TITLE III
TOWNS, CITIES, VILLAGE DISTRICTS, AND UNINCORPORATED PLACES

CHAPTER 38
MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC, GAS, OR WATER SYSTEMS

Broadband Access

Section 38:38

    38:38 Broadband Access. –
I. In this subdivision:
(a) "Access tariff" means the fee charged on a monthly or annual basis to broadband providers for access to the broadband infrastructure.
(b) [Repealed.]
(c) "Broadband" means the transmission of information, between or among points specified by the user, with or without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received, at rates of transmission greater than or equal to 100 megabits per second download and 20 megabits per second upload or at rates of transmission defined by the Federal Communications Commission as a wireline advanced telecommunications capability as defined by section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, whichever rates of transmission are greater, irrespective of the network technology used.
(d) "Broadband provider" means any provider of broadband services, except aggregators of broadband services, as defined in section 226 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
(e) "Broadband infrastructure" means all equipment and facilities, including all changes, modifications, and expansions to existing facilities, as well as the customer premises equipment used to provide broadband, as defined in subparagraph (c), and any software integral to or related to the operations, support, facilitation, or interconnection of such equipment.
(f) "Broadband service" means the offering of broadband for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used.
(g) "Open network" means any broadband infrastructure which is open to any third party users in a nondiscriminatory manner on a fair and equitable basis using publicly available access tariffs for services.
(h) "Open network interfaces" means the technical and operational means, manners, and methods for any third party access to the broadband infrastructure, which shall be provided on the basis of generally acceptable industry standards available at the time of access.
II. A municipality may use its broadband infrastructure for the purpose of providing an open network and assuring that third party access is available in accordance with current state and federal regulations.
III. If a broadband provider does not respond to a request for information issued pursuant to sections RSA 33:3-g, III and RSA 33:3-g, IV, the locations served by that broadband provider shall be considered unserved unless those locations are served by a broadband provider who responded to that municipality's request for information.

Source. 2006, 225:6, eff. July 31, 2006. 2018, 118:6, 8, July 29, 2018. 2020, 28:3, eff. Sept. 20, 2020. 2023, 173:2, eff. Sept. 26, 2023.