Today's Law As Amended


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AB-2753 Communications: Digital Equity Bill of Rights.(2021-2022)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.

 Article 14 (commencing with Section 930) is added to Chapter 4 of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code, to read:

Article  14. Digital Equity Bill of Rights
930.
 This article shall be known, and may be cited, as the Digital Equity Bill of Rights.
931.
 The Legislature finds and declares that digital equity, in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in society, democracy, and the economy, is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and to access essential services. The Legislature further finds and declares that digital equity requires deployment and adoption of information technologies enabled by access to high-speed internet infrastructure, including wireline and wireless technologies.
932.
 (a) It is the policy of the state, to ensure digital equity for all residents of the state, that residents have the right to all of the following:
(1) Broadband that is sufficient and reliable, with internet speeds that are sufficient to meet the growing demand and reliance on access to education, government, public safety, economic prosperity, and health care through high-speed internet access. Determining minimum speeds for high-speed internet infrastructure should be performance-based to support online educational opportunities, telehealth, and remote working by a majority of households online simultaneously with an increasing need for symmetrical network speeds.
(2) Broadband that is ubiquitous by ensuring that sufficient and reliable broadband access is available throughout the state, from the most rural areas, including tribal lands, to the most populated urban areas, including all low-income neighborhoods. Public broadband investments should be prioritized to connect entire communities and address digital redlining in historically unserved and underserved communities.
(3) Broadband that is affordable by ensuring that internet service plans are affordable for all residents of the state, regardless of their geographic location or household income.
(4) Broadband that provides educational opportunities and supports digital skills proficiency by providing residents of the state with access to opportunities to develop the skills needed to thrive in a digital world.
(5) Broadband that ensures public safety and maintains the peace of mind of the residents of the state that comes with knowing they have reliable access to emergency response services and emergency alert systems in the event of emergencies or catastrophic disasters.
(6) Broadband that improves quality of life by advancing economic status with access to educational opportunities, new job opportunities, and health care.
(7) Broadband that supports economic prosperity by ensuring that all workers, employers, businesses, entrepreneurs, startups, and enterprises, regardless of size, and including agriculture, have high-speed internet access that optimizes the value of their contributions to the economy to ensure global competitiveness.
(8) Broadband that attracts capital investment because ubiquitous high-speed internet infrastructure is essential to ensuring that the state continues to attract its fair share of global capital investment to support and enhance economic prosperity.
(9) Broadband that supports innovation and research by ensuring that high-speed internet infrastructure connects all research institutions to sustain world-class research and innovation that drives economic productivity.
(10) Broadband that empowers and enables participation in the democratic process so that all residents of the state are connected to the internet with sufficient speeds to participate in government, online educational opportunities, and telehealth for quality of life and public safety.
(b) It is the policy of the state that, to the extent technically feasible, broadband internet subscribers benefit from equal access, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 933, to broadband internet service within the service area of a broadband provider.
(c) A person or entity shall have the right to petition the state for relief pursuant to this article on or after January 1, 2027, if the state fails to act in good faith and pursue all reasonable measures to effectuate the Digital Equity Bill of Rights. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the state acted in good faith and pursued all reasonable measures to effectuate the Digital Equity Bill of Rights if both of the following are satisfied:
(1) The Broadband for All Action Plan has been fully implemented pursuant to a resolution adopted by the California Broadband Council.
(2) The state is able to provide evidence that the lack of equal access to broadband internet service within a service area is due to technical infeasibility.
933.
 (a) For purposes of this section, “equal access” means the equal opportunity to subscribe to an offered service that provides comparable speeds, capacities, latency, and other quality-of-service metrics in a given geographical area, for comparable terms and conditions.
(b) (1) The commission shall ensure that all residents of the state benefit from equal access to broadband internet service.
(2) On or before January 1, 2025, the commission shall adopt rules that facilitate equal access to broadband internet service. The adopted rules shall account for issues of technical and economic feasibility presented by equal access, including both of the following:
(A) Prohibiting discrimination of access to broadband internet service based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin.
(B) Identifying the actions the commission shall take to eliminate the discrimination of access to broadband internet service described in paragraph (1).
(c) Any rules adopted by the commission shall promote equal access to robust broadband internet service by prohibiting deployment discrimination based on all of the following:
(1) The average income earned by residents of a geographical area.
(2) The predominant race or ethnicity of residents residing in a geographical area.
(3) Other factors that the commission determines are relevant based on the findings in the record developed by the commission in adopting rules pursuant to subdivision (b).
(d) The commission shall develop model policies and best practices that local governmental entities may use to ensure that broadband internet service providers do not engage in digital discrimination.
(e) The commission shall revise its public complaint process to accept complaints from consumers or other members of the public that relate to digital discrimination.
SEC. 2.
 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.