I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2665 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish a program 

to make grants to States for the deployment of broadband service in 

underserved areas by small business broadband providers, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 19, 2021 

Mr. VAN DREW introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish a program to make grants to States for the deployment of broadband service in underserved areas by small 

business broadband providers, and for other purposes. 

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Local Telecom Expan5 sion Act of 2021’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SMALL BUSINESS BROADBAND PROVIDER GRANT 

2 PROGRAM. 

3 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Commission shall estab4 lish a program to make grants on a competitive basis to 

5 States for the deployment of broadband service in under6 served areas by small business broadband providers. 

7 (b) ELIGIBILITY OF STATES.—The Commission may 

8 only award a grant under this section to a State that— 

9 (1) meets such eligibility criteria as the Com10 mission may establish; and 

11 (2) submits an application at such time, in such 

12 form, and with such information and assurances as 

13 the Commission may require. 

14 (c) SUBGRANTS TO SMALL BUSINESS BROADBAND

15 PROVIDERS.—A State that receives a grant under this sec16 tion shall use the grant funds to make subgrants to small 

17 business broadband providers to enable such providers to 

18 deploy broadband service in underserved areas in the 

19 State. 

20 (d) USE OF SUBGRANT FUNDS.—A small business 

21 broadband provider that receives a subgrant from a State 

22 under subsection (c) shall use the subgrant funds to de23 ploy, in underserved areas in the State, broadband service 

24 with— 

25 (1) a download speed of at least 25 megabits 

26 per second; 


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1 (2) an upload speed of at least 10 megabits per 

2 second; and 

3 (3) latency that is sufficiently low to allow real4 time, interactive applications. 

5 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

6 (1) BROADBAND SERVICE.—The term 

7 ‘‘broadband service’’ means broadband internet ac8 cess service (as defined in section 8.1(b) of title 47, 

9 Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regu10 lation)). 

11 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

12 means the Federal Communications Commission. 

13 (3) SMALL BUSINESS BROADBAND PROVIDER.— 

14 The term ‘‘small business broadband provider’’ 

15 means a provider of broadband service that is a 

16 small business concern (as defined under section 3 

17 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632)). 

18 (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 

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

20 each commonwealth, territory, or possession of the 

21 United States, and each federally recognized Indian 

22 Tribe. 

23 (5) UNDERSERVED AREA.—The term ‘‘under24 served area’’ means an area in which only 1 provider 

25 of broadband service offers broadband service with— 


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1 (A) a download speed of at least 25 mega2 bits per second and not more than 99 megabits 

3 per second; 

4 (B) an upload speed of at least 10 mega5 bits per second; and 

6 (C) latency that is sufficiently low to allow 

7 real-time, interactive applications. 

Æ 


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