prohibit, or have the effect of prohibiting, any public pro-
vider from providing advanced communications capability 
or services to any person or to any public or private entity. 
SEC. 3. SAFEGUARDS. 
(a) COMPETITION NEUTRALITY.—A public provider 
shall not grant any regulatory preference to itself or to 
any provider of advanced communications capability or 
service that it owns or with which it is affiliated. Such 
public provider shall apply its ordinances, rules, and poli-
cies, including those relating to the use of public rights- 
of-way, permitting, performance bonding, procurement, 
and reporting, without discrimination in favor of any such 
provider as compared to other providers of such services. 
(b) APPLICATION OF GENERAL LAWS.—Except as 
provided in section 2 and subsection (a) of this section, 
nothing in this Act affects any obligation or benefit that 
a public provider has under any other Federal or State 
law or regulation. 
SEC. 4. PUBLIC INPUT. 
(a) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD.—Be-
fore a public provider may provide advanced communica-
tions capability or services to the public, either directly 
or through a public-private partnership, such public pro-
vider shall— 
(1) publish notice of its intention to do so; 
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(2) generally describe the capability or services 
to be provided and the proposed coverage area for 
such capability or services; 
(3) identify any special capabilities or services 
to be provided in low-income areas or other demo-
graphically or geographically defined areas; and 
(4) provide local citizens and private-sector en-
tities with an opportunity to be heard on the costs 
and benefits of the project and potential alternatives 
to it. 
(b) APPLICATION
TO
EXISTING
PROJECTS
AND 
PENDING PROPOSALS.—Subsection (a) does not apply 
to— 
(1) any contract or other arrangement under 
which a public provider is providing advanced com-
munications capability or services to the public as of 
the date of enactment of this Act; and 
(2) any public provider proposal to provide ad-
vanced communications capability or services to the 
public that, as of the date of enactment— 
(A) is in the request-for-proposals process; 
(B) is in the process of being built; or 
(C) has been approved by referendum. 
SEC. 5. EXEMPTIONS. 
The requirements of sections 3 and 4 do not apply— 
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(1) to a public provider’s provision of advanced 
communications capabilities or services to itself or to 
another public entity; or 
(2) during an emergency declared by the Presi-
dent, the Governor of the State in which the public 
provider is located, or any other elected local official 
authorized by law to declare a state or emergency in 
the jurisdiction in which the public provider is lo-
cated. 
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ADVANCED
COMMUNICATIONS
CAPABILITY 
OR
SERVICES.—The term ‘‘advanced communica-
tions capability or services’’ means a capability that 
enables, or services that enable, users to originate or 
receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, video or 
other communications using any broadband tech-
nology. 
(2) PUBLIC PROVIDER.—The term ‘‘public pro-
vider’’ means a State or political subdivision thereof, 
any agency, authority, or instrumentality of a State 
or political subdivision thereof, or any entity that is 
owned, controlled, or otherwise affiliated with a 
State, political subdivision thereof, or its agency, au-
thority, or instrumentality. 
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(3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean-
ing provided in section 3(a)(40) of the Communica-
tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153(a)(40)). 
Æ 
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