332(c) of the Com20 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(c)) is

21 amended by adding at the end the following new

22 paragraph:

23 ‘‘(7) MOBILE SERVICES ACCESS.—Within 180

24 days after the date of enactment of this paragraph,

25 the Commission shall review its regulations with re-
35

•HR 411 IH

1 spect to the access to interexchange services pro2 vided to subscribers to commercial mobile services

3 and revise such regulations to the extent necessary

4 to protect the public interest, convenience, and ne5 cessity. In revising such regulations, the Commis6 sion—

7 ‘‘(A) shall, until January 1, 1998, and

8 may thereafter (i) require that each provider of

9 two-way commercial mobile services afford its

10 subscribers nondiscriminatory access to a pro11 vider of interexchange services of the subscrib12 er’s choice, and (ii) establish geographic service

13 areas within which providers of two-way com14 mercial mobile services shall be exempt from

15 the access obligation under clause (i);

16 ‘‘(B) may establish or revise technical

17 interconnection requirements on providers of

18 two-way commercial mobile services;

19 ‘‘(C) subject to section 104 of the Anti20 trust and Communications Reform Act of 1995,

21 and the provisions of paragraph (1) of this sub22 section and subparagraph (A) of this paragraph

23 and the regulations prescribed thereunder, may

24 permit (with or without conditions) or prohibit
36

•HR 411 IH

1 the bundling of two-way commercial mobile

2 services with interexchange services; and

3 ‘‘(D) shall not, in establishing any require4 ment under subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) es5 tablish different requirements—

6 ‘‘(i) for providers of two-way commer7 cial mobile services that also are, or are af8 filiated with, providers of wireline tele9 phone exchange service; and

10 ‘‘(ii) for providers of two-way commer11 cial mobile services that are not, and are

12 not affiliated with, providers of wireline

13 telephone exchange service.

14 The regulations prescribed pursuant to this para15 graph shall supersede any inconsistent requirements

16 imposed by the Modification of Final Judgment (as

17 such term is defined in section 106 of the Antitrust

18 and Communications Reform Act of 1995). Nothing

19 in this paragraph shall affect the Commission’s au20 thority to establish the terms and conditions under

21 which providers of telephone exchange services pro22 vide access to the local exchange networks for com23 mercial mobile services or interexchange services.’’.

24 (2) EFFECTIVE DATE CONFORMING AMEND25 MENT.—Section 6002(c)(2)(B) of the Omnibus
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•HR 411 IH

1 Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 is amended by

2 striking ‘‘section 332(c)(6)’’ and inserting ‘‘para3 graphs (6) and (7) of section 332(c)’’.

4 TITLE II—REGULATION OF MAN5 UFACTURING, ALARM SERV6 ICES, AND ELECTRONIC PUB7 LISHING BY BELL OPERATING

8 COMPANIES

9 SEC. 201. REGULATION OF MANUFACTURING BY BELL OP10 ERATING COMPANIES.

11 Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

12 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the

13 following new section:

14 ‘‘SEC. 229. REGULATION OF MANUFACTURING BY BELL

15 OPERATING COMPANIES.

16 ‘‘(a) GENERAL AUTHORITY.—Subject to the require17 ments of this section and the regulations prescribed there18 under, but notwithstanding any restriction or obligation

19 imposed before the date of enactment of this section pur20 suant to the Modification of Final Judgment on the lines

21 of business in which a Bell operating company may en22 gage, a Bell operating company, through an affiliate of

23 that company, may manufacture and provide tele24 communications equipment and manufacture customer

25 premises equipment.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(b) SEPARATE MANUFACTURING AFFILIATE.—Any

2 manufacturing or provision authorized under subsection

3 (a) shall be conducted only through an affiliate that is sep4 arate from any Bell operating company.

5 ‘‘(c) COMMISSION REGULATION OF MANUFACTURING

6 AFFILIATE.—

7 ‘‘(1) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.—The Commis8 sion shall prescribe regulations to ensure that Bell

9 operating companies and their affiliates comply with

10 the requirements of this section.

11 ‘‘(2) BOOKS, RECORDS, ACCOUNTS.—A manu12 facturing affiliate required by subsection (b) shall—

13 ‘‘(A) maintain books, records, and ac14 counts that are separate from the books,

15 records, and accounts of its affiliated Bell oper16 ating company and that identify all financial

17 transactions between the manufacturing affili18 ate and its affiliated Bell operating company,

19 and

20 ‘‘(B) even if such manufacturing affiliate

21 is not a publicly held corporation, prepare fi22 nancial statements which are in compliance

23 with financial reporting requirements under the

24 Federal securities laws for publicly held cor25 porations, file such statements with the Com-
39

•HR 411 IH

1 mission, and make such statements available

2 for public inspection.

3 ‘‘(3) IN-KIND BENEFITS TO AFFILIATE.—Con4 sistent with the provisions of this section, neither a

5 Bell operating company nor any of its

6 nonmanufacturing affiliates shall perform sales, ad7 vertising, installation, production, or maintenance

8 operations for a manufacturing affiliate, except

9 that—

10 ‘‘(A) a Bell operating company and its

11 nonmanufacturing affiliates may sell, advertise,

12 install, and maintain telecommunications equip13 ment and customer premises equipment after

14 acquiring such equipment from their manufac15 turing affiliate; and

16 ‘‘(B) institutional advertising, of a type not

17 related to specific telecommunications equip18 ment, carried out by the Bell operating com19 pany or its affiliates, shall be permitted.

20 ‘‘(4) DOMESTIC MANUFACTURING REQUIRED.—

21 ‘‘(A) GENERAL RULE.—Except as other22 wise provided in this paragraph, a manufactur23 ing affiliate required by subsection (b) shall

24 conduct all of its manufacturing within the

25 United States and all component parts of cus-
40

•HR 411 IH

1 tomer premises equipment manufactured by

2 such affiliate, and all component parts of tele3 communications equipment manufactured by

4 such affiliate, shall have been manufactured

5 within the United States.

6 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—(i) Such affiliate may

7 use component parts manufactured outside the

8 United States if—

9 ‘‘(I) such affiliate first makes a good

10 faith effort to obtain equivalent component

11 parts manufactured within the United

12 States at reasonable prices, terms, and

13 conditions; and

14 ‘‘(II) for the aggregate of tele15 communications equipment and customer

16 premises equipment manufactured and sold

17 in the United States by such affiliate, the

18 cost of the components manufactured out19 side the United States contained in all

20 such equipment does not exceed 40 percent

21 of the sales revenue derived in any cal22 endar year from such equipment.

23 ‘‘(ii) Subparagraph (A) shall apply except

24 to the extent that any of its provisions are de25 termined to be inconsistent with any multilat-
41

•HR 411 IH

1 eral or bilateral agreement to which the United

2 States is a party.

3 ‘‘(C) CERTIFICATION REQUIRED.—Any

4 such affiliate that uses component parts manu5 factured outside the United States in the manu6 facture of telecommunications equipment and

7 customer premises equipment within the United

8 States shall—

9 ‘‘(i) certify to the Commission that a

10 good faith effort was made to obtain equiv11 alent parts manufactured within the

12 United States at reasonable prices, terms,

13 and conditions, which certification shall be

14 filed on a quarterly basis with the Commis15 sion and list component parts, by type,

16 manufactured outside the United States;

17 and

18 ‘‘(ii) certify to the Commission on an

19 annual basis that such affiliate complied

20 with the requirements of subparagraph

21 (B)(ii), as adjusted in accordance with

22 subparagraph (G).

23 ‘‘(D) REMEDIES FOR FAILURES.—(i) If the

24 Commission determines, after reviewing the cer25 tification required in subparagraph (C)(i), that
42

•HR 411 IH

1 such affiliate failed to make the good faith ef2 fort required in subparagraph (B)(i) or, after

3 reviewing the certification required in subpara4 graph (C)(ii), that such affiliate has exceeded

5 the percentage specified in subparagraph

6 (B)(ii), the Commission may impose penalties

7 or forfeitures as provided for in title V of this

8 Act.

9 ‘‘(ii) Any supplier claiming to be damaged

10 because a manufacturing affiliate failed to

11 make the good faith effort required in subpara12 graph (B)(i) may make complaint to the Com13 mission as provided for in section 208 of this

14 Act, or may bring suit for the recovery of actual

15 damages for which such supplier claims such

16 affiliate may be liable under the provisions of

17 this Act in any district court of the United

18 States of competent jurisdiction.

19 ‘‘(E) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Commission,

20 in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce,

21 shall, on an annual basis, determine the cost of

22 component parts manufactured outside the

23 United States contained in all telecommuni24 cations equipment and customer premises

25 equipment sold in the United States as a per-
43

•HR 411 IH

1 centage of the revenues from sales of such

2 equipment in the previous calendar year.

3 ‘‘(F) USE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN

4 MANUFACTURE.—Notwithstanding subpara5 graph (A), a manufacturing affiliate may use

6 intellectual property created outside the United

7 States in the manufacture of telecommuni8 cations equipment and customer premises

9 equipment in the United States. A component

10 manufactured using such intellectual property

11 shall not be treated for purposes of subpara12 graph (B)(ii) as a component manufactured

13 outside the United States solely on the basis of

14 the use of such intellectual property.

15 ‘‘(G) RESTRICTIONS ON COMMISSION AU16 THORITY.—The Commission may not waive or

17 alter the requirements of this paragraph, except

18 that the Commission, on an annual basis, shall

19 adjust the percentage specified in subparagraph

20 (B)(ii) to the percentage determined by the

21 Commission, in consultation with the Secretary

22 of Commerce, pursuant to subparagraph (E).

23 ‘‘(5) INSULATION OF RATE PAYERS FROM MAN24 UFACTURING AFFILIATE DEBT.—Any debt incurred

25 by any such manufacturing affiliate may not be is-
44

•HR 411 IH

1 sued by its affiliated Bell operating company and

2 such manufacturing affiliate shall be prohibited from

3 incurring debt in a manner that would permit a

4 creditor, on default, to have recourse to the assets

5 of its affiliated Bell operating company.

6 ‘‘(6) RELATION TO OTHER AFFILIATES.—A

7 manufacturing affiliate required by subsection (b)

8 shall not be required to operate separately from the

9 other affiliates of its affiliated Bell operating com10 pany, but if an affiliate of a Bell operating company

11 becomes affiliated with a manufacturing entity, such

12 affiliate shall be treated as a manufacturing affiliate

13 of that Bell operating company (except for purposes

14 of paragraph (3)) and shall comply with the require15 ments of this section.

16 ‘‘(7) AVAILABILITY OF EQUIPMENT TO OTHER

17 CARRIERS.—A manufacturing affiliate required by

18 subsection (b) shall make available, without discrimi19 nation or preference as to price, delivery, terms, or

20 conditions, to any common carrier any telecommuni21 cations equipment that is used in the provision of

22 telephone exchange service and that is manufactured

23 by such affiliate only if such purchasing carrier—

24 ‘‘(A) does not manufacture telecommuni25 cations equipment, and does not have an affili-
45

•HR 411 IH

1 ated telecommunications equipment manufac2 turing entity; or

3 ‘‘(B) agrees to make available, to the Bell

4 operating company affiliated with such manu5 facturing affiliate or any common carrier affili6 ate of such Bell operating company, any tele7 communications equipment that is used in the

8 provision of telephone exchange service and that

9 is manufactured by such purchasing carrier or

10 by any entity or organization with which such

11 purchasing carrier is affiliated.

12 ‘‘(8) SALES PRACTICES OF MANUFACTURING

13 AFFILIATES.—

14 ‘‘(A) PROHIBITION OF DISCONTINUATION

15 OF EQUIPMENT FOR WHICH THERE IS REASON16 ABLE DEMAND.—A manufacturing affiliate re17 quired by subsection (b) shall not discontinue or

18 restrict sales to a common carrier of any tele19 communications equipment that is used in the

20 provision of telephone exchange service and that

21 such affiliate manufactures for sale as long as

22 there is reasonable demand for the equipment

23 by such carriers; except that such sales may be

24 discontinued or restricted if such manufactur25 ing affiliate demonstrates to the Commission
46

•HR 411 IH

1 that it is not making a profit, under a marginal

2 cost standard implemented by the Commission

3 by regulation, on the sale of such equipment.

4 ‘‘(B) DETERMINATIONS OF REASONABLE

5 DEMAND.—Within 60 days after receipt of an

6 application under subparagraph (A), the Com7 mission shall reach a determination as to the

8 existence of reasonable demand for purposes of

9 such subparagraph. In making such determina10 tion the Commission shall consider—

11 ‘‘(i) whether the continued manufac12 ture of the equipment will be profitable;

13 ‘‘(ii) whether the equipment is func14 tionally or technologically obsolete;

15 ‘‘(iii) whether the components nec16 essary to manufacture the equipment con17 tinue to be available;

18 ‘‘(iv) whether alternatives to the

19 equipment are available in the market; and

20 ‘‘(v) such other factors as the Com21 mission deems necessary and proper.

22 ‘‘(9) JOINT PLANNING OBLIGATIONS.—Each

23 Bell operating company shall, consistent with the

24 antitrust laws, (including title I of the Antitrust and

25 Communications Reform Act of 1995), engage in
47

•HR 411 IH

1 joint network planning and design with other contig2 uous common carriers providing telephone exchange

3 service, but agreement with such other carriers shall

4 not be required as a prerequisite for the introduction

5 or deployment of services pursuant to such joint net6 work planning and design.

7 ‘‘(d) INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS.—

8 ‘‘(1) FILING OF INFORMATION ON PROTOCOLS

9 AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS.—Each Bell oper10 ating company shall, in accordance with regulations

11 prescribed by the Commission, maintain and file

12 with the Commission full and complete information

13 with respect to the protocols and technical require14 ments for connection with and use of its telephone

15 exchange service facilities. Each such company shall

16 report promptly to the Commission any material

17 changes or planned changes to such protocols and

18 requirements, and the schedule for implementation

19 of such changes or planned changes.

20 ‘‘(2) FILING AS PREREQUISITE TO DISCLOSURE

21 TO AFFILIATE.—A Bell operating company shall not

22 disclose to any of its affiliates any information re23 quired to be filed under paragraph (1) unless that

24 information is filed promptly, as required by regula25 tion by the Commission.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(3) ACCESS BY COMPETITORS TO INFORMA2 TION.—The Commission may prescribe such addi3 tional regulations under this subsection as may be

4 necessary to ensure that manufacturers in competi5 tion with a Bell operating company’s manufacturing

6 affiliate have access to the information with respect

7 to the protocols and technical requirements for con8 nection with and use of its telephone exchange serv9 ice facilities required for such competition that such

10 company makes available to its manufacturing

11 affiliate.

12 ‘‘(4) PLANNING INFORMATION.—Each Bell op13 erating company shall provide, to contiguous com14 mon carriers providing telephone exchange service,

15 timely information on the planned deployment of

16 telecommunications equipment.

17 ‘‘(e) ADDITIONAL COMPETITION REQUIREMENTS.—

18 The Commission shall prescribe regulations requiring that

19 any Bell operating company which has an affiliate that

20 engages in any manufacturing authorized by subsection

21 (a) shall—

22 ‘‘(1) provide, to other manufacturers of tele23 communications equipment and customer premises

24 equipment that is functionally equivalent to equip25 ment manufactured by the Bell operating company
49

•HR 411 IH

1 manufacturing affiliate, opportunities to sell such

2 equipment to such Bell operating company which are

3 comparable to the opportunities which such Com4 pany provides to its affiliates; and

5 ‘‘(2) not subsidize its manufacturing affiliate

6 with revenues from telephone exchange service or

7 telephone toll service.

8 ‘‘(f) COLLABORATION PERMITTED.—Nothing in this

9 section (other than subsection (l)) shall be construed to

10 limit or restrict the ability of a Bell operating company

11 and its affiliates to engage in close collaboration with any

12 manufacturer of customer premises equipment or tele13 communications equipment during the design and develop14 ment of hardware, software, or combinations thereof

15 related to such equipment.

16 ‘‘(g) ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.—

17 ‘‘(1) MANUFACTURING.—The Commission shall,

18 within 1 year after the date of enactment of this sec19 tion, prescribe such regulations as are necessary to

20 ensure that telecommunications equipment and cus21 tomer premises equipment designed, developed, and

22 fabricated pursuant to the authority granted in this

23 section shall be accessible and usable by individuals

24 with disabilities, including individuals with func25 tional limitations of hearing, vision, movement, ma-
50

•HR 411 IH

1 nipulation, speech, and interpretation of information,

2 unless the costs of making the equipment accessible

3 and usable would result in an undue burden or an

4 adverse competitive impact.

5 ‘‘(2) NETWORK SERVICES.—The Commission

6 shall, within 1 year after the date of enactment of

7 this section, prescribe such regulations as are nec8 essary to ensure that advances in network services

9 deployed by a Bell operating company shall be acces10 sible and usable by individuals whose access might

11 otherwise be impeded by a disability or functional

12 limitation, unless the costs of making the services

13 accessible and usable would result in an undue bur14 den or adverse competitive impact. Such regulations

15 shall seek to permit the use of both standard and

16 special equipment and seek to minimize the need of

17 individuals to acquire additional devices beyond

18 those used by the general public to obtain such

19 access.

20 ‘‘(3) COMPATIBILITY.—The regulations pre21 scribed under paragraphs (1) and (2) shall require

22 that whenever an undue burden or adverse competi23 tive impact would result from the manufacturing or

24 network services requirements in such paragraphs,

25 the manufacturing affiliate that designs, develops, or
51

•HR 411 IH

1 fabricates the equipment or the Bell operating com2 pany that deploys the network service shall ensure

3 that the equipment or network service in question is

4 compatible with existing peripheral devices or spe5 cialized customer premises equipment commonly

6 used by persons with disabilities to achieve access,

7 unless doing so would result in an undue burden or

8 adverse competitive impact.

9 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this subsection:

10 ‘‘(A) UNDUE BURDEN.—The term ‘undue

11 burden’ means significant difficulty or expense.

12 In determining whether an activity would result

13 in an undue burden, the following factors shall

14 be considered:

15 ‘‘(i) The nature and cost of the activ16 ity.

17 ‘‘(ii) The impact on the operation of

18 the facility involved in the manufacturing

19 of the equipment or deployment of the net20 work service.

21 ‘‘(iii) The financial resources of the

22 manufacturing affiliate in the case of man23 ufacturing of equipment, for as long as ap24 plicable regulatory rules prohibit cross-sub25 sidization of equipment manufacturing
52

•HR 411 IH

1 with revenues from regulated telecommuni2 cations service or when the manufacturing

3 activities are conducted in a separate sub4 sidiary.

5 ‘‘(iv) The financial resources of the

6 Bell operating company in the case of net7 work services, or in the case of manufac8 turing of equipment if applicable regu9 latory rules permit cross-subsidization of

10 equipment manufacturing with revenues

11 from regulated telecommunications services

12 and the manufacturing activities are not

13 conducted in a separate subsidiary.

14 ‘‘(v) The type of operation or oper15 ations of the manufacturing affiliate or

16 Bell operating company as applicable.

17 ‘‘(B) ADVERSE COMPETITIVE IMPACT.—In

18 determining whether the activity would result in

19 an adverse competitive impact, the following

20 factors shall be considered:

21 ‘‘(i) Whether such activity would raise

22 the cost of the equipment or network serv23 ice in question beyond the level at which

24 there would be sufficient consumer demand
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•HR 411 IH

1 by the general population to make the

2 equipment or network service profitable.

3 ‘‘(ii) Whether such activity would,

4 with respect to the equipment or network

5 service in question, put the manufacturing

6 affiliate or Bell operating company, as ap7 plicable, at a competitive disadvantage in

8 comparison with one or more providers of

9 one or more competing products and serv10 ices. This factor may only be considered so

11 long as competing manufacturers and net12 work service providers are not held to the

13 same obligation with respect to access by

14 persons with disabilities.

15 ‘‘(C) ACTIVITY.—For the purposes of this

16 paragraph, the term ‘activity’ includes—

17 ‘‘(i) the research, design, development,

18 deployment, and fabrication activities nec19 essary to comply with the requirements of

20 this section; and

21 ‘‘(ii) the acquisition of the related ma22 terials and equipment components.

23 ‘‘(5) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The regulations re24 quired by this subsection shall become effective 18

25 months after the date of enactment of this section.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(h) PUBLIC NETWORK ENHANCEMENT.—A Bell op2 erating company manufacturing affiliate shall, as a part

3 of its overall research and development effort, establish

4 a permanent program for manufacturing research and de5 velopment of products and applications for the enhance6 ment of the public switched telephone network and to pro7 mote public access to advanced telecommunications serv8 ices. Such program shall focus its work substantially on

9 developing technological advancements in public telephone

10 network applications, telecommunication equipment and

11 products, and access solutions to new services and tech12 nology, including access by (1) public institutions, includ13 ing educational and health care institutions; and (2) peo14 ple with disabilities and functional limitations. Notwith15 standing the limitations in subsection (a), a Bell operating

16 company and its affiliates may engage in such a program

17 in conjunction with a Bell operating company not so affili18 ated or any of its affiliates. The existence or establishment

19 of such a program that is jointly provided by manufactur20 ing affiliates of Bell operating companies shall satisfy the

21 requirements of this section as it pertains to all such affili22 ates of a Bell operating company.

23 ‘‘(i) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—The Commission

24 shall prescribe regulations to implement this section with25 in 180 days after the date of enactment of this section.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(j) ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT AUTHOR2 ITY.—

3 ‘‘(1) COMMISSION REGULATORY AUTHORITY.—

4 For the purposes of administering and enforcing the

5 provisions of this section and the regulations pre6 scribed thereunder, the Commission shall have the

7 same authority, power, and functions with respect to

8 any Bell operating company or any affiliate thereof

9 as the Commission has in administering and enforc10 ing the provisions of this title with respect to any

11 common carrier subject to this Act.

12 ‘‘(2) PRIVATE ACTIONS.—Any common carrier

13 that provides telephone exchange service and that is

14 injured by an act or omission of a Bell operating

15 company or its manufacturing affiliate which vio16 lates the requirements of paragraph (7) or (8) of

17 subsection (c), or the Commission’s regulations im18 plementing such paragraphs, may initiate an action

19 in a district court of the United States to recover

20 the full amount of damages sustained in con21 sequence of any such violation and obtain such or22 ders from the court as are necessary to terminate

23 existing violations and to prevent future violations;

24 or such regulated local telephone exchange carrier
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•HR 411 IH

1 may seek relief from the Commission pursuant to

2 sections 206 through 209.

3 ‘‘(k) EXISTING MANUFACTURING AUTHORITY.—

4 Nothing in this section shall prohibit any Bell operating

5 company from engaging, directly or through any affiliate,

6 in any manufacturing activity in which any Bell operating

7 company or affiliate was authorized to engage on the date

8 of enactment of this section.

9 ‘‘(l) ANTITRUST LAWS.—Nothing in this section shall

10 be construed to modify, impair, or supersede the applica11 bility of any of the antitrust laws (including title I of the

12 Antitrust and Communications Reform Act of 1995).

13 ‘‘(m) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section:

14 ‘‘(1) The term ‘affiliate’ means any organiza15 tion or entity that, directly or indirectly, owns or

16 controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under com17 mon ownership with a Bell operating company. The

18 terms ‘owns’, ‘owned’, and ‘ownership’ mean an eq19 uity interest of more than 10 percent.

20 ‘‘(2) The term ‘Bell operating company’ means

21 those companies listed in appendix A of the Modi22 fication of Final Judgment, and includes any succes23 sor or assign of any such company, but does not in24 clude any affiliate of any such company.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(3) The term ‘customer premises equipment’

2 means equipment employed on the premises of a

3 person (other than a carrier) to originate, route, or

4 terminate telecommunications.

5 ‘‘(4) The term ‘manufacturing’ has the same

6 meaning as such term has under the Modification of

7 Final Judgment.

8 ‘‘(5) The term ‘manufacturing affiliate’ means

9 an affiliate of a Bell operating company established

10 in accordance with subsection (b) of this section.

11 ‘‘(6) The term ‘Modification of Final Judg12 ment’ means the decree entered August 24, 1982, in

13 United States v. Western Electric Civil Action No.

14 82–0192 (United States District Court, District of

15 Columbia), and includes any judgment or order with

16 respect to such action entered on or after August

17 24, 1982, and before the date of enactment of this

18 section.

19 ‘‘(7) The term ‘telecommunications’ means the

20 transmission, between or among points specified by

21 the user, of information of the user’s choosing, with22 out change in the form or content of the information

23 as sent and received, by means of an electromagnetic

24 transmission medium, including all instrumentalities,

25 facilities, apparatus, and services (including the col-
58

•HR 411 IH

1 lection, storage, forwarding, switching, and delivery

2 of such information) essential to such transmission.

3 ‘‘(8) The term ‘telecommunications equipment’

4 means equipment, other than customer premises

5 equipment, used by a carrier to provide tele6 communications services, and includes software inte7 gral to such equipment (including upgrades).

8 ‘‘(9) The term ‘telecommunications service’

9 means the offering for hire of telecommunications

10 facilities, or of telecommunications by means of such

11 facilities.’’.

12 SEC. 202. REGULATION OF ENTRY INTO ALARM MONITOR13 ING SERVICES.

14 (a) AMENDMENT.—Title II of the Communications

15 Act of 1934 is amended by adding at the end the following

16 new section:

17 ‘‘SEC. 230. REGULATION OF ENTRY INTO ALARM MONITOR18 ING SERVICES.

19 ‘‘(a) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.—The Commission

20 shall prescribe regulations—

21 ‘‘(1) to establish such requirements, limitations,

22 or conditions as are (A) necessary and appropriate

23 in the public interest with respect to the provision of

24 alarm monitoring services by Bell operating compa25 nies and their affiliates, and (B) effective at such
59

•HR 411 IH

1 time as a Bell operating company or any of its affili2 ates is authorized to provide alarm monitoring serv3 ices;

4 ‘‘(2) to prohibit Bell operating companies and

5 their affiliates, at that or any earlier time after the

6 date of enactment of this section, from recording or

7 using in any fashion the occurrence or the contents

8 of calls received by providers of alarm monitoring

9 services for the purposes of marketing such services

10 on behalf of the Bell operating company, any of its

11 affiliates, or any other entity; and

12 ‘‘(3) to establish procedures for the receipt and

13 review of complaints concerning violations by such

14 companies of such regulations, or of any other provi15 sion of this Act or the regulations thereunder, that

16 result in material financial harm to a provider of

17 alarm monitoring services.

18 ‘‘(b) EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION OF COM19 PLAINTS.—The procedures established under subsection

20 (a)(3) shall ensure that the Commission will make a final

21 determination with respect to any complaint described in

22 such subsection within 120 days after receipt of the com23 plaint. If the complaint contains an appropriate showing

24 that the alleged violation occurred, as determined by the

25 Commission in accordance with such regulations, the Com-
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•HR 411 IH

1 mission shall, within 60 days after receipt of the com2 plaint, issue a cease and desist order to prevent the Bell

3 operating company and its affiliates from continuing to

4 engage in such violation pending such final determination.

5 ‘‘(c) REMEDIES.—The Commission may use any rem6 edy available under title V of this Act to terminate and

7 punish violations described in subsection (a)(2). Such rem8 edies may include, if the Commission determines that such

9 violation was willful or repeated, ordering the Bell operat10 ing company to cease offering alarm monitoring services.

11 ‘‘(d) RULEMAKING SCHEDULE.—The Commission

12 shall prescribe the regulations required by subsection

13 (a)(2) within 180 days after the date of enactment of this

14 section and shall prescribe the regulations required by

15 subsection (a)(1) and (a)(3) prior to the date on which

16 any Bell operating company may commence providing

17 alarm monitoring services pursuant to title I of the Anti18 trust and Communication Reform Act of 1995.

19 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section:

20 ‘‘(1) BELL OPERATING COMPANY.—The term

21 ‘Bell operating company’ has the meaning provided

22 in subparagraphs (A) or (B) of section 106(5) of the

23 Antitrust and Communication Reform Act of 1995.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(2) ALARM MONITORING SERVICES.—The term

2 ‘alarm monitoring services’ has the meaning pro3 vided in section 106(2) of such Act.

4 ‘‘(3) AFFILIATE.—The term ‘affiliate’ means a

5 person that (directly or indirectly) owns or controls,

6 is owned or controlled by, or is under common own7 ership or control with, another person. For purposes

8 of this paragraph, to own refers to owning an equity

9 interest (or the equivalent thereof) of more than 10

10 percent.’’.

11 SEC. 203. REGULATION OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING.

12 Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

13 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end there14 of the following new section:

15 ‘‘SEC. 231. REGULATION OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING.

16 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—

17 ‘‘(1) PROHIBITION.—A Bell operating company

18 and any affiliate shall not engage in the provision of

19 electronic publishing that is disseminated by means

20 of such Bell operating company’s or any of its affili21 ates’ basic telephone service.

22 ‘‘(2) PERMITTED ACTIVITIES OF SEPARATED

23 AFFILIATE.—Nothing in this section shall prohibit a

24 separated affiliate or electronic publishing joint ven-
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•HR 411 IH

1 ture from engaging in the provision of electronic

2 publishing or any other lawful service in any area.

3 ‘‘(3) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in

4 this section shall prohibit a Bell operating company

5 or affiliate from engaging in the provision of any

6 lawful service other than electronic publishing in any

7 area or from engaging in the provision of electronic

8 publishing that is not disseminated by means of such

9 Bell operating company’s or any of its affiliates’

10 basic telephone service.

11 ‘‘(b) SEPARATED AFFILIATE OR ELECTRONIC PUB12 LISHING JOINT VENTURE REQUIREMENTS.—A separated

13 affiliate or electronic publishing joint venture shall—

14 ‘‘(1) maintain books, records, and accounts that

15 are separate from those of the Bell operating com16 pany and from any affiliate and that record in ac17 cordance with generally accepted accounting prin18 ciples all transactions, whether direct or indirect,

19 with the Bell operating company;

20 ‘‘(2) not incur debt in a manner that would per21 mit a creditor upon default to have recourse to the

22 assets of the Bell operating company;

23 ‘‘(3) prepare financial statements that are not

24 consolidated with those of the Bell operating com-
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•HR 411 IH

1 pany or an affiliate, provided that consolidated

2 statements may also be prepared;

3 ‘‘(4) file with the Commission annual reports in

4 a form substantially equivalent to the Form 10–K

5 required by regulations of the Securities and Ex6 change;

7 ‘‘(5) after 1 year from the effective date of this

8 section, not hire—

9 ‘‘(A) as corporate officers, sales and mar10 keting management personnel whose respon11 sibilities at the separated affiliate or electronic

12 publishing joint venture will include the geo13 graphic area where the Bell operating company

14 provides basic telephone service;

15 ‘‘(B) network operations personnel whose

16 responsibilities at the separated affiliate or elec17 tronic publishing joint venture would require

18 dealing directly with the Bell operating com19 pany; or

20 ‘‘(C) any person who was employed by the

21 Bell operating company during the year preced22 ing their date of hire,

23 except that the requirements of this paragraph shall

24 not apply to persons subject to a collective bargain25 ing agreement that gives such persons rights to be
64

•HR 411 IH

1 employed by a separated affiliate or electronic pub2 lishing joint venture of the Bell operating company;

3 ‘‘(6) not provide any wireline telephone ex4 change service in any telephone exchange area where

5 a Bell operating company with which it is under

6 common ownership or control provides basic tele7 phone exchange service except on a resale basis;

8 ‘‘(7) not use the name, trademarks, or service

9 marks of an existing Bell operating company except

10 for names, trademarks, or service marks that are or

11 were used in common with the entity that owns or

12 controls the Bell operating company;

13 ‘‘(8) have performed annually by March 31, or

14 any other date prescribed by the Commission, a

15 compliance review—

16 ‘‘(A) that is conducted by an independent

17 entity that is subject to professional, legal, and

18 ethical obligations for the purpose of determin19 ing compliance during the preceding calendar

20 year with any provision of this section that im21 poses a requirement on such separated affiliate

22 or electronic publishing joint venture; and

23 ‘‘(B) the results of which are maintained

24 by the separated affiliate for a period of 5 years

25 subject to review by any lawful authority;
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(9) within 90 days of receiving a review de2 scribed in paragraph (8), file a report of any excep3 tions and corrective action with the Commission and

4 allow any person to inspect and copy such report

5 subject to reasonable safeguards to protect any pro6 prietary information contained in such report from

7 being used for purposes other than to enforce or

8 pursue remedies under this section.

9 ‘‘(c) BELL OPERATING COMPANY REQUIREMENTS.—

10 A Bell operating company under common ownership or

11 control with a separated affiliate or electronic publishing

12 joint venture shall—

13 ‘‘(1) not provide a separated affiliate any facili14 ties, services, or basic telephone service information

15 unless it makes such facilities, services, or informa16 tion available to unaffiliated entities upon request

17 and on the same terms and conditions;

18 ‘‘(2) carry out transactions with a separated af19 filiate in a manner equivalent to the manner that

20 unrelated parties would carry out independent trans21 actions and not based upon the affiliation;

22 ‘‘(3) carry out transactions with a separated af23 filiate, which involve the transfer of personnel, as24 sets, or anything of value, pursuant to written con-
66

•HR 411 IH

1 tracts or tariffs that are filed with the Commission

2 and made publicly available;

3 ‘‘(4) carry out transactions with a separated af4 filiate in a manner that is auditable in accordance

5 with generally accepted auditing standards;

6 ‘‘(5) value any assets that are transferred to a

7 separated affiliate at the greater of net book cost or

8 fair market value;

9 ‘‘(6) value any assets that are transferred to

10 the Bell operating company by its separated affiliate

11 at the lesser of net book cost or fair market value;

12 ‘‘(7) except for—

13 ‘‘(A) instances where Commission or State

14 regulations permit in-arrears payment for

15 tariffed telecommunications services; or

16 ‘‘(B) the investment by an affiliate of divi17 dends or profits derived from a Bell operating

18 company,

19 not provide debt or equity financing directly or indi20 rectly to a separated affiliate;

21 ‘‘(8) comply fully with all applicable Commis22 sion and State cost allocation and other accounting

23 rules;
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(9) have performed annually by March 31, or

2 any other date prescribed by the Commission, a

3 compliance review—

4 ‘‘(A) that is conducted by an independent

5 entity that is subject to professional, legal, and

6 ethical obligations for the purpose of determin7 ing compliance during the preceding calendar

8 year with any provision of this section that im9 poses a requirement on such Bell operating

10 company; and

11 ‘‘(B) the results of which are maintained

12 by the Bell operating company for a period of

13 5 years subject to review by any lawful author14 ity;

15 ‘‘(10) within 90 days of receiving a review de16 scribed in paragraph (9), file a report of any excep17 tions and corrective action with the Commission and

18 allow any person to inspect and copy such report

19 subject to reasonable safeguards to protect any pro20 prietary information contained in such report from

21 being used for purposes other than to enforce or

22 pursue remedies under this section;

23 ‘‘(11) if it provides facilities or services for tele24 communication, transmission, billing and collection,

25 or physical collocation to any electronic publisher,
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•HR 411 IH

1 including a separated affiliate, for use with or in

2 connection with the provision of electronic publishing

3 that is disseminated by means of such Bell operating

4 company’s or any of its affiliates’ basic telephone

5 service, provide to all other electronic publishers the

6 same type of facilities and services on request, on

7 the same terms and conditions or as required by the

8 Commission or a State, and unbundled and individ9 ually tariffed to the smallest extent that is tech10 nically feasible and economically reasonable to pro11 vide;

12 ‘‘(12) provide network access and interconnec13 tions for basic telephone service to electronic pub14 lishers at any technically feasible and economically

15 reasonable point within the Bell operating company’s

16 network and at just and reasonable rates that are

17 tariffed (so long as rates for such services are sub18 ject to regulation) and that are not higher on a per19 unit basis than those charged for such services to

20 any other electronic publisher or any separated affil21 iate engaged in electronic publishing;

22 ‘‘(13) if prices for network access and inter23 connection for basic telephone service are no longer

24 subject to regulation, provide electronic publishers
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•HR 411 IH

1 such services on the same terms and conditions as

2 a separated affiliate receives such services;

3 ‘‘(14) if any basic telephone service used by

4 electronic publishers ceases to require a tariff, pro5 vide electronic publishers with such service on the

6 same terms and conditions as a separated affiliate

7 receives such service;

8 ‘‘(15) provide reasonable advance notification at

9 the same time and on the same terms to all affected

10 electronic publishers of information if such informa11 tion is within any one or more of the following cat12 egories:

13 ‘‘(A) such information is necessary for the

14 transmission or routing of information by an

15 interconnected electronic publisher;

16 ‘‘(B) such information is necessary to en17 sure the interoperability of an electronic pub18 lisher’s and the Bell operating company’s net19 works; or

20 ‘‘(C) such information concerns changes in

21 basic telephone service network design and

22 technical standards which may affect the provi23 sion of electronic publishing;

24 ‘‘(16) not directly or indirectly provide anything

25 of monetary value to a separated affiliate unless in
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•HR 411 IH

1 exchange for consideration at least equal to the

2 greater of its net book cost or fair market value,

3 except the investment by an affiliate of dividends or

4 profits derived from a Bell operating company;

5 ‘‘(17) not discriminate in the presentation or

6 provision of any gateway for electronic publishing

7 services or any electronic directory of information

8 services, which is provided over such Bell operating

9 company’s basic telephone service;

10 ‘‘(18) have no directors, officers, or employees

11 in common with a separated affiliate;

12 ‘‘(19) not own any property in common with a

13 separated affiliate;

14 ‘‘(20) not perform hiring or training of person15 nel performed on behalf of a separated affiliate;

16 ‘‘(21) not perform the purchasing, installation,

17 or maintenance of equipment on behalf of a sepa18 rated affiliate, except for telephone service that it

19 provides under tariff or contract subject to the pro20 visions of this section; and

21 ‘‘(22) not perform research and development on

22 behalf of a separated affiliate.

23 ‘‘(d) CUSTOMER PROPRIETARY NETWORK INFORMA24 TION.—Consistent with section 232 of this Act, a Bell op25 erating company or any affiliate shall not provide to any
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•HR 411 IH

1 electronic publisher, including a separated affiliate or elec2 tronic publishing joint venture, customer proprietary net3 work information for use with or in connection with the

4 provision of electronic publishing that is disseminated by

5 means of such Bell operating company’s or any of its af6 filiates’ basic telephone service that is not made available

7 by the Bell operating company or affiliate to all electronic

8 publishers on the same terms and conditions.

9 ‘‘(e) COMPLIANCE WITH SAFEGUARDS.—No Bell op10 erating company or affiliate thereof (including a separated

11 affiliate) shall act in concert with another Bell operating

12 company or any other entity in order to knowingly and

13 willfully violate or evade the requirements of this section.

14 ‘‘(f) TELEPHONE OPERATING COMPANY DIVI15 DENDS.—Nothing in this section shall prohibit an affiliate

16 from investing dividends derived from a Bell operating

17 company in its separated affiliate, and subsections (i) and

18 (j) of this section shall not apply to any such investment.

19 ‘‘(g) JOINT MARKETING.—Except as provided in sub20 section (h)—

21 ‘‘(1) a Bell operating company shall not carry

22 out any promotion, marketing, sales, or advertising

23 for or in conjunction with a separated affiliate; and

24 ‘‘(2) a Bell operating company shall not carry

25 out any promotion, marketing, sales, or advertising
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•HR 411 IH

1 for or in conjunction with an affiliate that is related

2 to the provision of electronic publishing.

3 ‘‘(h) PERMISSIBLE JOINT ACTIVITIES.—

4 ‘‘(1) JOINT TELEMARKETING.—A Bell operat5 ing company may provide inbound telemarketing or

6 referral services related to the provision of electronic

7 publishing for a separated affiliate, electronic pub8 lishing joint venture, affiliate, or unaffiliated elec9 tronic publisher, provided that if such services are

10 provided to a separated affiliate, electronic publish11 ing joint venture, or affiliate, such services shall be

12 made available to all electronic publishers on re13 quest, on nondiscriminatory terms, at compensatory

14 prices, and subject to regulations of the Commission

15 to ensure that the Bell operating company’s method

16 of providing telemarketing or referral and its price

17 structure do not competitively disadvantage any elec18 tronic publishers regardless of size, including those

19 which do not use the Bell operating company’s

20 telemarketing services.

21 ‘‘(2) TEAMING ARRANGEMENTS.—A Bell oper22 ating company may engage in nondiscriminatory

23 teaming or business arrangements to engage in elec24 tronic publishing with any separated affiliate or with

25 any other electronic publisher provided that the Bell
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•HR 411 IH

1 operating company only provides facilities, services,

2 and basic telephone service information as author3 ized by this section and provided that the Bell oper4 ating company does not own such teaming or busi5 ness arrangement.

6 ‘‘(3) ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING JOINT VEN7 TURES.—A Bell operating company or affiliate may

8 participate on a nonexclusive basis in electronic pub9 lishing joint ventures with entities that are not any

10 Bell operating company, affiliate, or separated affili11 ate to provide electronic publishing services, provided

12 that the Bell operating company or affiliate has not

13 more than a 50 percent direct or indirect equity in14 terest (or the equivalent thereof) or the right to

15 more than 50 percent of the gross revenues under

16 a revenue sharing or royalty agreement in any elec17 tronic publishing joint venture. Officers and employ18 ees of a Bell operating company or affiliate partici19 pating in an electronic publishing joint venture may

20 not have more than 50 percent of the voting control

21 over the electronic publishing joint venture. In the

22 case of joint ventures with small, local electronic

23 publishers, the Commission for good cause shown

24 may authorize the Bell operating company or affili25 ate to have a larger equity interest, revenue share,
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•HR 411 IH

1 or voting control but not to exceed 80 percent. A

2 Bell operating company participating in an elec3 tronic publishing joint venture may provide pro4 motion, marketing, sales, or advertising personnel

5 and services to such joint venture.

6 ‘‘(i) TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO THE PROVISION OF

7 ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING BETWEEN A TELEPHONE OP8 ERATING COMPANY AND ANY AFFILIATE.—

9 ‘‘(1) RECORDS OF TRANSACTIONS.—Any provi10 sion of facilities, services, or basic telephone service

11 information, or any transfer of assets, personnel, or

12 anything of commercial or competitive value, from a

13 Bell operating company to any affiliate related to

14 the provision of electronic publishing shall be—

15 ‘‘(A) recorded in the books and records of

16 each entity;

17 ‘‘(B) auditable in accordance with gen18 erally accepted auditing standards; and

19 ‘‘(C) pursuant to written contracts or tar20 iffs filed with the Commission or a State and

21 made publicly available.

22 ‘‘(2) VALUATION OF TRANSFERS.—Any transfer

23 of assets directly related to the provision of elec24 tronic publishing from a Bell operating company to

25 an affiliate shall be valued at the greater of net book
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•HR 411 IH

1 cost or fair market value. Any transfer of assets re2 lated to the provision of electronic publishing from

3 an affiliate to the Bell operating company shall be

4 valued at the lesser of net book cost or fair market

5 value.

6 ‘‘(3) PROHIBITION OF EVASIONS.—A Bell oper7 ating company shall not provide directly or indirectly

8 to a separated affiliate any facilities, services, or

9 basic telephone service information related to the

10 provision of electronic publishing that are not made

11 available to unaffiliated companies on the same

12 terms and conditions.

13 ‘‘(j) TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO THE PROVISION OF

14 ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING BETWEEN AN AFFILIATE AND

15 A SEPARATED AFFILIATE.—

16 ‘‘(1) RECORDS OF TRANSACTIONS.—Any facili17 ties, services, or basic telephone service information

18 provided or any assets, personnel, or anything of

19 commercial or competitive value transferred, from a

20 Bell operating company to any affiliate as described

21 in subsection (i) and then provided or transferred to

22 a separated affiliate shall be—

23 ‘‘(A) recorded in the books and records of

24 each entity;
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(B) auditable in accordance with gen2 erally accepted auditing standards; and

3 ‘‘(C) pursuant to written contracts or tar4 iffs filed with the Commission or a State and

5 made publicly available.

6 ‘‘(2) VALUATION OF TRANSFERS.—Any transfer

7 of assets directly related to the provision of elec8 tronic publishing from a Bell operating company to

9 any affiliate as described in subsection (i) and then

10 transferred to a separated affiliate shall be valued at

11 the greater of net book cost or fair market value.

12 Any transfer of assets related to the provision of

13 electronic publishing from a separated affiliate to

14 any affiliate and then transferred to the Bell operat15 ing company as described in subsection (i) shall be

16 valued at the lesser of net book cost or fair market

17 value.

18 ‘‘(3) PROHIBITION OF EVASIONS.—An affiliate

19 shall not provide directly or indirectly to a separated

20 affiliate any facilities, services, or basic telephone

21 service information related to the provision of elec22 tronic publishing that are not made available to un23 affiliated companies on the same terms and condi24 tions.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(k) OTHER ELECTRONIC PUBLISHERS.—Except as

2 provided in subsection (h)(3)—

3 ‘‘(1) A Bell operating company shall not have

4 any officers, employees, property, or facilities in

5 common with any entity whose principal business is

6 publishing of which a part is electronic publishing.

7 ‘‘(2) No officer or employee of a Bell operating

8 company shall serve as a director of any entity

9 whose principal business is publishing of which a

10 part is electronic publishing.

11 ‘‘(3) For the purposes of paragraphs (1) and

12 (2), a Bell operating company or an affiliate that

13 owns an electronic publishing joint venture shall not

14 be deemed to be engaged in the electronic publishing

15 business solely because of such ownership.

16 ‘‘(4) A Bell operating company shall not carry

17 out—

18 ‘‘(A) any marketing or sales for any entity

19 that engages in electronic publishing; or

20 ‘‘(B) any hiring of personnel, purchasing,

21 or production,

22 for any entity that engages in electronic publishing.

23 ‘‘(5) The Bell operating company shall not pro24 vide any facilities, services, or basic telephone service

25 information to any entity that engages in electronic
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•HR 411 IH

1 publishing, for use with or in connection with the

2 provision of electronic publishing that is dissemi3 nated by means of such Bell operating company’s or

4 any of its affiliates’ basic telephone service, unless

5 equivalent facilities, services, or information are

6 made available on equivalent terms and conditions to

7 all.

8 ‘‘(l) TRANSITION.—Any electronic publishing service

9 being offered to the public by a Bell operating company

10 or affiliate on the date of enactment of this section shall

11 have one year from such date of enactment to comply with

12 the requirements of this section.

13 ‘‘(m) SUNSET.—The provisions of this section shall

14 not apply to conduct occurring after June 30, 2000.

15 ‘‘(n) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—

16 ‘‘(1) DAMAGES.—Any person claiming that any

17 act or practice of any Bell operating company, affili18 ate, or separated affiliate constitutes a violation of

19 this section may file a complaint with the Commis20 sion or bring suit as provided in section 207 of this

21 Act, and such Bell operating company, affiliate, or

22 separated affiliate shall be liable as provided in sec23 tion 206 of this Act; except that damages may not

24 be awarded for a violation that is discovered by a

25 compliance review as required by subsection (b)(8)
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•HR 411 IH

1 or (c)(9) of this section and corrected within 90

2 days.

3 ‘‘(2) CEASE AND DESIST ORDERS.—In addition

4 to the provisions of paragraph (1), any person claim5 ing that any act or practice of any Bell operating

6 company, affiliate, or separated affiliate constitutes

7 a violation of this section may make application to

8 the Commission for an order to cease and desist

9 such violation or may make application in any dis10 trict court of the United States of competent juris11 diction for an order enjoining such acts or practices

12 or for an order compelling compliance with such re13 quirement.

14 ‘‘(o) ANTITRUST LAWS.—Nothing in this section

15 shall be construed to modify, impair, or supersede the ap16 plicability of any of the antitrust laws (including title I

17 of the Antitrust and Communications Reform Act of

18 1995).

19 ‘‘(p) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES.—Any

20 Bell operating company, and any affiliate or joint venture

21 or other business partner of a Bell operating company,

22 that is engaged in the provision of electronic publishing

23 shall be subject to the provisions of section 634 of this

24 Act, except that the Commission shall prescribe by regula-
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•HR 411 IH

1 tion appropriate job classifications in lieu of the job classi2 fications in subsection (d)(3)(A) of such section.

3 ‘‘(q) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section—

4 ‘‘(1) The term ‘affiliate’ means any entity that,

5 directly or indirectly, owns or controls, is owned or

6 controlled by, or is under common ownership or con7 trol with, a Bell operating company. Such term shall

8 not include a separated affiliate.

9 ‘‘(2) The term ‘basic telephone service’ means

10 any wireline telephone exchange service, or wireline

11 telephone exchange facility, provided by a Bell oper12 ating company in a telephone exchange area, ex13 cept—

14 ‘‘(A) a competitive wireline telephone ex15 change service provided in a telephone exchange

16 area where another entity provides a wireline

17 telephone exchange service that was provided on

18 January 1, 1984, and

19 ‘‘(B) a commercial mobile service provided

20 by an affiliate that is required by the Commis21 sion to be a corporate entity separate from the

22 Bell operating company.

23 ‘‘(3) The term ‘basic telephone service informa24 tion’ means network and customer information of a

25 Bell operating company and other information ac-
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1 quired by a Bell operating company as a result of

2 its engaging in the provision of basic telephone

3 service.

4 ‘‘(4) The term ‘control’ has the meaning that it

5 has in 17 C.F.R. 240.12b–2, the regulations promul6 gated by the Securities and Exchange Commission

7 pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

8 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.) or any successor provision

9 to such section.

10 ‘‘(5)(A) The term ‘electronic publishing’ means

11 the dissemination, provision, publication, or sale to

12 an unaffiliated entity or person, using a Bell operat13 ing company’s basic telephone service, of—

14 ‘‘(i) news,

15 ‘‘(ii) entertainment (other than interactive

16 games),

17 ‘‘(iii) business, financial, legal, consumer,

18 or credit material;

19 ‘‘(iv) editorials;

20 ‘‘(v) columns;

21 ‘‘(vi) sports reporting;

22 ‘‘(vii) features;

23 ‘‘(viii) advertising;

24 ‘‘(ix) photos or images;

25 ‘‘(x) archival or research material;
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1 ‘‘(xi) legal notices or public records;

2 ‘‘(xii) scientific, educational, instructional,

3 technical, professional, trade, or other literary

4 materials; or

5 ‘‘(xiii) other like or similar information.

6 ‘‘(B) The term ‘electronic publishing’ shall not

7 include the following network services:

8 ‘‘(i) Information access, as that term is de9 fined by the Modification of Final Judgment.

10 ‘‘(ii) The transmission of information as a

11 common carrier.

12 ‘‘(iii) The transmission of information as

13 part of a gateway to an information service that

14 does not involve the generation or alteration of

15 the content of information, including data

16 transmission, address translation, protocol con17 version, billing management, introductory infor18 mation content, and navigational systems that

19 enable users to access electronic publishing

20 services, which do not affect the presentation of

21 such electronic publishing services to users.

22 ‘‘(iv) Voice storage and retrieval services,

23 including voice messaging and electronic mail

24 services.
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1 ‘‘(v) Level 2 gateway services as those

2 services are defined by the Commission’s Sec3 ond Report and Order, Recommendation to

4 Congress and Second Further Notice of Pro5 posed Rulemaking in CC Docket No. 87–266

6 dated August 14, 1992.

7 ‘‘(vi) Data processing services that do not

8 involve the generation or alteration of the con9 tent of information.

10 ‘‘(vii) Transaction processing systems that

11 do not involve the generation or alteration of

12 the content of information.

13 ‘‘(viii) Electronic billing or advertising of a

14 Bell operating company’s regulated tele15 communications services.

16 ‘‘(ix) Language translation.

17 ‘‘(x) Conversion of data from one format

18 to another.

19 ‘‘(xi) The provision of information nec20 essary for the management, control, or oper21 ation of a telephone company telecommuni22 cations system.

23 ‘‘(xii) The provision of directory assistance

24 that provides names, addresses, and telephone

25 numbers and does not include advertising.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(xiii) Caller identification services.

2 ‘‘(xiv) Repair and provisioning databases

3 for telephone company operations.

4 ‘‘(xv) Credit card and billing validation for

5 telephone company operations.

6 ‘‘(xvi) 911–E and other emergency assist7 ance databases.

8 ‘‘(xvii) Any other network service of a type

9 that is like or similar to these network services

10 and that does not involve the generation or al11 teration of the content of information.

12 ‘‘(xviii) Any upgrades to these network

13 services that do not involve the generation or

14 alteration of the content of information.

15 ‘‘(C) The term ‘electronic publishing’ also shall

16 not include—

17 ‘‘(i) full motion video entertainment on de18 mand; and

19 ‘‘(ii) video programming as defined in sec20 tion 602 of the Communications Act of 1934.

21 ‘‘(6) The term ‘electronic publishing joint ven22 ture’ means a joint venture owned by a Bell operat23 ing company or affiliate that engages in the provi24 sion of electronic publishing which is disseminated
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1 by means of such Bell operating company’s or any

2 of its affiliates’ basic telephone service.

3 ‘‘(7) The term ‘entity’ means any organization,

4 and includes corporations, partnerships, sole propri5 etorships, associations, and joint ventures.

6 ‘‘(8) The term ‘inbound telemarketing’ means

7 the marketing of property, goods, or services by tele8 phone to a customer or potential customer who initi9 ated the call.

10 ‘‘(9) The term ‘own’ with respect to an entity

11 means to have a direct or indirect equity interest (or

12 the equivalent thereof) of more than 10 percent of

13 an entity, or the right to more than 10 percent of

14 the gross revenues of an entity under a revenue

15 sharing or royalty agreement.

16 ‘‘(10) The term ‘separated affiliate’ means a

17 corporation under common ownership or control with

18 a Bell operating company that does not own or con19 trol a Bell operating company and is not owned or

20 controlled by a Bell operating company and that en21 gages in the provision of electronic publishing which

22 is disseminated by means of such Bell operating

23 company’s or any of its affiliates’ basic telephone

24 service.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(11) The term ‘Bell operating company’ means

2 the corporations subject to the Modification of Final

3 Judgment and listed in Appendix A thereof, or any

4 entity owned or controlled by such corporation, or

5 any successor or assign of such corporation, but

6 does not include an electronic publishing joint ven7 ture owned by such corporation or entity.’’.

8 SEC. 204. PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION.

9 (a) PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER PROPRIETARY NETWORK

10 INFORMATION.—

11 (1) AMENDMENT.—Title II of the Communica12 tions Act of 1934 is amended by adding at the end

13 the following new section:

14 ‘‘SEC. 232. PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER PROPRIETARY NET15 WORK INFORMATION.

16 ‘‘(a) DUTY TO PROVIDE SUBSCRIBER LIST INFOR17 MATION.—Notwithstanding subsections (b), (c), and (d),

18 a carrier that provides subscriber list information to any

19 affiliated or unaffiliated service provider or person shall

20 provide subscriber list information on a timely and

21 unbundled basis, under nondiscriminatory and reasonable

22 rates, terms, and conditions, to any person upon request.

23 ‘‘(b) PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS FOR COMMON CAR24 RIERS.—A carrier—
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1 ‘‘(1) shall not, except as required by law or with

2 the approval of the customer to which the informa3 tion relates—

4 ‘‘(A) use customer proprietary network in5 formation in the provision of any service except

6 to the extent necessary (i) in the provision of

7 common carrier communications services, (ii) in

8 the provision of a service necessary to or used

9 in the provision of common carrier communica10 tions services, including the publishing of direc11 tories, or (iii) to continue to provide a particu12 lar information service that the carrier provided

13 as of March 15, 1994, to persons who were cus14 tomers of such service on that date;

15 ‘‘(B) use customer proprietary network in16 formation in the identification or solicitation of

17 potential customers for any service other than

18 the service from which such information is de19 rived;

20 ‘‘(C) use customer proprietary network in21 formation in the provision of customer premises

22 equipment; or

23 ‘‘(D) disclose customer proprietary net24 work information to any person except to the

25 extent necessary to permit such person to pro-
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•HR 411 IH

1 vide services or products that are used in and

2 necessary to the provision by such carrier of the

3 services described in subparagraph (A);

4 ‘‘(2) shall disclose customer proprietary net5 work information, upon affirmative written request

6 by the customer, to any person designated by the

7 customer;

8 ‘‘(3) shall, whenever such carrier provides any

9 aggregate information, notify the Commission of the

10 availability of such aggregate information and shall

11 provide such aggregate information on reasonable

12 terms and conditions to any other service or equip13 ment provider upon reasonable request therefor; and

14 ‘‘(4) except for disclosures permitted by para15 graph (1)(D), shall not unreasonably discriminate

16 between affiliated and unaffiliated service or equip17 ment providers in providing access to, or in the use

18 and disclosure of, individual and aggregate informa19 tion made available consistent with this subsection.

20 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—This section shall

21 not be construed to prohibit the use or disclosure of cus22 tomer proprietary network information as necessary—

23 ‘‘(1) to render, bill, and collect for the services

24 identified in subparagraph (A);
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(2) to render, bill, and collect for any other

2 service that the customer has requested;

3 ‘‘(3) to protect the rights or property of the

4 carrier;

5 ‘‘(4) to protect users of any of those services

6 and other carriers from fraudulent, abusive, or un7 lawful use of or subscription to such service; or

8 ‘‘(5) to provide any inbound telemarketing, re9 ferral, or administrative services to the customer for

10 the duration of the call if such call was initiated by

11 the customer and the customer approves of the use

12 of such information to provide such service.

13 ‘‘(d) EXEMPTION PERMITTED.—The Commission

14 may, by rule, exempt from the requirements of subsection

15 (b) carriers that have, together with any affiliated carriers,

16 in the aggregate nationwide, fewer than 500,000 access

17 lines installed if the Commission determines that such ex18 emption is in the public interest or if compliance with the

19 requirements would impose an undue economic burden on

20 the carrier.

21 ‘‘(e) REGULATIONS.—The Commission shall pre22 scribe regulations to carry out this section within 1 year

23 after the date of its enactment.

24 ‘‘(f) DEFINITION OF AGGREGATE INFORMATION.—

25 For purposes of this section, the term ‘aggregate informa-
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•HR 411 IH

1 tion’ means collective data that relates to a group or cat2 egory of services or customers, from which individual cus3 tomer identities and characteristics have been removed.’’.

4 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 3 of

5 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153) is

6 amended by adding at the end the following:

7 ‘‘(gg) ‘Customer proprietary network information’

8 means—

9 ‘‘(1) information which relates to the quantity,

10 technical configuration, type, destination, and

11 amount of use of telephone exchange service or tele12 phone toll service subscribed to by any customer of

13 a carrier, and is made available to the carrier by the

14 customer solely by virtue of the carrier-customer re15 lationship;

16 ‘‘(2) information contained in the bills pertain17 ing to telephone exchange service or telephone toll

18 service received by a customer of a carrier; and

19 ‘‘(3) such other information concerning the cus20 tomer as is available to the local exchange carrier by

21 virtue of the customer’s use of the carrier’s tele22 phone exchange service or interexchange telephone

23 services, and specified as within the definition of

24 such term by such rules as the Commission shall

25 prescribe consistent with the public interest;
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•HR 411 IH

1 except that such term does not include subscriber list in2 formation.

3 ‘‘(hh) ‘Subscriber list information’ means any infor4 mation—

5 ‘‘(1) identifying the listed names of subscribers

6 of a carrier and such subscribers’ telephone num7 bers, addresses, or primary advertising classifica8 tions, or any combination of such listed names, num9 bers, addresses, or classifications; and

10 ‘‘(2) that the carrier or an affiliate has pub11 lished or accepted for future publication.’’.

12 (b) IMPACT OF CONVERGING COMMUNICATIONS

13 TECHNOLOGIES ON CONSUMER PRIVACY.—

14 (1) PROCEEDING REQUIRED.—Within one year

15 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commis16 sion shall commence a proceeding—

17 (A) to examine the impact of the integra18 tion into interconnected communications net19 works of wireless telephone, cable, satellite, and

20 other technologies on the privacy rights and

21 remedies of the consumers of those tech22 nologies;

23 (B) to examine the impact that the

24 globalization of such integrated communications

25 networks has on the international dissemination
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•HR 411 IH

1 of consumer information and the privacy rights

2 and remedies to protect consumers;

3 (C) to propose changes in the Commis4 sion’s regulations to ensure that the effect on

5 consumer privacy rights is considered in the in6 troduction of new telecommunications services

7 and that the protection of such privacy rights

8 is incorporated as necessary in the design of

9 such services or the rules regulating such serv10 ices;

11 (D) to propose changes in the Commis12 sion’s regulations as necessary to correct any

13 defects identified pursuant to subparagraph (A)

14 in such rights and remedies; and

15 (E) to prepare recommendations to the

16 Congress for any legislative changes required to

17 correct such defects.

18 (2) SUBJECTS FOR EXAMINATION.—In conduct19 ing the examination required by paragraph (1), the

20 Commission shall determine whether consumers are

21 able, and, if not, the methods by which consumers

22 may be enabled—

23 (A) to have knowledge that consumer in24 formation is being collected about them through
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1 their utilization of various communications

2 technologies;

3 (B) to have notice that such information

4 could be used, or is intended to be used, by the

5 entity collecting the data for reasons unrelated

6 to the original communications, or that such in7 formation could be sold (or is intended to be

8 sold) to other companies or entities; and

9 (C) to stop the reuse or sale of that infor10 mation.

11 (3) SCHEDULE FOR COMMISSION RESPONSES.—

12 The Commission shall, within 18 months after the

13 date of enactment of this Act—

14 (A) complete any rulemaking required to

15 revise Commission regulations to correct defects

16 in such regulations identified pursuant to para17 graph (1); and

18 (B) submit to the Congress a report con19 taining the recommendations required by para20 graph (1)(C).

21 SEC. 205. TELEMESSAGING SERVICES.

22 Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

23 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end there24 of the following new section:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 233. TELEMESSAGING SERVICES.

2 ‘‘(a) NONDISCRIMINATION.—A common carrier en3 gaged in the provision of telemessaging services shall—

4 ‘‘(1) provide nonaffiliated entities, upon reason5 able request, with the network services it provides to

6 its own telemessaging operations, on nondiscrim7 inatory terms and conditions; and

8 ‘‘(2) not subsidize its telemessaging services

9 with revenues from telephone exchange service.

10 ‘‘(b) EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION OF COM11 PLAINTS.—The Commission shall establish procedures for

12 the receipt and review of complaints concerning violations

13 of subsection (a) or the regulations thereunder that result

14 in material financial harm to a provider of telemessaging

15 service. Such procedures shall ensure that the Commission

16 will make a final determination with respect to any such

17 complaint within 120 days after receipt of the complaint.

18 If the complaint contains an appropriate showing that the

19 alleged violation occurred, as determined by the Commis20 sion in accordance with such regulations, the Commission

21 shall, within 60 days after receipt of the complaint, order

22 the common carrier and its affiliates to cease engaging

23 in such violation pending such final determination.

24 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term

25 ‘telemessaging services’ means voice mail and voice stor26 age and retrieval services provided over telephone lines for
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•HR 411 IH

1 telemessaging customers and any live operator services

2 used to answer, record, transcribe, and relay messages

3 (other than telecommunications relay services) from in4 coming telephone calls on behalf of the telemessaging cus5 tomers (other than any service incidental to directory as6 sistance).’’.

7 SEC. 206. ENHANCED SERVICES SAFEGUARDS.

8 Within 60 days after the date of the enactment of

9 this Act, the Commission shall initiate a proceeding to re10 consider its decision in the Report and Order In the Mat11 ter of Computer III Remand Proceedings, CC Docket No.

12 90–623, released December 20, 1993, relieving the Bell

13 operating companies of the obligation to provide enhanced

14 services through fully separate affiliates. Within 180 days

15 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commis16 sion shall, to the extent it determines necessary or appro17 priate in the public interest, adopt regulations prescribing

18 the structural or nonstructural safeguards, or both, with

19 which local exchange carriers shall comply when providing

20 enhanced services.
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1 TITLE III—TELECOMMUNI2 CATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE

3 AND COMPETITION

4 SEC. 301. POLICY; DEFINITIONS.

5 (a) POLICY.—Section 1 of the Communications Act

6 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151) is amended—

7 (1) by inserting ‘‘(a)’’ after ‘‘SECTION 1.’’; and

8 (2) by adding at the end thereof the following

9 new subsection:

10 ‘‘(b) The purposes described in subsection (a), as

11 they relate to common carrier services, include—

12 ‘‘(1) to preserve and enhance universal tele13 communications service at just and reasonable rates;

14 ‘‘(2) to encourage the continued development

15 and deployment of advanced and reliable capabilities

16 and services in telecommunications networks;

17 ‘‘(3) to make available, so far as possible, to all

18 the people of the United States, regardless of loca19 tion or disability, a switched, broadband tele20 communications network capable of enabling users

21 to originate and receive affordable high quality voice,

22 data, graphics, and video telecommunications serv23 ices;
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1 ‘‘(4) to ensure that the costs of such networks

2 and services are allocated equitably among users and

3 are constrained by competition whenever possible;

4 ‘‘(5) to ensure a seamless and open nationwide

5 telecommunications network through joint planning,

6 coordination, and service arrangements between and

7 among carriers; and

8 ‘‘(6) to ensure that common carriers’ networks

9 function at a high standard of quality in delivering

10 advances in network capabilities and services.’’.

11 (b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 3 of such Act (47 U.S.C.

12 153) is amended—

13 (1) in subsection (r)—

14 (A) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ after ‘‘means’’; and

15 (B) by inserting before the period at the

16 end the following: ‘‘, or (B) service provided

17 through a system of switches, transmission

18 equipment, or other facilities (or combination

19 thereof) by which a subscriber can originate

20 and terminate a telecommunications service

21 within a State but which does not result in the

22 subscriber incurring a telephone toll charge’’;

23 and

24 (2) by adding at the end thereof the following:
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1 ‘‘(ii) ‘Information service’ means the offering of a ca2 pability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming,

3 processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available infor4 mation via telecommunications, and includes electronic

5 publishing, but does not include any use of any such capa6 bility for the management, control, or operation of a tele7 communications system or the management of a tele8 communications service.

9 ‘‘(jj) ‘Equal access’ means to afford, to any person

10 seeking to provide an information service or a tele11 communications service, reasonable and nondiscriminatory

12 access on an unbundled basis—

13 ‘‘(1) to databases, signaling systems, poles,

14 ducts, conduits, and rights-of-way owned or con15 trolled by a local exchange carrier, or other facilities,

16 functions, or information (including subscriber num17 bers) integral to the efficient transmission, routing,

18 or other provision of telephone exchange services or

19 telephone exchange access services;

20 ‘‘(2) that is at least equal in type, quality, and

21 price to the access which the carrier affords to itself

22 or to any other person; and

23 ‘‘(3) that is sufficient to ensure the full inter24 operability of the equipment and facilities of the car25 rier and of the person seeking such access.
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1 ‘‘(kk) ‘Open platform service’ means a switched, end2 to-end digital telecommunications service that is subject

3 to title II of this Act, and that (1) provides subscribers

4 with sufficient network capability to access multimedia in5 formation services, (2) is widely available throughout a

6 State, (3) is provided based on industry standards, and

7 (4) is available to all subscribers on a single line basis

8 upon reasonable request.

9 ‘‘(ll) ‘Local exchange carrier’ means any person that

10 is engaged in the provision of telephone exchange service

11 or telephone exchange access service. Such term does not

12 include a person insofar as such person is engaged in the

13 provision of a commercial mobile service under section

14 332(c), except to the extent that the Commission finds

15 that such service as provided by such person in a State

16 is a replacement for a substantial portion of the wireline

17 telephone exchange service within such State.

18 ‘‘(mm) ‘Telephone exchange access service’ means the

19 offering of telephone exchange services or facilities for the

20 purpose of the origination or termination of interexchange

21 telecommunications services to or from an exchange area.

22 ‘‘(nn) ‘Telecommunications’ means the transmission,

23 between or among points specified by the subscriber, of

24 information of the subscriber’s choosing, without change

25 in the form or content of the information as sent and re-
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1 ceived, by means of an electromagnetic transmission me2 dium, including all instrumentalities, facilities, apparatus,

3 and services (including the collection, storage, forwarding,

4 switching, and delivery of such information) essential to

5 such transmission.

6 ‘‘(oo) ‘Telecommunications service’ means the offer7 ing, on a common carrier basis, of telecommunications fa8 cilities, or of telecommunications by means of such facili9 ties. Such term does not include an information service.’’.

10 SEC. 302. EQUAL ACCESS AND NETWORK FUNCTIONALITY

11 AND QUALITY.

12 (a) AMENDMENT.—Section 201 of the Communica13 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 201) is amended by adding

14 at the end thereof the following new subsections:

15 ‘‘(c) EQUAL ACCESS.—

16 ‘‘(1) OPENNESS AND ACCESSIBILITY OBLIGA17 TIONS.—

18 ‘‘(A) COMMON CARRIER OBLIGATIONS.—

19 The duty of a common carrier under subsection

20 (a) to furnish communications service includes

21 the duty to interconnect with the facilities and

22 equipment of other providers of telecommuni23 cations services and information services in ac24 cordance with such regulations as the Commis25 sion may prescribe as necessary or desirable in
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1 the public interest with respect to the openness

2 and accessibility of common carrier networks.

3 ‘‘(B) ADDITIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF LOCAL

4 EXCHANGE CARRIERS.—The duty under sub5 section (a) of a local exchange carrier includes

6 the duty—

7 ‘‘(i) to provide, in accordance with the

8 regulations prescribed under paragraph

9 (2), equal access to and interconnection

10 with the facilities of the carrier’s networks

11 to any other carrier or person providing

12 telecommunications services or information

13 services reasonably requesting such equal

14 access and interconnection, so that such

15 networks are fully interoperable with such

16 telecommunications services and informa17 tion services; and

18 ‘‘(ii) to offer unbundled features,

19 functions, and capabilities whenever tech20 nically feasible and economically reason21 able, in accordance with requirements pre22 scribed by the Commission pursuant to

23 this subsection and other laws.

24 ‘‘(2) EQUAL ACCESS AND INTERCONNECTION

25 REGULATIONS.—
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1 ‘‘(A) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.—Within 1

2 year after the date of enactment of this sub3 section, the Commission shall establish regula4 tions that require reasonable and nondiscrim5 inatory equal access to and interconnection with

6 the facilities of a local exchange carrier’s net7 work at any technically feasible and economi8 cally reasonable point within the carrier’s net9 work on reasonable terms and conditions, to

10 any other carrier or person offering tele11 communications services requesting such access.

12 The Commission shall establish such regula13 tions after consultation with the Joint Board

14 established pursuant to subparagraph (D).

15 Such regulations shall provide for actual col16 location of equipment necessary for interconnec17 tion for telecommunications services at the

18 premises of a local exchange carrier, except that

19 the regulations shall provide for virtual colloca20 tion where the local exchange carrier dem21 onstrates that actual collocation is not practical

22 for technical reasons or because of space limita23 tions.

24 ‘‘(B) COMPENSATION.—Within 1 year

25 after the date of enactment of this subsection,
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1 the Commission shall establish regulations re2 quiring just and reasonable compensation to the

3 exchange carrier providing such equal access

4 and interconnection pursuant to subparagraph

5 (A). Such regulations shall include regulations

6 to require the carrier, to the extent it provides

7 a telecommunications service or an information

8 service, to impute such access and interconnec9 tion charges to itself as the Commission deter10 mines are reasonable and nondiscriminatory.

11 ‘‘(C) EXEMPTIONS AND MODIFICATIONS.—

12 Notwithstanding paragraph (1) or subpara13 graph (A) of this paragraph, a rural telephone

14 company shall not be required to provide equal

15 access and interconnection to another local ex16 change carrier. The Commission shall not apply

17 the requirements of this paragraph or impose

18 requirements pursuant to paragraph (1)(B)(ii)

19 to any rural telephone company, except to the

20 extent that the Commission determines that

21 compliance with such requirements would not

22 be unduly economically burdensome, unfairly

23 competitive, technologically infeasible, or other24 wise not in the public interest. The Commission

25 may modify the requirements of this paragraph
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1 for any other local exchange carrier that has, in

2 the aggregate nationwide, fewer than 500,000

3 access lines installed, to the extent that the

4 Commission determines that compliance with

5 such requirements (without such modification)

6 would be unduly economically burdensome,

7 technologically infeasible, or otherwise not in

8 the public interest. The Commission may in9 clude, in the regulations prescribed pursuant to

10 paragraph (1)(B), modified requirements for

11 any feature, function, or capability that the

12 Commission determines is generally available to

13 competing providers of telecommunications

14 services or information services at the same or

15 better price, terms, and conditions.

16 ‘‘(D) JOINT BOARD ON EQUAL ACCESS AND

17 INTERCONNECTION STANDARDS.—Within 30

18 days after the date of enactment of this sub19 section, the Commission shall convene a Fed20 eral-State Joint Board under section 410(c) for

21 the purpose of preparing a recommended deci22 sion for the Commission with respect to the

23 equal access and interconnection regulations re24 quired by this paragraph.
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1 ‘‘(E) ENFORCEMENT OF EXISTING REGU2 LATIONS.—Nothing in this section shall be con3 strued to prohibit the Commission from enforc4 ing regulations prescribed prior to the date of

5 enactment of this subsection in fulfilling the re6 quirements of this subsection, to the extent that

7 such regulations are consistent with the provi8 sions of this subsection.

9 ‘‘(F) DEFINITION OF RURAL TELEPHONE

10 COMPANY.—For the purpose of subparagraph

11 (C) of this paragraph, the term ‘rural telephone

12 company’ means a local exchange carrier oper13 ating entity to the extent that such entity—

14 ‘‘(i) provides common carrier service

15 to any local exchange carrier study area

16 that does not include either—

17 ‘‘(I) any incorporated place of

18 10,000 inhabitants or more, or any

19 part thereof, based on the most recent

20 available population statistics of the

21 Bureau of the Census; or

22 ‘‘(II) any territory, incorporated

23 or unincorporated, included in an ur24 banized area, as defined by the Bu-
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1 reau of the Census as of August 10,

2 1993;

3 ‘‘(ii) provides telephone exchange serv4 ice, including telephone exchange access

5 service, to fewer than 50,000 access lines;

6 or

7 ‘‘(iii) provides telephone exchange

8 service to any local exchange carrier study

9 area with fewer than 100,000 access lines.

10 ‘‘(3) PREEMPTION.—

11 ‘‘(A) LIMITATION.—Notwithstanding sec12 tion 2(b), no State or local government may,

13 after one year after the date of enactment of

14 this subsection—

15 ‘‘(i) effectively prohibit any person or

16 carrier from providing any interstate or

17 intrastate telecommunications service or

18 information service, or impose any restric19 tion or condition on entry into the business

20 of providing any such service;

21 ‘‘(ii) prohibit any carrier or other per22 son providing interstate or intrastate tele23 communications services or information

24 services from exercising the access and
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1 interconnection rights provided under this

2 subsection; or

3 ‘‘(iii) impose any limitation on the ex4 ercise of such rights.

5 ‘‘(B) PERMITTED TERMS AND CONDI6 TIONS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not be con7 strued to prohibit a State from imposing a term

8 or condition on providers of telecommunications

9 services or information services if such term or

10 condition does not effectively prohibit any per11 son or carrier from providing any interstate or

12 intrastate telecommunications service or infor13 mation service and is necessary and appropriate

14 to—

15 ‘‘(i) protect public safety and welfare;

16 ‘‘(ii) ensure the continued quality of

17 intrastate telecommunications;

18 ‘‘(iii) ensure that rates for intrastate

19 telecommunications services are just and

20 reasonable; or

21 ‘‘(iv) ensure that the provider’s busi22 ness practices are consistent with

23 consumer protection laws and regulations.

24 ‘‘(C) NORMAL CONSTRUCTION PERMITS

25 PERMITTED.—Subparagraph (A) shall not be
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1 construed to prohibit a local government from

2 requiring a person or carrier to obtain ordinary

3 and usual construction or similar permits for its

4 operations if (i) such permit is required without

5 regard to the nature of the business, and (ii)

6 requiring such permit does not effectively pro7 hibit any person or carrier from providing any

8 interstate or intrastate telecommunications

9 service or information service.

10 ‘‘(D) EXCEPTION.—In the case of commer11 cial mobile services, the provisions of section

12 332(c)(3) shall apply in lieu of the provisions of

13 this paragraph.

14 ‘‘(E) PARITY OF FRANCHISE AND OTHER

15 CHARGES.—Notwithstanding section 2(b), no

16 local government may, after 1 year after the

17 date of enactment of this subsection, impose or

18 collect any franchise, license, permit, or right19 of-way fee or any assessment, rental, or any

20 other charge or equivalent thereof as a condi21 tion for operating in the locality or for obtain22 ing access to, occupying, or crossing public

23 rights-of-way from any provider of tele24 communications services that distinguishes be25 tween or among providers of telecommuni-
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1 cations services, including the local exchange

2 carrier. For purposes of this subsection, a fran3 chise, license, permit, or right-of-way fee or an

4 assessment, rental, or any other charge or

5 equivalent thereof does not include any imposi6 tion of general applicability which does not dis7 tinguish between or among providers of tele8 communications services, or any tax.

9 ‘‘(4) TARIFFS.—

10 ‘‘(A) GENERALLY.—Within 18 months

11 after the date of enactment of this subsection,

12 a local exchange carrier shall prepare and file

13 tariffs in accordance with this Act with respect

14 to the services or elements offered to comply

15 with the equal access and interconnection regu16 lations required under this subsection. The

17 costs that a carrier incurs in providing such

18 services or elements shall be borne solely by the

19 users of the features and functions comprising

20 such services or elements or of the feature or

21 function that uses or includes such services or

22 elements. The Commission shall review such

23 tariffs to ensure that—

24 ‘‘(i) the charges for such services or

25 elements are cost-based; and
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(ii) the terms and conditions con2 tained in such tariffs unbundle any sepa3 rable services, elements, features, or func4 tions in accordance with paragraph

5 (1)(B)(ii) and any regulations thereunder.

6 ‘‘(B) SUPPORTING INFORMATION.—A local

7 exchange carrier shall submit supporting infor8 mation with its tariffs for equal access and

9 interconnection that is sufficient to enable the

10 Commission and the public to determine the re11 lationship between the proposed charges and

12 the costs of providing such services or elements.

13 The submission of such information shall be

14 pursuant to regulations adopted by the Com15 mission to ensure that similarly situated car16 riers provide such information in a uniform

17 fashion.

18 ‘‘(5) PRICING FLEXIBILITY.—

19 ‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT OF CRITERIA.—

20 Within 270 days after the date of enactment of

21 this subsection, the Commission, by regulation,

22 shall establish criteria for determining—

23 ‘‘(i) whether a telecommunications

24 service or provider of such service has be25 come, or is substantially certain to become,
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•HR 411 IH

1 subject to competition, either within a geo2 graphic area or within a class or category

3 of service;

4 ‘‘(ii) whether such competition will ef5 fectively prevent rates for such service that

6 are unjust or unreasonable or that are un7 justly or unreasonably discriminatory; and

8 ‘‘(iii) appropriate flexible pricing pro9 cedures that can be used in lieu of the fil10 ing of tariff schedules, or in lieu of other

11 pricing procedures established by the Com12 mission, and that are consistent with the

13 protection of subscribers and the public in14 terest, convenience, and necessity.

15 ‘‘(B) DETERMINATIONS.—The Commis16 sion, with respect to rates for interstate or for17 eign communications, and State commissions,

18 with respect to rates for intrastate communica19 tions, shall, upon application—

20 ‘‘(i) render determinations in accord21 ance with the criteria established under

22 clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (A)

23 concerning the services or providers that

24 are the subject of such application; and
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(ii) upon a proper showing, establish

2 appropriate flexible pricing procedures con3 sistent with the criteria established under

4 clause (iii) of such subparagraph.

5 The Commission shall approve or reject any

6 such application within 180 days after the date

7 of its submission.

8 ‘‘(C) EXCEPTION.—In the case of commer9 cial mobile services, the provisions of section

10 332(c)(1) shall apply in lieu of the provisions of

11 this paragraph.

12 ‘‘(6) JOINT BOARD TO PRESERVE UNIVERSAL

13 SERVICE.—

14 ‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT; FUNCTIONS.—

15 Within 30 days after the date of enactment of

16 this subsection, the Commission shall convene a

17 Federal-State Joint Board under section 410(c)

18 for the purpose of recommending actions to the

19 Commission and State commissions for the

20 preservation of universal service. As a part of

21 preparing such recommendations, the Joint

22 Board shall survey providers and users of tele23 phone exchange service and consult with State

24 commissions in order to determine the pecu25 niary difference between the cost of providing
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1 universal service and the prices determined to

2 be appropriate for such service.

3 ‘‘(B) PRINCIPLES.—The Joint Board shall

4 base policies for the preservation of universal

5 service on the following principles:

6 ‘‘(i) A plan adopted by the Commis7 sion and the States should ensure the con8 tinued viability of universal service by

9 maintaining quality services at just and

10 reasonable rates.

11 ‘‘(ii) Such plan should define the na12 ture and extent of the services encom13 passed within carriers’ universal service ob14 ligations. Such plan should seek to pro15 mote access to advanced telecommuni16 cations services and capabilities, including

17 open platform service, for all Americans by

18 including access to advanced telecommuni19 cations services and capabilities in the defi20 nition of universal service while maintain21 ing just and reasonable rates. Such plan

22 should seek to promote reasonably com23 parable services for the general public in

24 urban and rural areas.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(iii) Such plan should establish spe2 cific and predictable mechanisms to pro3 vide adequate and sustainable support for

4 universal service.

5 ‘‘(iv) All providers of telecommuni6 cations services should make an equitable

7 and nondiscriminatory contribution to

8 preservation of universal service.

9 ‘‘(v) Such plan should permit residen10 tial subscribers to continue to receive only

11 basic voice-grade local telephone service,

12 for a period of not more than 5 years,

13 equivalent to the service generally available

14 to residential subscribers on the date of en15 actment of this subsection, at just, reason16 able, and affordable rates. Determinations

17 concerning the affordability of rates for

18 such services shall take into account the

19 rates generally available to residential sub20 scribers on such date of enactment and the

21 pricing rules established by the States. If

22 the plan would result in any increases in

23 the rates for such services for residential

24 subscribers that are not attributable to

25 changes in consumer prices generally, such
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•HR 411 IH

1 plan should include a requirement that a

2 rate increase shall be permitted in any pro3 ceeding commenced after March 16, 1994,

4 only upon a showing that such increase is

5 necessary to prevent competitive disadvan6 tages for one or more service providers and

7 is in the public interest. Such plan should

8 provide that any such increase in rates

9 shall be minimized to the greatest extent

10 practical and shall be implemented over a

11 time period of not less than 5 years after

12 the date of enactment of this subsection.

13 ‘‘(vi) To the extent that a common

14 carrier establishes advanced telecommuni15 cations services, such plan should include

16 provisions to promote public access to ad17 vanced telecommunications services, other

18 than a video platform, at a preferential

19 rate that will recover only the added costs

20 of providing such service, for public service

21 institutions, both as producers and users of

22 services, as soon as technically feasible and

23 economically reasonable. Such plan shall

24 provide that such preferential rates should

25 only be made available to such institutions
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•HR 411 IH

1 for the purpose of providing noncommer2 cial information services or telecommuni3 cations services to the general public and

4 not for the internal telecommunications

5 needs or commercial use of such institu6 tions.

7 ‘‘(vii) Such plan should determine and

8 establish mechanisms to ensure that rates

9 charged by a provider of interexchange

10 telecommunications services for services in

11 rural areas are maintained at levels no

12 higher than those charged by the same

13 carrier to subscribers in urban areas.

14 ‘‘(viii) Such plan should, notwith15 standing any other provision of law, re16 quire common carriers serving more than

17 1,800,000 access lines in the aggregate na18 tionwide, to be subject to alternative or

19 price regulation, and not cost-based rate20 of-return regulation, for services that are

21 subject to the jurisdiction of the Commis22 sion or the States, as applicable, when

23 such carrier’s network has been made open

24 to competition as a result of its implemen25 tation of the equal access, interconnection,
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•HR 411 IH

1 and accessibility provisions of this sub2 section.

3 ‘‘(ix) Such other principles as the

4 Board determines are necessary and appro5 priate for the protection of the public in6 terest, convenience, and necessity and con7 sistent with the purposes of this Act.

8 ‘‘(C) DEFINITION OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE;

9 ACCESS TO ADVANCED SERVICES.—In defining

10 the nature and extent of the services encom11 passed within carriers’ universal service obliga12 tions under subparagraph (B)(ii), the Joint

13 Board shall consider the extent to which—

14 ‘‘(i) a telecommunications service has,

15 through the operation of market choices by

16 customers, been subscribed to by a sub17 stantial majority of residential customers;

18 ‘‘(ii) denial of access to such service to

19 any individual would unfairly deny that in20 dividual educational and economic opportu21 nities;

22 ‘‘(iii) such service has been deployed

23 in the public switched telecommunications

24 network; and
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(iv) inclusion of such service within

2 carriers’ universal service obligations is

3 otherwise consistent with the public inter4 est, convenience, and necessity.

5 The Joint Board may, from time to time, rec6 ommend to the Commission modifications in the

7 definition proposed under subparagraph (B).

8 ‘‘(D) REPORT; COMMISSION RESPONSE.—

9 The Joint Board convened pursuant to sub10 paragraph (A) shall report its recommendations

11 within 270 days after the date of enactment of

12 this subsection. The Commission shall complete

13 any proceeding to act upon such recommenda14 tions within one year after such date of enact15 ment. A State may adopt regulations to imple16 ment the Joint Board’s recommendations, ex17 cept that such regulations shall not, after 18

18 months after such date of enactment, be incon19 sistent with regulations prescribed by the Com20 mission to implement such recommendations.

21 ‘‘(E) DEFINITION OF PUBLIC SERVICE IN22 STITUTION.—For the purposes of this para23 graph, the term ‘public service institution’

24 means—
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(i) an agency or instrumentality of

2 Federal, State, or local government;

3 ‘‘(ii) a nonprofit educational institu4 tion, health care institution, public library,

5 public museum, or public broadcasting sta6 tion or entity;

7 ‘‘(iii) a charitable organization that

8 (I) is exempt from Federal income taxes

9 under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal

10 Revenue Code of 1986; (II) provides public

11 services in conjunction with an agency, in12 strumentality, institution, or entity de13 scribed in clause (i) or (ii); and (III) pro14 vides information that is useful to the pub15 lic and that is related to the work of such

16 an agency, instrumentality, institution, or

17 entity.

18 ‘‘(7) CROSS SUBSIDIES PROHIBITION.—The

19 Commission shall—

20 ‘‘(A) prescribe regulations to prohibit a

21 common carrier from engaging in any practice

22 that results in the inclusion in rates for tele23 phone exchange service or telephone exchange

24 access service of any operating expenses, costs,

25 depreciation charges, capital investments, or
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•HR 411 IH

1 other expenses directly associated with the pro2 vision of competing telecommunications serv3 ices, information services, or video program4 ming services by the common carrier or affili5 ate; and

6 ‘‘(B) ensure such competing telecommuni7 cations services, information services or video

8 programming services bear a reasonable share

9 of the joint and common costs of facilities used

10 to provide telephone exchange service or tele11 phone exchange access service and competing

12 telecommunications services, information serv13 ices, or video programming services.

14 ‘‘(8) RESALE.—The resale or sharing of tele15 phone exchange service (or unbundled services, ele16 ments, features, or functions of telephone exchange

17 service) in conjunction with the furnishing of a tele18 communications service or an information service

19 shall not be prohibited nor subject to unreasonable

20 conditions by the carrier, the Commission, or any

21 State.

22 ‘‘(9) TELECOMMUNICATIONS NUMBER PORT23 ABILITY.—The Commission shall prescribe regula24 tions to ensure that—
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(A) telecommunications number port2 ability shall be available, upon request, as soon

3 as technically feasible and economically reason4 able; and

5 ‘‘(B) an impartial entity shall administer

6 telecommunications numbering and make such

7 numbers available on an equitable basis.

8 The Commission shall have exclusive jurisdiction

9 over those portions of the North American Number10 ing Plan that pertain to the United States. For the

11 purpose of this paragraph, the term ‘telecommuni12 cations number portability’ means the ability of

13 users of telecommunications services to retain exist14 ing telecommunications numbers without impairment

15 of quality, reliability, or convenience when switching

16 from one provider of telecommunications services to

17 another.

18 ‘‘(10) REVIEW OF STANDARDS AND REQUIRE19 MENTS.—At least once every three years, the Com20 mission shall—

21 ‘‘(A) conduct a proceeding in which inter22 ested parties shall have an opportunity to com23 ment on whether the standards and require24 ments established by or under this subsection

25 have opened the networks of carriers to reason-
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•HR 411 IH

1 able and nondiscriminatory access by providers

2 of telecommunications services and information

3 services;

4 ‘‘(B) review the definition of, and the ade5 quacy of support for, universal service, and

6 evaluate the extent to which universal service

7 has been protected and access to advanced serv8 ices has been facilitated pursuant to this sub9 section and the plans and regulations there10 under; and

11 ‘‘(C) submit to the Congress a report con12 taining a statement of the Commission’s find13 ings pursuant to such proceeding, and including

14 an identification of any defects or delays ob15 served in attaining the objectives of this sub16 section and a plan for correcting such defects

17 and delays.

18 ‘‘(11) STUDY OF RURAL PHONE SERVICE.—

19 Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this

20 subsection, the Commission shall initiate an inquiry

21 to examine the effects of competition in the provision

22 of telephone exchange access service and telephone

23 exchange service on the availability and rates for

24 telephone exchange access service and telephone ex25 change service furnished by rural exchange carriers.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(d) NETWORK FUNCTIONALITY AND QUALITY.—

2 ‘‘(1) FUNCTIONALITY AND RELIABILITY OBLI3 GATIONS.—The duty of a common carrier under

4 subsection (a) to furnish communications service in5 cludes the duty to furnish that service in accordance

6 with such regulations of functionality and reliability

7 as the Commission may prescribe as necessary or de8 sirable in the public interest pursuant to this sub9 section.

10 ‘‘(2) COORDINATED PLANNING FOR INTEROPER11 ABILITY AND OTHER PURPOSES.—The Commission

12 shall establish—

13 ‘‘(A) procedures for the conduct of coordi14 nated network planning by common carriers

15 and other providers of telecommunications serv16 ices or information services, subject to Commis17 sion supervision, for the effective and efficient

18 interconnection and interoperability of public

19 and private networks; and

20 ‘‘(B) procedures for Commission oversight

21 of the development by appropriate standards22 setting organizations of—

23 ‘‘(i) standards for the interconnection

24 and interoperability of such networks;
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(ii) standards that promote access to

2 network capabilities and services by indi3 viduals with disabilities; and

4 ‘‘(iii) standards that promote access

5 to information services by subscribers to

6 telephone exchange service furnished by a

7 rural telephone company (as such term is

8 defined in subsection (c)(2)(F)).

9 ‘‘(3) OPEN PLATFORM SERVICE.—

10 ‘‘(A) STUDY.—Within 90 days after the

11 date of enactment of this subsection, the Com12 mission shall initiate an inquiry to consider the

13 regulations and policies necessary to make open

14 platform service available to subscribers at rea15 sonable rates based on the reasonably identifi16 able costs of providing such service, utilizing ex17 isting facilities or new facilities with improved

18 capability or efficiency. The inquiry required

19 under this paragraph shall be completed within

20 180 days after the date of its initiation.

21 ‘‘(B) REGULATIONS.—On the basis of the

22 results of the inquiry required under subpara23 graph (A), the Commission shall prescribe and

24 make effective such regulations as are necessary

25 to implement the inquiry’s conclusions. Such
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•HR 411 IH

1 regulations may require a local exchange carrier

2 to file, in the appropriate jurisdiction, tariffs

3 for the origination and termination of open

4 platform service as soon as such service is eco5 nomically and technically feasible. In establish6 ing any such regulations, the Commission shall

7 take into account the proximate and long-term

8 deployment plans of local exchange carriers.

9 ‘‘(C) TEMPORARY WAIVER.—The Commis10 sion shall also establish a procedure to waive

11 temporarily specific provisions of the regula12 tions prescribed under this paragraph if a local

13 exchange carrier demonstrates that compliance

14 with such requirement—

15 ‘‘(i) would be economically or tech16 nically infeasible, or

17 ‘‘(ii) would materially delay the de18 ployment of new facilities with improved

19 capabilities or efficiencies that will be used

20 to meet the requirements of open platform

21 services.

22 Such petitions shall be decided by the Commis23 sion within 180 days after the date of its sub24 mission.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(D) COST ALLOCATION.—Any such regu2 lations shall provide for the allocation of all

3 costs of facilities jointly used to provide open

4 platform service and telephone exchange service

5 or telephone exchange access services.

6 ‘‘(E) STATE AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this

7 paragraph shall be construed to limit a State’s

8 authority to continue to regulate any services

9 subject to State jurisdiction under this Act.

10 ‘‘(F) COMMISSION INQUIRY.—Within 2

11 years after the date of enactment of this para12 graph, the Commission shall conduct an inquiry

13 concerning the deployment of open platform

14 service and other advanced telecommunications

15 network capabilities, including switched,

16 broadband telecommunications facilities. In con17 ducting such inquiry, the Commission shall seek

18 to develop information concerning—

19 ‘‘(i) the availability of such network

20 capabilities to all Americans;

21 ‘‘(ii) the availability of such network

22 capabilities to different regions, States,

23 and classes of subscribers;
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(iii) the availability of advanced net2 work technology needed to deploy such net3 work capabilities; and

4 ‘‘(iv) likely deployment schedules for

5 such network capabilities by region, State,

6 and classes of subscribers.

7 The Commission shall submit a report to the

8 Congress on the results of such inquiry within

9 270 days after the commencement of such in10 quiry, and annually thereafter for the succeed11 ing 5 years.

12 ‘‘(4) ACCESSIBILITY REGULATIONS.—

13 ‘‘(A) REGULATIONS.—Within 1 year after

14 the date of enactment of this section, the Com15 mission shall prescribe such regulations as are

16 necessary to ensure that advances in network

17 services deployed by local exchange carriers

18 shall be accessible and usable by individuals

19 with disabilities, including individuals with

20 functional limitations of hearing, vision, move21 ment, manipulation, speech, and interpretation

22 of information, unless the cost of making the

23 services accessible and usable would result in an

24 undue burden or adverse competitive impact.

25 Such regulations shall seek to permit the use of
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•HR 411 IH

1 both standard and special equipment, and seek

2 to minimize the need of individuals to acquire

3 additional devices beyond those used by the

4 general public to obtain such access. Through5 out the process of developing such regulations,

6 the Commission shall coordinate and consult

7 with representatives of individuals with disabil8 ities and interested equipment and service pro9 viders to ensure their concerns and interests are

10 given full consideration in such process.

11 ‘‘(B) COMPATIBILITY.—Such regulations

12 shall require that whenever an undue burden or

13 adverse competitive impact would result from

14 the requirements in subparagraph (A), the local

15 exchange carrier that deploys the network serv16 ice shall ensure that the network service in

17 question is compatible with existing peripheral

18 devices or specialized customer premises equip19 ment commonly used by persons with disabil20 ities to achieve access, unless doing so would re21 sult in an undue burden or adverse competitive

22 impact.

23 ‘‘(C) UNDUE BURDEN.—The term ‘undue

24 burden’ means significant difficulty or expense.

25 In determining whether the activity necessary
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•HR 411 IH

1 to comply with the requirements of this para2 graph would result in an undue burden, the fac3 tors to be considered include the following:

4 ‘‘(i) The nature and cost of the activ5 ity.

6 ‘‘(ii) The impact on the operation of

7 the facility involved in the deployment of

8 the network service.

9 ‘‘(iii) The financial resources of the

10 local exchange carrier.

11 ‘‘(iv) The type of operations of the

12 local exchange carrier.

13 ‘‘(D) ADVERSE COMPETITIVE IMPACT.—In

14 determining whether the activity necessary to

15 comply with the requirements of this paragraph

16 would result in adverse competitive impact, the

17 following factors shall be considered:

18 ‘‘(i) Whether such activity would raise

19 the cost of the network service in question

20 beyond the level at which there would be

21 sufficient consumer demand by the general

22 population to make the network service

23 profitable.

24 ‘‘(ii) Whether such activity would,

25 with respect to the network service in ques-
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•HR 411 IH

1 tion, put the local exchange carrier at a

2 competitive disadvantage. This factor may

3 be considered so long as competing net4 work service providers are not held to the

5 same obligation with respect to access by

6 persons with disabilities.

7 ‘‘(E) REVIEW OF STANDARDS AND RE8 QUIREMENTS.—At least once every 3 years, the

9 Commission shall conduct a proceeding in which

10 interested parties shall have an opportunity to

11 comment on whether the regulations established

12 under this paragraph have ensured that ad13 vances in network services by providers of tele14 communications services and information serv15 ices are accessible and usable by individuals

16 with disabilities.

17 ‘‘(F) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The regulations

18 required by this paragraph shall become effec19 tive 18 months after the date of enactment of

20 this subsection.

21 ‘‘(5) QUALITY RULES.—

22 ‘‘(A) MEASURES OR BENCHMARKS RE23 QUIRED.—The Commission shall designate or

24 otherwise establish network reliability and qual25 ity performance measures or benchmarks for
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•HR 411 IH

1 common carriers for the purpose of ensuring

2 the continued maintenance and evolution of

3 common carrier facilities and service. Not later

4 than 180 days after the date of enactment of

5 this subsection, the Commission shall initiate a

6 rulemaking proceeding to establish such per7 formance measures or benchmarks.

8 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS OF REGULATIONS.—Such

9 regulations shall include—

10 ‘‘(i) quantitative network reliability

11 and service quality performance measures

12 or benchmarks;

13 ‘‘(ii) procedures to monitor and evalu14 ate common carrier efforts to increase net15 work reliability and service quality; and

16 ‘‘(iii) procedures to resolve network

17 reliability and service quality complaints.

18 ‘‘(C) COORDINATION AND CONSULTA19 TION.—Throughout the process of developing

20 network reliability and service quality perform21 ance measures or benchmarks, as required by

22 subparagraphs (A) and (B), the Commission

23 shall coordinate and consult with service and

24 equipment providers and users and State regu-
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•HR 411 IH

1 latory bodies to ensure their concerns and inter2 ests are given full consideration in such process.

3 ‘‘(6) RURAL EXEMPTION.—The Commission

4 may modify, or grant exemptions from, the require5 ments of this subsection in the case of a common

6 carrier providing telecommunications services in a

7 rural area.

8 ‘‘(e) INFRASTRUCTURE SHARING.—

9 ‘‘(1) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.—Within one

10 year after the date of enactment of this subsection,

11 the Commission shall prescribe regulations that re12 quire local exchange carriers to make available to

13 qualifying carriers such public switched tele14 communications network technology and information

15 and telecommunications facilities and functions as

16 may be requested by such a qualifying carrier for

17 the purpose of enabling that carrier to provide tele18 communications services, or to provide access to in19 formation services, in the geographic area in which

20 that carrier has requested and obtained designation

21 as the qualifying carrier.

22 ‘‘(2) QUALIFYING CARRIERS.—For purposes of

23 paragraph (1), the term ‘qualifying carrier’ means a

24 local exchange carrier that—
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(A) lacks economies of scale or scope, as

2 determined in accordance with regulations pre3 scribed by the Commission pursuant to this

4 subsection; and

5 ‘‘(B) is a common carrier which offers tele6 phone exchange service, telephone exchange ac7 cess service, and any other service that is within

8 the definition of universal service, to all cus9 tomers without preference throughout one or

10 more exchange areas in existence on the date of

11 enactment of this subsection.

12 ‘‘(3) TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF REGULA13 TIONS.—The regulations prescribed by the Commis14 sion pursuant to this subsection—

15 ‘‘(A) shall not require any local exchange

16 carrier to take any action that is economically

17 unreasonable or that is contrary to the public

18 interest or to provide telecommunications facili19 ties and functions to any qualifying carrier that

20 is not reasonably proximate to such local ex21 change carrier;

22 ‘‘(B) shall permit, but shall not require,

23 the joint ownership or operation of public

24 switched telecommunications network facilities,
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•HR 411 IH

1 functions, and services by or among the local

2 exchange carrier and the qualifying carrier;

3 ‘‘(C) shall ensure that a local exchange

4 carrier shall not be treated by the Commission

5 or any State commission as a common carrier

6 for hire, or as offering common carrier services,

7 with respect to any technology, information, fa8 cilities, or functions made available to a qualify9 ing carrier pursuant to this subsection;

10 ‘‘(D) shall ensure that local exchange car11 riers make such technology, information, facili12 ties, or functions available to qualifying carriers

13 on fair and reasonable terms and conditions

14 that permit such qualifying carriers to fully

15 benefit from the economies of scale and scope

16 of the providing local exchange carrier, as de17 termined in accordance with guidelines pre18 scribed by the Commission in such regulations;

19 ‘‘(E) shall establish conditions that pro20 mote cooperation between local exchange car21 riers and qualifying carriers; and

22 ‘‘(F) shall not require any local exchange

23 carrier to engage in any infrastructure sharing

24 agreement for any geographic area where such
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•HR 411 IH

1 carrier is required to provide services subject to

2 State regulation.

3 ‘‘(4) INFORMATION CONCERNING DEPLOYMENT

4 OF NEW SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT.—Any local ex5 change carrier that has entered into an agreement

6 with a qualifying carrier under this subsection shall

7 provide to each party to such agreement timely in8 formation on the planned deployment of tele9 communications services and equipment, including

10 software integral to such telecommunications serv11 ices and equipment, including upgrades.’’.

12 (b) PREEMPTION OF FRANCHISING AUTHORITY REG13 ULATION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.—

14 (1) TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.—Section

15 621(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

16 U.S.C. 541(c)) is amended by adding at the end

17 thereof the following new paragraph:

18 ‘‘(3)(A) To the extent that a cable operator or affili19 ate thereof is engaged in the provision of telecommuni20 cations services—

21 ‘‘(i) such cable operator or affiliate shall not be

22 required to obtain a franchise under this title; and

23 ‘‘(ii) the provisions of this title shall not apply

24 to such cable operator or affiliate.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(B) A franchising authority may not impose any re2 quirement that has the purpose or effect of prohibiting,

3 limiting, restricting, or conditioning the provision of a tele4 communications service by a cable operator or an affiliate

5 thereof.

6 ‘‘(C) A franchising authority may not order a cable

7 operator or affiliate thereof—

8 ‘‘(i) to discontinue the provision of a tele9 communications service, or

10 ‘‘(ii) to discontinue the operation of a cable sys11 tem, to the extent such cable system is used for the

12 provision of a telecommunications service, by reason

13 of the failure of such cable operator or affiliate

14 thereof to obtain a franchise or franchise renewal

15 under this title with respect to the provision of such

16 telecommunications service.

17 ‘‘(D) A franchising authority may not require a cable

18 operator to provide any telecommunications service or fa19 cilities as a condition of the initial grant of a franchise

20 or a franchise renewal.’’.

21 (2) FRANCHISE FEES.—Section 622(b) of the

22 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 542(b)) is

23 amended by inserting ‘‘to provide cable services’’ im24 mediately before the period at the end of the first

25 sentence thereof.
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1 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 2(b) of the

2 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 152(b)) is

3 amended by inserting ‘‘201 (c) and (d),’’ after ‘‘Except

4 as provided in sections’’.

5 SEC. 303. TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES FOR EDU6 CATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, HEALTH CARE IN7 STITUTIONS, AND LIBRARIES.

8 Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 is

9 amended by adding at the end the following new section:

10 ‘‘SEC. 234. TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES FOR EDU11 CATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, HEALTH CARE IN12 STITUTIONS, AND LIBRARIES.

13 ‘‘(a) PROMOTION OF DELIVERY OF ADVANCED SERV14 ICES.—In fulfillment of its obligation under section 1 to

15 make available to all the people of the United States a

16 rapid, efficient, nationwide, and worldwide communica17 tions service, the Commission shall promote the provision

18 of advanced telecommunications services by wire, wireless,

19 cable, and satellite technologies to—

20 ‘‘(1) educational institutions;

21 ‘‘(2) health care institutions; and

22 ‘‘(3) public libraries.

23 ‘‘(b) ANNUAL SURVEY REQUIRED.—The National

24 Telecommunications and Information Administration shall

25 conduct a nationwide survey of the availability of advanced
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1 telecommunications services to educational institutions,

2 health care institutions, and public libraries. The Adminis3 tration shall complete the survey and release publicly the

4 results of such survey not later than one year after the

5 date of enactment of this section. The results of such sur6 vey shall include—

7 ‘‘(1) the number of educational institutions and

8 classrooms, health care institutions, and public li9 braries;

10 ‘‘(2) the number of educational institutions and

11 classrooms, health care institutions, and public li12 braries that have access to advanced telecommuni13 cations services; and

14 ‘‘(3) the nature of the telecommunications fa15 cilities through which such educational institutions,

16 health care institutions, and public libraries obtain

17 access to advanced telecommunications services.

18 The National Telecommunications and Information Ad19 ministration shall update annually the survey required by

20 this section. The survey required under this subsection

21 shall be prepared in consultation with the Department of

22 Education, Department of Health and Human Services,

23 and such other Federal, State, and local departments,

24 agencies, and authorities that may maintain or have ac25 cess to information concerning the availability of advanced
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1 telecommunications services to educational institutions,

2 health care institutions, and libraries.

3 ‘‘(c) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—Within one year

4 after the date of enactment of this section, the Commis5 sion shall issue a notice of proposed rulemaking for the

6 purpose of adopting regulations that—

7 ‘‘(1) enhance, to the extent technically feasible

8 and economically reasonable, the availability of ad9 vanced telecommunications services to all edu10 cational institutions and classrooms, health care in11 stitutions, and public libraries by the year 2000;

12 ‘‘(2) ensure that appropriate functional require13 ments or performance standards, or both, including

14 interoperability standards, are established for tele15 communications systems or facilities that inter16 connect educational institutions, health care institu17 tions, and public libraries with the public switched

18 telecommunications network;

19 ‘‘(3) define the circumstances under which a

20 carrier may be required to interconnect its tele21 communications network with educational institu22 tions, health care institutions, and public libraries;

23 ‘‘(4) provide for either the establishment of

24 preferential rates for telecommunications services,

25 including advanced services, that are provided to
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1 educational institutions, health care institutions, and

2 public libraries, or the use of alternative mechanisms

3 to enhance the availability of advanced services to

4 these institutions; and

5 ‘‘(5) address such other related matters as the

6 Commission may determine.

7 ‘‘(d) FEASIBILITY STUDY.—The Commission shall

8 assess the feasibility of including postsecondary edu9 cational institutions in any regulations promulgated under

10 this section.

11 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—

12 ‘‘(1) the term ‘educational institutions’ means

13 elementary and secondary educational institutions;

14 and

15 ‘‘(2) the term ‘health care institutions’ means

16 not-for-profit health care institutions, including hos17 pitals and clinics.’’.

18 SEC. 304. DISCRIMINATORY INTERCONNECTION.

19 Section 208 of the Communications Act of 1934 is

20 amended by adding at the end thereof the following new

21 subsection:

22 ‘‘(c) EXPEDITED REVIEW OF CERTAIN COM23 PLAINTS.—The Commission shall issue a final order with

24 respect to any complaint arising from alleged violations

25 of the regulations and orders prescribed pursuant to sec-
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1 tion 201(c) within 180 days after the date such complaint

2 is filed.’’.

3 SEC. 305. EXPEDITED LICENSING OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

4 AND SERVICES.

5 Section 7 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

6 U.S.C. 157) is amended by adding at the end thereof the

7 following new subsection:

8 ‘‘(c) LICENSING OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES.—

9 ‘‘(1) EXPEDITED RULEMAKING.—Within 24

10 months after making a determination under sub11 section (b) that a technology or service related to the

12 furnishing of telecommunications services is in the

13 public interest, the Commission shall, with respect to

14 any such service requiring a license or other author15 ization from the Commission, adopt and make effec16 tive regulations for—

17 ‘‘(A) the provision of such technology or

18 service; and

19 ‘‘(B) the filing of applications for the li20 censes or authorizations necessary to offer such

21 technology or service to the public, and shall act

22 on any such application within 24 months after

23 it is filed.

24 ‘‘(2) REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS.—Any applica25 tion filed by a carrier under this subsection for the
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1 construction or extension of a line shall also be sub2 ject to section 214 and to any necessary approval by

3 the appropriate State commissions.’’.

4 SEC. 306. NEW OR EXTENDED LINES.

5 Section 214 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

6 U.S.C. 214) is amended by adding at the end the following

7 new subsection:

8 ‘‘(e) Any application filed under this section for au9 thority to construct or extend a line shall address the

10 means by which such construction or extension will meet

11 the network access needs of individuals with disabilities.’’.

12 SEC. 307. POLE ATTACHMENTS.

13 Section 224 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

14 U.S.C. 244) is amended—

15 (1) in subsection (a)(4), by inserting after ‘‘sys16 tem’’ the following: ‘‘or a provider of telecommuni17 cations service’’;

18 (2) in subsection (c)(2)(B), by striking ‘‘cable

19 television services’’ and inserting ‘‘the services of20 fered via such attachments’’;

21 (3) by redesignating subsection (d)(2) as sub22 section (d)(4); and

23 (4) by striking subsection (d)(1) and inserting

24 the following:
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1 ‘‘(d)(1) For purposes of subsection (b) of this section,

2 the Commission shall, no later than 1 year after the date

3 of enactment of the Antitrust and Communications Re4 form Act of 1995, prescribe regulations for ensuring that

5 utilities charge just and reasonable and nondiscriminatory

6 rates for pole attachments provided to all providers of tele7 communications services, including such attachments used

8 by cable television systems to provide telecommunications

9 services (as defined in section 3(oo) of this Act). Such reg10 ulations shall—

11 ‘‘(A) recognize that the entire pole, duct, con12 duit, or right-of-way other than the usable space is

13 of equal benefit to all attachments to the pole, duct,

14 conduit, or right-of-way and therefore apportion the

15 cost of the space other than the usable space equally

16 among all such attachments,

17 ‘‘(B) recognize that the usable space is of pro18 portional benefit to all entities attached to the pole,

19 duct, conduit, or right-of-way and therefore appor20 tion the cost of the usable space according to the

21 percentage of usable space required for each entity,

22 and

23 ‘‘(C) allow for reasonable terms and conditions

24 relating to health, safety, and the provision of reli25 able utility service.
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1 ‘‘(2) The final regulations prescribed by the Commis2 sion pursuant to subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of para3 graph (1) shall not apply to a pole attachment used by

4 a cable television system solely to provide cable service as

5 defined in section 602(6) of this Act. The rates for pole

6 attachments used for such purposes shall assure a utility

7 the recovery of not less than the additional costs of provid8 ing pole attachments, nor more than an amount deter9 mined by multiplying the percentage of the total usable

10 space, or the percentage of the total duct, conduit, or

11 right-of-way capacity, which is occupied by the pole at12 tachment by the sum of the operating expenses and actual

13 capital costs of the utility attributable to the entire pole,

14 duct, conduit, or right-of-way.

15 ‘‘(3) For all providers of telecommunications services

16 except members of the exchange carrier association estab17 lished in 47 C.F.R. 69.601 as of December 31, 1993, upon

18 enactment of this paragraph and until the Commission

19 promulgates its final regulations pursuant to subpara20 graphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (1), the rate for21 mula contained in any joint use pole attachment agree22 ment between the electric utility and the largest local ex23 change carrier having such a joint use agreement in the

24 utility’s service area, in effect on January 1, 1994, shall

25 also apply to the pole attachments in the utility’s service
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1 area, but if no such joint use agreement containing a rate

2 formula exists, then the pole attachment rate shall be the

3 rate applicable under paragraph (2) to cable television sys4 tems which solely provide cable service as defined in sec5 tion 602(6) of this Act. Disputes concerning the applica6 bility of a joint use agreement shall be resolved by the

7 Commission or the States, as appropriate.’’.

8 SEC. 308. CIVIC PARTICIPATION.

9 (a) POLICIES TO ENHANCE CIVIC DIALOGUE.—The

10 Commission, in consultation with the National Tele11 communications and Information Administration, shall

12 study policies that will enhance civic participation through

13 the national information infrastructure. The study shall

14 request and record public comments on Federal policies

15 that would enhance and expand democratic dialogue

16 through national computer and data networks. The study

17 shall examine, but not be limited to, the social benefits

18 of flat rate pricing for access to computer and data net19 works, the policies which will determine how access to

20 computer networks will be priced, including the access

21 needs of individuals with disabilities, and the appropriate

22 role of common carriers in the development of national

23 computer and data networks. The Commission shall re24 ceive comments in both paper and electronic formats and

25 shall establish an online discussion group accessed
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1 through the national information infrastructure to encour2 age citizen participation in the study.

3 (b) PARTICIPATION IN REGULATORY AFFAIRS.—The

4 Commission, in consultation with the Office of Consumer

5 Affairs, shall conduct a study of how to encourage citizen

6 participation in regulatory issues and, within 120 days

7 from the date of enactment of this Act, report to Congress

8 on the results of the study.

9 SEC. 309. COMPETITION BY SMALL BUSINESS AND MINOR10 ITY-OWNED BUSINESS CONCERNS.

11 Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 is

12 amended by adding at the end the following new section:

13 ‘‘SEC. 235. POLICY AND RULEMAKING TO PROMOTE DIVER14 SITY OF OWNERSHIP.

15 ‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—

16 ‘‘(1) in furtherance of the purposes of this Act

17 to make available to all people of the United States

18 a rapid and efficient communications service, and

19 for the purposes of promoting a diversity of opinion

20 in the broadcasting service, the Commission has es21 tablished regulations and policies to promote owner22 ship of broadcasting services by members of minority

23 groups;

24 ‘‘(2) these regulations have served to promote

25 more vigorous communications on public issues, to
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1 broaden the number and variety of stakeholders in

2 the American economy, and to promote innovation

3 by and creativity by Americans of different cultures

4 and national origins, and thereby have served to

5 build a more cohesive and productive society;

6 ‘‘(3) while the Commission has adopted regula7 tions to promote participation by businesses owned

8 by members of minority groups and women, and

9 small businesses, in auctions for certain spectrum10 based services which promote diversity of ownership

11 in those services, no other regulations have been es12 tablished to promote such diversity of participation

13 in the provision of common carrier services or in the

14 provision of other telecommunications and informa15 tion services;

16 ‘‘(4) the goals of competitively priced services,

17 service innovation, employment, and diversity of

18 viewpoint can be advanced by promoting market19 place penetration by small business concerns, busi20 ness concerns owned by women and members of mi21 nority groups, and nonprofit entities; and

22 ‘‘(5) it should be the policy of the Commission

23 to promote whenever possible diversity of ownership

24 in the provision of information services and tele-
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1 communication services by such concerns and enti2 ties.

3 ‘‘(b) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—Within 1 year after

4 the date of enactment of this section, the Commission, in

5 consultation with the National Telecommunications and

6 Information Administration, shall initiate a rulemaking

7 proceeding for the purpose of lowering market entry bar8 riers for small business, business concerns owned by

9 women and members of minority groups, and nonprofit

10 entities that are seeking to provide telecommunication

11 services and information services. The proceeding shall

12 seek to provide remedies for, among other things, lack of

13 access to capital and technical and marketing expertise on

14 the part of such concerns and entities. Consistent with the

15 broad policy and finding set forth in subsection (a), the

16 Commission shall adopt such regulations and make such

17 recommendations to Congress as the Commission deems

18 appropriate. Not later than 2 years after the date of enact19 ment of this section, the Commission shall complete the

20 proceeding required by this subsection.’’.

21 TITLE IV—COMMUNICATIONS

22 COMPETITIVENESS

23 SEC. 401. CABLE SERVICE PROVIDED BY TELEPHONE COM24 PANIES.

25 (a) GENERAL REQUIREMENT.—
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1 (1) AMENDMENT.—Section 613(b) of the Com2 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 533(b)) is

3 amended to read as follows:

4 ‘‘(b)(1) Subject to the requirements of part V and

5 the other provisions of this title, any common carrier sub6 ject in whole or in part to title II of this Act may, either

7 through its own facilities or through an affiliate owned,

8 operated, or controlled by, or under common control with,

9 the common carrier, provide video programming directly

10 to subscribers in its telephone service area.

11 ‘‘(2) Subject to the requirements of part V and the

12 other provisions of this title, any common carrier subject

13 in whole or in part to title II of this Act may provide chan14 nels of communications or pole, line, or conduit space, or

15 other rental arrangements, to any entity which is directly

16 or indirectly owned, operated, or controlled by, or under

17 common control with, such common carrier, if such facili18 ties or arrangements are to be used for, or in connection

19 with, the provision of video programming directly to sub20 scribers in its telephone service area.

21 ‘‘(3) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), an af22 filiate that—

23 ‘‘(A) is, consistent with section 656, owned, op24 erated, or controlled by, or under common control
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1 with, a common carrier subject in whole or in part

2 to title II of this Act, and

3 ‘‘(B) provides video programming to subscribers

4 in the telephone service area of such carrier, but

5 ‘‘(C) does not utilize the local exchange facili6 ties or services of any affiliated common carrier in

7 distributing such programming,

8 shall not be subject to the requirements of part V, but

9 shall be subject to the requirements of this part and parts

10 III and IV.’’.

11 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 602

12 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 531)

13 is amended—

14 (A) in paragraph (6)(B), by inserting ‘‘or

15 use’’ after ‘‘the selection’’;

16 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (18) and

17 (19) as paragraphs (19) and (20) respectively;

18 and

19 (C) by inserting after paragraph (17) the

20 following new paragraph:

21 ‘‘(18) the term ‘telephone service area’ when

22 used in connection with a common carrier subject in

23 whole or in part to title II of this Act means the

24 area within which such carrier provides telephone ex25 change service as of November 20, 1993, but if any
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1 common carrier after such date transfers its ex2 change service facilities to another common carrier,

3 the area to which such facilities provide telephone

4 exchange service shall be treated as part of the tele5 phone service area of the acquiring common carrier

6 and not of the selling common carrier;’’.

7 (b) PROVISIONS FOR REGULATION OF CABLE SERV8 ICE PROVIDED BY TELEPHONE COMPANIES.—Title VI of

9 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 521 et seq.)

10 is amended by adding at the end the following new part:

11 ‘‘PART V—VIDEO PROGRAMMING SERVICES

12 PROVIDED BY TELEPHONE COMPANIES

13 ‘‘SEC. 651. DEFINITIONS.

14 ‘‘For purposes of this part—

15 ‘‘(1) the term ‘control’ means—

16 ‘‘(A) an ownership interest in which an en17 tity has the right to vote more than 50 percent

18 of the outstanding common stock or other own19 ership interest; or

20 ‘‘(B) if no single entity directly or indi21 rectly has the right to vote more than 50 per22 cent of the outstanding common stock or other

23 ownership interest, actual working control, in

24 whatever manner exercised, as defined by the

25 Commission by regulation on the basis of rel-
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1 evant factors and circumstances, which shall in2 clude partnership and direct ownership inter3 ests, voting stock interests, the interests of offi4 cers and directors, and the aggregation of vot5 ing interests; and

6 ‘‘(2) the term ‘rural area’ means a geographic

7 area that does not include either—

8 ‘‘(A) any incorporated or unincorporated

9 place of 10,000 inhabitants or more, or any

10 part thereof; or

11 ‘‘(B) any territory, incorporated or unin12 corporated, included in an urbanized area.

13 ‘‘SEC. 652. SEPARATE VIDEO PROGRAMMING AFFILIATE.

14 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection

15 (d) of this section, a common carrier subject to title II

16 of this Act shall not provide video programming directly

17 to subscribers in its telephone service area unless such

18 video programming is provided through a video program19 ming affiliate that is separate from such carrier.

20 ‘‘(b) BOOKS AND MARKETING.—

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A video programming affili22 ate of a common carrier shall—

23 ‘‘(A) maintain books, records, and ac24 counts separate from such carrier which iden25 tify all transactions with such carrier;
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1 ‘‘(B) carry out directly (or through any

2 nonaffiliated person) its own promotion, except

3 that institutional advertising carried out by

4 such carrier shall be permitted so long as each

5 party bears its pro rata share of the costs; and

6 ‘‘(C) not own real or personal property in

7 common with such carrier.

8 ‘‘(2) INBOUND TELEMARKETING AND REFER9 RAL.—Notwithstanding paragraph (1)(B), a com10 mon carrier may provide telemarketing or referral

11 services in response to the call of a customer or po12 tential customer related to the provision of video

13 programming by a video programming affiliate of

14 such carrier. If such services are provided to a video

15 programming affiliate, such services shall be made

16 available to any video programmer or cable operator

17 on request, on nondiscriminatory terms, at just and

18 reasonable prices, and subject to regulations of the

19 Commission to ensure that the carrier’s method of

20 providing telemarketing or referral and its price

21 structure do not competitively disadvantage any

22 video programmer or cable operator, regardless of

23 size, including those which do not use the carrier’s

24 telemarketing services.
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1 ‘‘(3) JOINT TELEMARKETING.—Notwithstand2 ing paragraph (1)(B), a common carrier may peti3 tion the Commission for permission to market video

4 programming directly, upon a showing that a cable

5 operator or other entity directly or indirectly pro6 vides telecommunications services within the tele7 phone service area of the common carrier, and mar8 kets such telecommunications services jointly with

9 video programming services. The common carrier

10 shall specify the geographic region covered by the

11 petition. Any such petition shall be granted or de12 nied within 180 days after the date of its submis13 sion.

14 ‘‘(c) BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS WITH CARRIER SUB15 JECT TO REGULATION.—Any contract, agreement, ar16 rangement, or other manner of conducting business, be17 tween a common carrier and its video programming affili18 ate, providing for—

19 ‘‘(1) the sale, exchange, or leasing of property

20 between such affiliate and such carrier,

21 ‘‘(2) the furnishing of goods or services between

22 such affiliate and such carrier, or

23 ‘‘(3) the transfer to or use by such affiliate for

24 its benefit of any asset or resource of such carrier,
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1 shall be pursuant to regulation prescribed by the Commis2 sion, shall be on a fully compensatory and auditable basis,

3 shall be without cost to the telephone service ratepayers

4 of the carrier, shall be filed with the Commission, and

5 shall be in compliance with regulations established by the

6 Commission that will enable the Commission to assess the

7 compliance of any transaction.

8 ‘‘(d) WAIVER.—

9 ‘‘(1) CRITERIA FOR WAIVER.—The Commission

10 may waive any of the requirements of this section

11 for small telephone companies or telephone compa12 nies serving rural areas, if the Commission deter13 mines, after notice and comment, that—

14 ‘‘(A) such waiver will not affect the ability

15 of the Commission to ensure that all video pro16 gramming activity is carried out without any

17 support from telephone ratepayers;

18 ‘‘(B) the interests of telephone ratepayers

19 and cable subscribers will not be harmed if such

20 waiver is granted;

21 ‘‘(C) such waiver will not adversely affect

22 the ability of persons to obtain access to the

23 video platform of such carrier; and

24 ‘‘(D) such waiver otherwise is in the public

25 interest.
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1 ‘‘(2) DEADLINE FOR ACTION.—The Commission

2 shall act to approve or disapprove a waiver applica3 tion within 180 days after the date it is filed.

4 ‘‘(3) CONTINUED APPLICABILITY OF SECTION

5 659.—In the case of a common carrier that obtains

6 a waiver under this subsection, any requirement that

7 section 659 applies to a video programming affiliate

8 shall instead apply to such carrier.

9 ‘‘SEC. 653. ESTABLISHMENT OF VIDEO PLATFORM.

10 ‘‘(a) COMMON CARRIER OBLIGATIONS.—

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any common carrier sub12 ject to title II of this Act, and that provides video

13 programming directly or indirectly to subscribers in

14 its telephone service area, shall establish a video

15 platform.

16 ‘‘(2) IDENTIFICATION OF DEMAND FOR CAR17 RIAGE.—Any common carrier subject to the require18 ments of paragraph (1) shall, prior to establishing a

19 video platform, submit a notice to the Commission

20 of its intention to establish channel capacity for the

21 provision of video programming to meet the bona

22 fide demand for such capacity. Such notice shall—

23 ‘‘(A) be in such form and contain such in24 formation as the Commission may require by

25 regulations pursuant to subsection (b);
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1 ‘‘(B) specify the methods by which any en2 tity seeking to use such channel capacity should

3 submit to such carrier a specification of its

4 channel capacity requirements; and

5 ‘‘(C) specify the procedures by which such

6 carrier will determine (in accordance with the

7 Commission’s regulations under subsection

8 (b)(1)(B)) whether such request for capacity

9 are bona fide.

10 The Commission shall submit any such notice for

11 publication in the Federal Register within 5 working

12 days.

13 ‘‘(3) RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR CARRIAGE.—

14 After receiving and reviewing the requests for capac15 ity submitted pursuant to such notice, such common

16 carrier shall, subject to approval of a certificate

17 under section 214, establish channel capacity that is

18 sufficient to provide carriage for—

19 ‘‘(A) all bona fide requests submitted pur20 suant to such notice,

21 ‘‘(B) any additional channels required pur22 suant to section 659, and

23 ‘‘(C) any additional channels required by

24 the Commission’s regulations under subsection

25 (b)(1)(C).
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1 ‘‘(4) RESPONSES TO CHANGES IN DEMAND FOR

2 CAPACITY.—Any common carrier that establishes a

3 video platform under this section shall—

4 ‘‘(A) immediately notify the Commission

5 and each video programming provider of any

6 delay in or denial of channel capacity or service,

7 and the reasons therefor;

8 ‘‘(B) continue to receive and grant, to the

9 extent of available capacity, carriage in re10 sponse to bona fide requests for carriage from

11 existing or additional video programming pro12 viders;

13 ‘‘(C) if at any time the number of channels

14 required for bona fide requests for carriage may

15 reasonably be expected soon to exceed the exist16 ing capacity of such video platform, imme17 diately notify the Commission of such expecta18 tion and of the manner and date by which such

19 carrier will provide sufficient capacity to meet

20 such excess demand; and

21 ‘‘(D) construct, subject to approval of a

22 certificate under section 214, such additional

23 capacity as may be necessary to meet such ex24 cess demand.
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1 ‘‘(5) DISPUTE RESOLUTION.—The Commission

2 shall have the authority to resolve disputes under

3 this section and the regulations prescribed there4 under. Any such dispute shall be resolved within 180

5 days after notice of such dispute is submitted to the

6 Commission. At that time or subsequently in a sepa7 rate damages proceeding, the Commission may

8 award damages sustained in consequence of any vio9 lation of this section to any person denied carriage,

10 or require carriage, or both. Any aggrieved party

11 may seek any other remedy available under this Act.

12 ‘‘(b) COMMISSION REGULATIONS.—

13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Within one year after the

14 date of the enactment of this section, the Commis15 sion shall prescribe regulations that—

16 ‘‘(A) consistent with the requirements of

17 section 659, prohibit a common carrier from

18 discriminating among video programming pro19 viders with regard to carriage on its video plat20 form, and ensure that the rates, terms, and

21 conditions for such carriage are just, reason22 able, and nondiscriminatory;

23 ‘‘(B) prescribe definitions and criteria for

24 the purposes of determining whether a request
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1 shall be considered a bona fide request for pur2 poses of this section;

3 ‘‘(C) establish a requirement that video

4 platforms contain a suitable margin of unused

5 channel capacity to meet reasonable growth in

6 bona fide demand for such capacity;

7 ‘‘(D) extend to video platforms the Com8 mission’s regulations concerning network non9 duplication (47 C.F.R. 76.92 et seq.) and syn10 dicated exclusivity (47 C.F.R. 76.151 et seq.);

11 ‘‘(E) require the video platform to provide

12 service, transmission, interconnection, and

13 interoperability for unaffiliated or independent

14 video programming providers that is equivalent

15 to that provided to the common carrier’s video

16 programming affiliate;

17 ‘‘(F)(i) prohibit a common carrier from

18 discriminating among video programming pro19 viders with regard to material or information

20 provided by the common carrier to subscribers

21 for the purposes of selecting programming on

22 the video platform, or in the way such material

23 or information is presented to subscribers;

24 ‘‘(ii) require a common carrier to ensure

25 that video programming providers or copyright
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1 holders (or both) are able suitably and uniquely

2 to identify their programming services to sub3 scribers; and

4 ‘‘(iii) if such identification is transmitted

5 as part of the programming signal, require the

6 carrier to transmit such identification without

7 change or alteration; and

8 ‘‘(G) prohibit a common carrier from ex9 cluding areas from its video platform service

10 area on the basis of the ethnicity, race, or in11 come of the residents of that area, and provide

12 for public comments on the adequacy of the

13 proposed service area on the basis of the stand14 ards set forth under this subparagraph.

15 ‘‘(2) EXTENSION OF REGULATIONS TO OTHER

16 HIGH CAPACITY SYSTEMS.—The Commission shall

17 extend the requirements of the regulations pre18 scribed pursuant to this section, in lieu of the re19 quirements of section 612, to any cable operator of

20 a cable system that has installed a switched,

21 broadband video programming delivery system, ex22 cept that the Commission shall not extend the re23 quirements of the regulations prescribed pursuant to

24 subsection (b)(1)(D) or any other requirement that

25 the Commission determines is clearly inappropriate.
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1 ‘‘(c) COMMISSION INQUIRY.—The Commission shall

2 conduct a study of whether it is in the public interest to

3 extend the requirements of subsection (a) to any other

4 cable operators in lieu of the requirements of section 612.

5 The Commission shall submit to the Congress a report on

6 the results of such study not later than 2 years after the

7 date of enactment of this section.

8 ‘‘SEC. 654. EQUAL ACCESS COMPLIANCE.

9 ‘‘(a) CERTIFICATION REQUIRED.—

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A common carrier subject

11 to title II of this Act shall not provide video pro12 gramming directly to subscribers in its telephone

13 service area unless such carrier has certified to the

14 Commission that such carrier is in compliance with

15 the requirements of paragraphs (1) and (2) of sec16 tion 201(c) of this Act, and regulations prescribed

17 pursuant to such paragraphs.

18 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding paragraph

19 (1), a common carrier subject to title II of this Act

20 may provide video programming directly to subscrib21 ers in its telephone service area during any period

22 prior to the date the Commission first prescribes

23 final regulations pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2)

24 of section 201(c) of this Act if such carrier has cer25 tified to the Commission that such carrier is in com-
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1 pliance with State laws and regulations concerning

2 equal access, interconnection, and unbundling that

3 are substantially similar to and fully consistent with

4 the requirements of such paragraphs or if there is

5 no statutory prohibition against such carrier provid6 ing video programming directly to subscribers in its

7 telephone service area on the date of enactment of

8 this section. A common carrier that is permitted to

9 provide video programming under this paragraph

10 prior to the effective date of such regulations shall

11 not be exempt from the requirements of paragraph

12 (1) after the effective date of such final regulations.

13 ‘‘(b) CERTIFICATION AND APPLICATION AP14 PROVAL.—A common carrier that submits a certification

15 under paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (a) shall be eligi16 ble to provide video programming to subscribers in accord17 ance with the requirements of this part, subject to the ap18 proval of any necessary application under section 214 for

19 authority to establish a video platform. An application

20 under section 214 may be filed simultaneously with the

21 filing of such certification or at any time after the date

22 of enactment of this section, and the Commission shall act

23 to approve (with or without modification) or reject such

24 application within 180 days after the date of its submis25 sion. If the Commission acts to approve such an applica-
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1 tion prior to the filing of such certification, such approval

2 shall not be effective until such certification is filed.

3 ‘‘SEC. 655. PROHIBITION OF CROSS-SUBSIDIZATION.

4 ‘‘(a) CROSS SUBSIDIES PROHIBITION.—The Commis5 sion shall—

6 ‘‘(1) prescribe regulations to prohibit a common

7 carrier from engaging in any practice that results in

8 the inclusion in rates for telephone exchange service

9 or telephone exchange access service of any operat10 ing expenses, costs, depreciation charges, capital in11 vestments, or other expenses directly associated with

12 the provision of competing video programming serv13 ices by the common carrier or affiliate; and

14 ‘‘(2) ensure such competing video programming

15 services bear a reasonable share of the joint and

16 common costs of facilities used to provide telephone

17 exchange service or telephone exchange access serv18 ice and competing video programming services.

19 ‘‘(b) CABLE OPERATOR PROHIBITIONS.—The Com20 mission shall prescribe regulations to prohibit a cable op21 erator from engaging in any practice that results in im22 proper cross-subsidization between its regulated cable op23 erations and its provision of telecommunications service,

24 either directly or through an affiliate.
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1 ‘‘SEC. 656. PROHIBITION ON BUYOUTS.

2 ‘‘(a) GENERAL PROHIBITION.—No common carrier

3 that provides telephone exchange service, and no entity

4 owned by or under common ownership or control with such

5 carrier, may purchase or otherwise obtain control over any

6 cable system that is located within its telephone service

7 area and is owned by an unaffiliated person.

8 ‘‘(b) EXCEPTIONS.—Notwithstanding subsection (a),

9 a common carrier may—

10 ‘‘(1) obtain a controlling interest in, or form a

11 joint venture or other partnership with, a cable sys12 tem that serves a rural area;

13 ‘‘(2) obtain, in addition to any interest, joint

14 venture, or partnership obtained or formed pursuant

15 to paragraph (1), a controlling interest in, or form

16 a joint venture or other partnership with, any cable

17 system or systems if—

18 ‘‘(A) such systems in the aggregate serve

19 less than 10 percent of the households in the

20 telephone service area of such carrier; and

21 ‘‘(B) no such system serves a franchise

22 area with more than 35,000 inhabitants, except

23 that a common carrier may obtain such interest

24 or form such joint venture or other partnership

25 with a cable system that serves a franchise area

26 with more than 35,000 but not more than
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1 50,000 inhabitants if such system is not affili2 ated (as such term is defined in section 602)

3 with any other system whose franchise area is

4 contiguous to the franchise area of the acquired

5 system;

6 ‘‘(3) obtain, with the concurrence of the cable

7 operator on the rates, terms, and conditions, the use

8 of that part of the transmission facilities of such a

9 cable system extending from the last multi-user ter10 minal to the premises of the end user, if such use

11 is reasonably limited in scope and duration, as deter12 mined by the Commission; or

13 ‘‘(4) obtain a controlling interest in, or form a

14 joint venture or other partnership with, or provide

15 financing to, a cable system (hereinafter in this

16 paragraph referred to as ‘the subject cable system’),

17 if—

18 ‘‘(A) the subject cable system operates in

19 a television market that is not in the top 25

20 markets, and that has more than 1 cable sys21 tem operator, and the subject cable system is

22 not the largest cable system in such television

23 market;

24 ‘‘(B) the subject cable system and the larg25 est cable system in such television market held
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1 on March 1, 1994, cable television franchises

2 from the largest municipality in the television

3 market and the boundaries of such franchises

4 were identical on such date;

5 ‘‘(C) the subject cable system is not owned

6 by or under common ownership or control of

7 any one of the 50 largest cable system opera8 tors as existed on March 1, 1994; and

9 ‘‘(D) the largest system in the television

10 market is owned by or under common owner11 ship or control of any one of the 10 largest

12 cable system operators as existed on March 1,

13 1994.

14 ‘‘(c) WAIVER.—

15 ‘‘(1) CRITERIA FOR WAIVER.—The Commission

16 may waive the restrictions in subsection (a) of this

17 section only upon a showing by the applicant that—

18 ‘‘(A) because of the nature of the market

19 served by the cable system concerned—

20 ‘‘(i) the incumbent cable operator

21 would be subjected to undue economic dis22 tress by the enforcement of such sub23 section; or
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(ii) the cable system would not be

2 economically viable if such subsection were

3 enforced; and

4 ‘‘(B) the local franchising authority ap5 proves of such waiver.

6 ‘‘(2) DEADLINE FOR ACTION.—The Commission

7 shall act to approve or disapprove a waiver applica8 tion within 180 days after the date it is filed.

9 ‘‘SEC. 657. PENALTIES.

10 ‘‘If the Commission finds that any common carrier

11 has knowingly violated any provision of this part, the

12 Commission shall assess such fines and penalties as it

13 deems appropriate pursuant to this Act.

14 ‘‘SEC. 658. CONSUMER PROTECTION.

15 ‘‘(a) JOINT BOARD REQUIRED.—Within 30 days

16 after the date of enactment of this part, the Commission

17 shall convene a Federal-State Joint Board under the pro18 visions of section 410(c) for the purpose of recommending

19 a decision concerning the practices, classifications, and

20 regulations as may be necessary to ensure proper jurisdic21 tional separation and allocation of the costs of establishing

22 and providing a video platform. The Board shall issue its

23 recommendations to the Commission within 270 days after

24 the date of enactment of this part.
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•HR 411 IH

1 ‘‘(b) COMMISSION REGULATIONS REQUIRED.—The

2 Commission, with respect to interstate switched access

3 service, and the States, with respect to telephone exchange

4 service and intrastate interexchange service, shall establish

5 such regulations as may be necessary to implement section

6 655 within one year after the date of the enactment of

7 this part.

8 ‘‘(c) NO EFFECT ON CARRIER REGULATION AU9 THORITY.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to

10 limit or supersede the authority of any State or the Com11 mission with respect to the allocation of costs associated

12 with intrastate or interstate communication services.

13 ‘‘SEC. 659. APPLICABILITY OF FRANCHISE AND OTHER RE14 QUIREMENTS.

15 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Any provision that applies to a

16 cable operator under—

17 ‘‘(1) sections 613, 616, 617, 628, 631, 632,

18 and 634 of this title, shall apply,

19 ‘‘(2) sections 611, 612, 614, and 615 of this

20 title, and section 325 of title III, shall apply in ac21 cordance with the regulations prescribed under sub22 section (b), and

23 ‘‘(3) parts III and IV (other than sections 628,

24 631, 632, and 634) of this title shall not apply,
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1 to any video programming affiliate established by a com2 mon carrier in accordance with the requirements of this

3 part.

4 ‘‘(b) IMPLEMENTATION OF REQUIREMENTS.—

5 ‘‘(1) REGULATIONS.—The Commission shall

6 prescribe regulations to ensure that a video pro7 gramming affiliate of a common carrier shall provide

8 (A) capacity, services, facilities, and equipment for

9 public, educational, and governmental use, (B) ca10 pacity for commercial use, (C) carriage of commer11 cial and non-commercial broadcast television sta12 tions, and (D) an opportunity for commercial broad13 cast stations to choose between mandatory carriage

14 and reimbursement for retransmission of the signal

15 of such station. In prescribing such regulations, the

16 Commission shall, to the extent possible, impose ob17 ligations that are no greater or lesser than the obli18 gations contained in the provisions described in sub19 section (a)(2) of this section. Such regulations shall

20 also require that, if a common carrier establishes a

21 video platform but does not provide or ceases to pro22 vide video programming through a video program23 ming affiliate, such carrier shall comply with the

24 regulations prescribed under this paragraph and
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•HR 411 IH

1 with the provisions described in subsection (a)(1) in

2 the operation of its video platform.

3 ‘‘(2) FEES.—A video programming affiliate of

4 any common carrier that establishes a video plat5 form under this part, and any multichannel video

6 programming distributor offering a competing serv7 ice using such video platform (as determined in ac8 cordance with regulations of the Commission), shall

9 be subject to the payment of fees imposed by a local

10 franchising authority, in lieu of the fees required

11 under section 622. The rate at which such fees are

12 imposed shall not exceed the rate at which franchise

13 fees are imposed on any cable operator transmitting

14 video programming in the same service area.

15 ‘‘SEC. 660. RURAL AREA EXEMPTION.

16 ‘‘The provisions of sections 652, 653, 654, and 656

17 shall not apply to video programming provided in a rural

18 area by a common carrier that provides telephone ex19 change service in the same area.’’.

20 SEC. 402. REVIEW OF BROADCASTERS’ OWNERSHIP RE21 STRICTIONS.

22 Within one year after the date of enactment of this

23 Act, the Commission shall, after a notice and comment

24 proceeding, prescribe regulations to modify, maintain, or

25 remove the ownership regulations on radio and television
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•HR 411 IH

1 broadcasters as necessary to ensure that broadcasters are

2 able to compete fairly with other information providers

3 while protecting the goals of diversity and localism.

4 SEC. 403. REVIEW OF STATUTORY OWNERSHIP RESTRIC5 TION.

6 Within one year after the date of enactment of this

7 Act, the Commission shall review the ownership restriction

8 in section 613(a)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934

9 (47 U.S.C. 553(a)(1)) and report to Congress whether or

10 not such restriction continues to serve the public interest.

11 SEC. 404. BROADCASTER SPECTRUM FLEXIBILITY.

12 (a) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.—If the Commission

13 determines to issue additional licenses for advanced tele14 vision services, and initially limits the eligibility for such

15 licenses to persons that, as of the date of such issuance,

16 are licensed to operate a television broadcast station or

17 hold a permit to construct such a station (or both), the

18 Commission shall adopt regulations that allow such licens19 ees or permittees to offer such ancillary or supplementary

20 services on designated frequencies as may be consistent

21 with the public interest, convenience, and necessity.

22 (b) CONTENTS OF REGULATIONS.—In prescribing

23 the regulations required by subsection (a), the Commission

24 shall—
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1 (1) only permit such licensee or permittee to

2 offer ancillary or supplementary services if the use

3 of a designated frequency for such services is indivis4 ible from the use of such designated frequency for

5 the provision of advanced television services;

6 (2) limit the broadcasting of ancillary or supple7 mentary services on designated frequencies so as to

8 avoid derogation of any advanced television services,

9 including high definition television broadcasts, that

10 the Commission may require using such frequencies;

11 (3) treat any such ancillary or supplementary

12 services for which the licensee or permittee solicits

13 and receives compensation in return for transmitting

14 commercial advertising as broadcast services for the

15 purposes of the Communications Act of 1934 and

16 the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (47 U.S.C.

17 303a), and the Commission’s regulations thereunder,

18 including regulations promulgated pursuant to sec19 tion 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

20 U.S.C. 315);

21 (4) apply to any other ancillary or supple22 mentary service such of the Commission’s regula23 tions as are applicable to the offering of analogous

24 services by any other person;
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•HR 411 IH

1 (5) adopt such technical and other requirements

2 as may be necessary or appropriate to assure the

3 quality of the signal used to provide advanced tele4 vision services, including regulations that stipulate

5 the minimum number of hours per day that such

6 signal must be transmitted; and

7 (6) prescribe such other regulations as may be

8 necessary for the protection of the public interest,

9 convenience, and necessity.

10 (c) RECOVERY OF LICENSE.—

11 (1) CONDITIONS REQUIRED.—If the Commis12 sion limits the eligibility for licenses to provide ad13 vanced television services in the manner described in

14 subsection (a), the Commission shall, as a condition

15 of such license, require that, upon a determination

16 by the Commission pursuant to the regulations pre17 scribed under paragraph (2), either the additional li18 cense or the original license held by the licensee be

19 surrendered to the Commission in accordance with

20 such regulations for reallocation or reassignment (or

21 both) pursuant to Commission regulation.

22 (2) REGULATIONS.—The Commission shall pre23 scribe regulations establishing criteria for rendering

24 determinations concerning license surrender pursu-
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•HR 411 IH

1 ant to license conditions required by paragraph (1).

2 Such regulations shall—

3 (A) require such determinations to be

4 based on whether the substantial majority of

5 the public have obtained television receivers

6 that are capable of receiving advanced television

7 services; and

8 (B) not require the cessation of the broad9 casting if such cessation would render the tele10 vision receivers of a substantial portion of the

11 public useless, or otherwise cause undue bur12 dens on the owners of such television receivers.

13 (d) FEES REQUIRED.—

14 (1) SERVICES TO WHICH FEES APPLY.—If the

15 regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (a)

16 permit a licensee to offer ancillary or supplementary

17 services on a designated frequency—

18 (A) for which the payment of a subscrip19 tion fee is required in order to receive such

20 services, or

21 (B) for which the licensee directly or indi22 rectly receives compensation from a third party

23 in return for transmitting material furnished by

24 such third party (other than commercial adver-
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•HR 411 IH

1 tisements used to support broadcasting for

2 which a subscription fee is not required),

3 the Commission shall establish by regulation a pro4 gram to assess and collect an annual fee or royalty

5 payment.

6 (2) CRITERIA FOR REGULATIONS.—The regula7 tions required by paragraph (1) shall—

8 (A) be designed (i) to recover for the pub9 lic a portion of the value of the public spectrum

10 resource made available for such commercial

11 use, and (ii) to avoid unjust enrichment

12 through the method employed to permit such

13 uses of that resource;

14 (B) recover for the public an amount that

15 is, to maximum extent feasible, equal (over the

16 term of the license) to the amount that would

17 have been recovered had such services been li18 censed pursuant to the provisions of section

19 309(j) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

20 U.S.C. 309(j)) and the Commission’s regula21 tions thereunder; and

22 (C) be adjusted by the Commission from

23 time to time in order to continue to comply with

24 the requirements of this paragraph.

25 (3) TREATMENT OF REVENUES.—
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1 (A) GENERAL RULE.—Except as provided

2 in subparagraph (B), all proceeds obtained pur3 suant to the regulations required by this sub4 section shall be deposited in the Treasury in ac5 cordance with chapter 33 of title 31, United

6 States Code.

7 (B) RETENTION OF REVENUES.—Notwith8 standing subparagraph (A), the salaries and ex9 penses account of the Commission shall retain

10 as an offsetting collection such sums as may be

11 necessary from such proceeds for the costs of

12 developing and implementing the program re13 quired by this section and regulating and super14 vising advanced television services. Such offset15 ting collections shall be available for obligation

16 subject to the terms and conditions of the re17 ceiving appropriations account, and shall be de18 posited in such accounts on a quarterly basis.

19 (4) REPORT.—Within 5 years after the date of

20 the enactment of this section, the Commission shall

21 report to the Congress on the implementation of the

22 program required by this subsection, and shall annu23 ally thereafter advise the Congress on the amounts

24 collected pursuant to such program.
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1 (e) EVALUATION REQUIRED.—Within 10 years after

2 the date the Commission first issues additional licenses for

3 advanced television services, the Commission shall conduct

4 an evaluation of the advanced television services program.

5 Such evaluation shall include—

6 (1) an assessment of the willingness of consum7 ers to purchase the television receivers necessary to

8 receive broadcasts of advanced television services;

9 (2) an assessment of alternative uses, including

10 public safety use, of the frequencies used for such

11 broadcasts; and

12 (3) the extent to which the Commission has

13 been or will be able to reduce the amount of spec14 trum assigned to licensees in order to issue addi15 tional licenses for the provision of advanced tele16 vision services.

17 (f) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section:

18 (1) ADVANCED TELEVISION SERVICES.—The

19 term ‘‘advanced television services’’ means television

20 services provided using digital or other advanced

21 technology to enhance audio quality and video reso22 lution, as further defined in the opinion, report, and

23 order of the Commission entitled ‘‘Advanced Tele24 vision Systems and Their Impact Upon the Existing

25 Television Broadcast Service’’, MM Docket 87–268,
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1 adopted September 17, 1992, and successor proceed2 ings.

3 (2) DESIGNATED FREQUENCIES.—The term

4 ‘‘designated frequency’’ means each of the fre5 quencies designated by the Commission for licenses

6 for advanced television services.

7 (3) HIGH DEFINITION TELEVISION.—The term

8 ‘‘high definition television’’ refers to systems that

9 offer approximately twice the vertical and horizontal

10 resolution of receivers generally available on the date

11 of enactment of this section, as further defined in

12 the proceedings described in paragraph (1) of this

13 subsection.

14 SEC. 405. INTERACTIVE SERVICES AND CRITICAL INTER15 FACES.

16 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—

17 (1) the convergence of communications, com18 puting, and video technologies will permit improve19 ments in interoperability between and among those

20 technologies;

21 (2) in the public switched telecommunications

22 network, open protocols and technical requirements

23 for connection between the network and the

24 consumer, and the availability of unbundled cus25 tomer equipment through retailers and other third
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1 party vendors, have served to broaden consumer

2 choice, lower prices, and spur competition and inno3 vation in the customer equipment industry;

4 (3) set-top boxes and other interactive commu5 nications devices could similarly serve as a critical

6 gateway between American homes and businesses

7 and advanced telecommunications and video pro8 gramming networks;

9 (4) American consumers have benefited from

10 the ability to own or rent customer premises equip11 ment obtained from retailers and other vendors and

12 the ability to access the network with portable, com13 patible equipment;

14 (5) in order to promote diversity, competition,

15 and technological innovation among suppliers of

16 equipment and services, it may be necessary to make

17 certain critical interfaces with such networks open

18 and accessible to a broad range of equipment manu19 facturers and information providers;

20 (6) the identification of critical interfaces with

21 such networks and the assessment of their openness

22 must be accomplished with due recognition that open

23 and accessible systems may include standards that

24 involve both nonproprietary and proprietary tech25 nologies;
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1 (7) such identification and assessment must

2 also be accomplished with due recognition of the

3 need for owners and distributors of video program4 ming and information services to ensure system and

5 signal security and to prevent theft of service;

6 (8) whenever possible, standards in dynamic in7 dustries such as interactive systems are best set by

8 the marketplace or by private sector standard-set9 ting bodies; and

10 (9) the role of the Commission in this regard

11 is—

12 (A) to identify, in consultation with indus13 try groups, consumer interests, and independent

14 experts, critical interfaces with such networks

15 (i) to ensure that end users can connect infor16 mation devices to such networks, and (ii) to en17 sure that information service providers are able

18 to transmit information to end users, and

19 (B) as necessary, to take steps to ensure

20 these networks and services are accessible to a

21 broad range of equipment manufacturers, infor22 mation providers, and program suppliers.

23 (b) INQUIRY REQUIRED.—Within 6 months after the

24 date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall

25 commence an inquiry—
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1 (1) to examine the impact of the convergence of

2 technologies on cable, telephone, satellite, and wire3 less and other communications technologies likely to

4 offer interactive communications services;

5 (2) to ascertain the importance of maintaining

6 open and accessible systems in interactive commu7 nications services;

8 (3) to examine the costs and benefits of main9 taining varying levels of interoperability between and

10 among interactive communications services;

11 (4) to examine the costs and benefits of estab12 lishing open interfaces (A) between the network pro13 vider and the set-top box or other interactive com14 munications devices used in the home or office, and

15 (B) between network providers and information serv16 ice providers, and to determine how best to establish

17 such interfaces;

18 (5) to determine methods by which converter

19 boxes or other interactive communications devices

20 may be sold through retailers and other third party

21 vendors and to determine the vendors’ responsibil22 ities for ensuring that their devices are interoperable

23 with interactive networks;

24 (6) to assess how the security of cable, satellite,

25 and other interactive systems or their services can
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1 continue to be ensured with the establishment of an

2 interface between the network and a converter box

3 or other interactive communications device, including

4 those manufactured and distributed at retail by enti5 ties independent of network providers and informa6 tion service providers, and to determine the respon7 sibilities of such independent entities for assuring

8 network security and for conforming to signal inter9 ference standards;

10 (7) to ascertain the conditions necessary to en11 sure that any critical interface is available to infor12 mation and content providers and others who seek to

13 design, build, and distribute interoperable devices for

14 these networks so as to ensure network access and

15 fair competition for independent information provid16 ers and consumers;

17 (8) to assess the impact of the deployment of

18 digital technologies on individuals with disabilities,

19 with particular emphasis on any regulatory, policy,

20 or design barriers which would limit functionally

21 equivalent access by such individuals;

22 (9) to assess current regulation of telephone,

23 cable, satellite, and other communications delivery

24 systems to ascertain how best to ensure interoper25 ability between those systems;
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1 (10) to assess the adequacy of current regula2 tion of telephone, cable, satellite, and other commu3 nications delivery systems with respect to bundling

4 of equipment and services and to identify any

5 changes in unbundling regulations necessary to as6 sure effective competition and encourage techno7 logical innovation, consistent with the finding in sub8 section (a)(6) and the objectives of paragraph (6) of

9 this subsection, in the market for converter boxes or

10 interactive communications devices and for other

11 customer premises equipment;

12 (11) to solicit comment on any changes in the

13 Commission’s regulations that are necessary to en14 sure that diversity, competition, and technological

15 innovation are promoted in communications services

16 and equipment; and

17 (12) to prepare recommendations to the Con18 gress for any legislative changes required.

19 (c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Within 12 months after

20 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission

21 shall submit to the Congress a report on the results of

22 the inquiry required by subsection (b). Within 6 months

23 after the date of submission of such report, the Commis24 sion shall prescribe such changes in its regulations as the
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•HR 411 IH

1 Commission determines are necessary pursuant to sub2 section (b)(10).

3 (d) PRESERVATION OF EXISTING AUTHORITY.—

4 Nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting, su5 perseding, or otherwise modifying the existing authority

6 and responsibilities of the Commission or National Insti7 tute of Standards and Technology.

8 SEC. 406. VIDEO PROGRAMMING ACCESSIBILITY.

9 (a) INQUIRY REQUIRED.—Within 180 days after the

10 date of enactment of this section, the Federal Communica11 tions Commission shall complete an inquiry to ascertain

12 the level at which video programming is closed captioned.

13 Such inquiry shall examine the extent to which existing

14 or previously published programming is closed captioned,

15 the size of the video programming provider or program16 ming owner providing closed captioning, the size of the

17 market served, the relative audience shares achieved, or

18 any other related factors. The Commission shall submit

19 to the Congress a report on the results of such inquiry.

20 (b) CONTENTS OF REGULATIONS.—Within 18

21 months after the date of enactment, the Commission shall

22 prescribe such regulations as are necessary to implement

23 this section. Such regulations shall ensure that—

24 (1) video programming first published or exhib25 ited after the effective date of such regulations is
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1 fully accessible through the provision of closed cap2 tions, except as provided in subsection (d); and

3 (2) video programming providers or owners

4 maximize the accessibility of video programming

5 first published or exhibited prior to the effective date

6 of such regulations through the provision of closed

7 captions, except as provided in subsection (d).

8 (c) CONTENTS OF REGULATIONS.—Such regulations

9 shall include an appropriate schedule of deadlines for the

10 provision of closed captioning of video programming.

11 (d) EXEMPTIONS.—Notwithstanding subsection

12 (b)—

13 (1) the Commission may exempt by regulation

14 programs, classes of programs, or services for which

15 the Commission has determined that the provision of

16 closed captioning would be economically burdensome

17 to the provider or owner of such programming;

18 (2) a provider of video programming or the

19 owner of any program carried by the provider shall

20 not be obligated to supply closed captions if such ac21 tion would be inconsistent with contracts in effect on

22 the date of enactment of this Act, except that noth23 ing in this section shall be construed to relieve a

24 video programming provider of its obligations to pro25 vide services required by Federal law; and
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•HR 411 IH

1 (3) a provider of video programming or pro2 gram owner may petition the Commission for an ex3 emption from the requirements of this section, and

4 the Commission may grant such petition upon a

5 showing that the requirements contained in this sec6 tion would result in an undue burden.

7 (e) UNDUE BURDEN.—The term ‘undue burden’

8 means significant difficulty or expense. In determining

9 whether the closed captions necessary to comply with the

10 requirements of this paragraph would result in an undue

11 economic burden, the factors to be considered include—

12 (1) the nature and cost of the closed captions

13 for the programming;

14 (2) the impact on the operation of the provider

15 or program owner;

16 (3) the financial resources of the provider or

17 program owner; and

18 (4) the type of operations of the provider or

19 program owner.

20 (f) ADDITIONAL PROCEEDING ON VIDEO DESCRIP21 TIONS REQUIRED.—Within 6 months after the date of en22 actment of this Act, the Commission shall commence an

23 inquiry to examine the use of video descriptions on video

24 programming in order to ensure the accessibility of video

25 programming to persons with visual impairments, and re-
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•HR 411 IH

1 port to Congress on its findings. The Commission’s report

2 shall assess appropriate methods and schedules for phas3 ing video descriptions into the marketplace, technical and

4 quality standards for video descriptions, a definition of

5 programming for which video descriptions would apply,

6 and other technical and legal issues that the Commission

7 deems appropriate. Following the completion of such in8 quiry, the Commission may adopt regulations it deems

9 necessary to promote the accessibility of video program10 ming to persons with visual impairments.

11 (g) MODEL PROGRAM.—The National Telecommuni12 cations and Information Administration shall establish

13 and oversee, and (to the extent of available funds) provide

14 financial support for, marketplace tests of video descrip15 tions on commercial and noncommercial video program16 ming services.

17 (h) VIDEO DESCRIPTION.—For purposes of this sec18 tion, ‘‘video description’’ means the insertion of audio nar19 rated descriptions of a television program’s key visual ele20 ments into natural pauses between the program’s dia21 logue.

22 SEC. 407. PUBLIC ACCESS.

23 Within one year after the date of enactment of this

24 Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall pre25 scribe regulations to reserve appropriate capacity for the
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•HR 411 IH

1 public at preferential rates on cable systems and video

2 platforms.

3 SEC. 408. AUTOMATED SHIP DISTRESS AND SAFETY SYS4 TEMS.

5 Notwithstanding any provision of the Communica6 tions Act of 1934, a ship documented under the laws of

7 the United States operating in accordance with the Global

8 Maritime Distress and Safety System provisions of the

9 Safety of Life at Sea Convention shall not be required to

10 be equipped with a radio station operated by one or more

11 radio officers or operators.

12 SEC. 409. EXCLUSIVE FEDERAL JURISDICTION OVER DI13 RECT BROADCAST SATELLITE SERVICE.

14 Section 303 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

15 U.S.C. 303) is amended by adding at the end thereof the

16 following new subsection:

17 ‘‘(v) Have exclusive jurisdiction over the regulation

18 of the direct broadcast satellite service.’’.

19 SEC. 410. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.

20 (a) RETRANSMISSION.—Section 325(b)(2)(D) of the

21 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(2)(D))

22 is amended to read as follows:

23 ‘‘(D) retransmission by a cable operator or

24 other multichannel video programming distributor of

25 the signal of a superstation if (i) the customers
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1 served by the cable operator or other multichannel

2 video programming distributor reside outside the

3 originating station’s television market, as defined by

4 the Commission for purposes of section

5 614(h)(1)(C); (ii) such signal was obtained from a

6 satellite carrier or terrestrial microwave common

7 carrier; and (iii) and the origination station was a

8 superstation on May 1, 1991.

9 (b) MARKET DETERMINATIONS.—Section

10 614(h)(1)(C)(i) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

11 U.S.C. 534(h)(1)(C)(i)) is amended by striking out ‘‘in the

12 manner provided in section 73.3555(d)(3)(i) of title 47,

13 Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on May 1,

14 1991,’’ and inserting ‘‘by the Commission by regulation

15 or order using, where available, commercial publications

16 which delineate television markets based on viewing pat17 terns,’’.

18 SEC. 411. AVAILABILITY OF SCREENING DEVICES TO PRE19 CLUDE DISPLAY OF ENCRYPTED PROGRAM20 MING.

21 (a) CUSTOMER NOTICE.—Section 624(d)(2)(A) of

22 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.

23 544(d)(2)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the follow24 ing new sentence: ‘‘Upon beginning service to any new

25 subscriber and not less frequently than once each calendar
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1 year for current subscribers, the cable operator shall in2 form subscribers of the right to request and obtain such

3 device.’’.

4 (b) SIGNAL LEAKAGE.—Section 624(d)(2) of such

5 Act is further amended by adding at the end the following

6 new subparagraph:

7 ‘‘(C) The Commission shall prescribe regulations to

8 require, to the extent technically feasible, the transmission

9 of programming described in subparagraph (A) by means

10 of encrypted signals that permit subscribers to effectively

11 and entirely prevent the display of both the audio and

12 video portions of such programming with or without the

13 use of a device described in subparagraph (A).’’.

14 TITLE V—PROCUREMENT PRAC15 TICES OF TELECOMMUNI16 CATIONS PROVIDERS.

17 SEC. 501. FINDINGS.

18 The Congress finds the following:

19 (1) It is in the public interest for business en20 terprises owned by minorities and women to partici21 pate in procurement contracts of all providers of

22 telecommunications services.

23 (2) The opportunity for full participation in our

24 free enterprise system by business enterprises that

25 are owned by minorities and women is essential if
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1 this Nation is to attain social and economic equality

2 for those businesses and improve the functioning of

3 the national economy.

4 (3) It is in this Nation’s interest to expedi5 tiously improve the economically disadvantaged posi6 tion of business enterprises that are owned by mi7 norities and women.

8 (4) The position of these businesses can be im9 proved through the development by the providers of

10 telecommunications services of substantial long11 range and annual goals, which are supported by

12 training and technical assistance, for the purchase,

13 to the maximum practicable extent, of technology,

14 equipment, supplies, services, material and construc15 tion from minority business enterprises.

16 (5) Procurement policies which include partici17 pation of business enterprises that are owned by mi18 norities and women also benefit the communication

19 industry and its consumers by encouraging the ex20 pansion of the numbers of suppliers for procure21 ment, thereby encouraging competition among sup22 pliers and promoting economic efficiency in the proc23 ess.

24 SEC. 502. PURPOSE.

25 The purposes of this title are—
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1 (1) to encourage and foster greater economic

2 opportunity for business enterprises that are owned

3 by minorities and women;

4 (2) to promote competition among suppliers to

5 providers of telecommunications services and their

6 affiliates to enhance economic efficiency in the pro7 curement of telephone corporation contracts and

8 contracts of their State commission-regulated sub9 sidiaries and affiliates;

10 (3) to clarify and expand a program for the

11 procurement by State and federally-regulated tele12 phone companies of technology, equipment, supplies,

13 services, materials and construction work from busi14 ness enterprises that are owned by minorities and

15 women; and

16 (4) to ensure that a fair proportion of the total

17 purchases, contracts, and subcontracts for supplies,

18 commodities, technology, property, and services of19 fered by the providers of telecommunications services

20 and their affiliates are awarded to minority and

21 women business enterprises.

22 SEC. 503. ANNUAL PLAN SUBMISSION.

23 (a) ANNUAL PLANS REQUIRED.—

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall re25 quire each provider of telecommunications services
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1 to submit annually a detailed and verifiable plan for

2 increasing its procurement from business enterprises

3 that are owned by minorities or women in all cat4 egories of procurement in which minorities are

5 underrepresented.

6 (2) CONTENTS OF PLANS.—The annual plans

7 required by paragraph (1) shall include (but not be

8 limited to) short- and long-term progressive goals

9 and timetables, technical assistance, and training

10 and shall, in addition to goals for direct contracting

11 opportunities, include methods for encouraging both

12 prime contractors and grantees to engage business

13 enterprises that are owned by minorities and women

14 in subcontracts in all categories in which minorities

15 are under represented.

16 (3) IMPLEMENTATION REPORT.—Each provider

17 of telecommunications services shall furnish an an18 nual report to the Commission regarding the imple19 mentation of programs established pursuant to this

20 title in such form as the Commission shall require,

21 and at such time as the Commission shall annually

22 designate.

23 (4) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Commission

24 shall provide an annual report to Congress, begin25 ning in January 1996, on the progress of activities
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1 undertaken by each provider of telecommunications

2 services regarding the implementation of activities

3 pursuant to this title to develop business enterprises

4 that are owned by minorities or women. The report

5 shall evaluate the accomplishments under this title

6 and shall recommend a program for enhancing the

7 policy declared in this title, together with such rec8 ommendations for legislation as it deems necessary

9 or desirable to further that policy.

10 (b) REGULATIONS AND CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING

11 ELIGIBILITY OF MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISES FOR

12 PROCUREMENT CONTRACTS.—

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall estab14 lish regulations for implementing programs pursuant

15 to this title that will govern providers of tele16 communications services and their affiliates.

17 (2) VERIFYING CRITERIA.—The Commission

18 shall develop and publish regulations setting forth

19 criteria for verifying and determining the eligibility

20 of business enterprises that are owned by minorities

21 or women for procurement contracts.

22 (3) OUTREACH.—The Commission’s regulations

23 shall require each provider of telecommunications

24 services and its affiliates to develop and to imple25 ment an outreach program to inform and recruit
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1 business enterprises that are owned by minorities or

2 women to apply for procurement contracts under

3 this title.

4 (4) ENFORCEMENT.—The Commission shall es5 tablish and promulgate such regulations necessary to

6 enforce the provisions of this title.

7 (c) WAIVER AUTHORITY.—The requirements of this

8 section may be waived, in whole or in part, by the Commis9 sion with respect to a particular contract or subcontract

10 in accordance with guidelines set forth in regulations

11 which the Commission shall prescribe when it determines

12 that the application of such regulations prove to result in

13 undue hardship or unreasonable expense to a provider of

14 telecommunications services.

15 SEC. 504. SANCTIONS AND REMEDIES.

16 (a) FALSE REPRESENTATION OF BUSINESSES; SANC17 TIONS.—

18 (1) IN GENERAL.—Any person or corporation,

19 through its directors, officers, or agent, which falsely

20 represents the business as a business enterprise that

21 are owned by minorities or women in the procure22 ment or attempt to procure contracts from telephone

23 operating companies and their affiliates pursuant to

24 this article, shall be punished by a fine of not more

25 than $5,000, or by imprisonment for a period not to
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1 exceed 5 years of its directors, officers, or agents re2 sponsible for the false statements, or by both fine

3 and imprisonment.

4 (2) HOLDING COMPANIES.—Any provider of

5 telecommunications services which falsely represents

6 its annual report to the Commission or its imple7 mentation of its programs pursuant to this section

8 shall be subject to a fine of $100,000 and be subject

9 to a penalty of up to 5 years restriction from partici10 pation in lines of business activities provided for in

11 this title.

12 (b) INDEPENDENT CAUSE OF ACTION, REMEDIES,

13 AND ATTORNEY FEES.—

14 (1) DISCRIMINATION PROHIBITED.—No other15 wise qualified business enterprise that are owned by

16 minorities or women shall solely, by reason of its ra17 cial, ethnic, or gender composition be excluded from

18 the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be

19 subjected to discrimination in procuring contracts

20 from telephone utilities.

21 (2) CIVIL ACTIONS AUTHORIZED.—Whenever a

22 qualified business enterprise that is owned by mi23 norities or women has reasonable cause to believe

24 that a provider of telecommunications services or its

25 affiliate is engaged in a pattern or practice of resist-
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1 ance to the full compliance of any provision of this

2 title, the business enterprise may bring a civil action

3 in the appropriate district court of the United States

4 against the provider of telecommunications services

5 or its affiliate requesting such monetary or injunc6 tive relief, or both, as deemed necessary to ensure

7 the full benefits of this title.

8 (3) ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND COSTS.—In any ac9 tion or proceeding to enforce or charge of a violation

10 of a provision of this title, the court, in its discre11 tion, may allow the prevailing party reasonable at12 torneys’ fees and costs.

13 SEC. 505. DEFINITIONS.

14 For the purpose of this title, the following definitions

15 apply:

16 (1) The term ‘‘business enterprise owned by mi17 norities or women’’ means—

18 (A) a business enterprise that is at least

19 51 percent owned by a person or persons who

20 are minority persons or women; or

21 (B) in the case of any publicly owned busi22 ness, at least 51 percent of the stock of which

23 is owned by one or more persons who are mi24 nority persons or women, and whose manage-
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1 ment and daily business operations are con2 trolled by one or more of those persons.

3 (2) The term ‘‘minority person’’ means persons

4 who are Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Na5 tive Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Amer6 icans.

7 (3) The term ‘‘control’’ means exercising the

8 power to make financial and policy decisions.

9 (4) The term ‘‘operate’’ means the active in10 volvement in the day-to-day management of the

11 business and not merely being officers or directors.

12 (5) The term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal

13 Communications Commission.

14 (6) The term ‘‘telecommunications service’’ has

15 the meaning provided in section 3(oo) of the Com16 munications Act of 1934 (as added by this Act).

17 TITLE VI—FEDERAL COMMU18 NICATIONS COMMISSION RE19 SOURCES

20 SEC. 601. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any other sums au22 thorized by law, there are authorized to be appropriated

23 to the Federal Communications Commission such sums as

24 may be necessary to carry out this Act and the amend25 ments made by this Act.
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1 (b) EFFECT ON FEES.—For purposes of section

2 9(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.

3 159(b)(2)), additional amounts appropriated pursuant to

4 subsection (a) shall be construed to be changes in the

5 amounts appropriated for the performance of activities de6 scribed in section 9(a) of such Act.

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