BILL REQ. #:  S-2441.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/28/07.   

     AN ACT Relating to the creation of a joint task force to develop reforms to statutes regulating telecommunications companies and services; and creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature finds as follows:
     (a) The competitiveness of the telecommunications marketplace has created consumer choice and strengthened the state's position as a national leader in the area of technology services and infrastructure;
     (b) Traditional regulated intrastate wireline telecommunications services are part of a larger and broadening market and industry that includes voice, data, video, and other services that use fixed and mobile wireless, satellite, coaxial cable, fiber optic, internet, power line, and other converging technologies largely provided by a variety of unregulated or minimally regulated private and public entities;
     (c) New telecommunications technologies and service providers continue to emerge;
     (d) Encouraging investment in such technologies and services is vital to the economic future of the state and to family wage jobs for its citizens;
     (e) Unlike competing companies, traditional wireline telecommunications companies are subject to legacy regulations that were created a century ago to regulate in a monopoly environment.
     (2) It is therefore the intent of the legislature to review the state's statutes and rules and make recommendations that level the competitive playing field, encourage investment in new technologies and services, and enhance consumer choice, economic development, and job preservation and creation.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) A joint task force on the reform of telecommunications regulation is created.
     (2) The membership of the joint task force consists of the following five persons:
     (a) The chairs and ranking members of the respective telecommunications committees within the senate and house of representatives;
     (b) A representative of the governor's office.
     (3) The task force shall appoint an advisory committee consisting of a representative of the Washington utilities and transportation commission, industry representatives, and a consumer representative.
     (4) The staff of the telecommunications committees of the senate and house of representatives will provide clerical, administrative, research, and other services to the joint task force as directed.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   (1) The joint task force shall make recommendations to reform telecommunications laws in the state of Washington, and shall, at a minimum, review the following:
     (a) The obsolescence of legacy rate of return regulation in a new era of increasing wireline and intermodal competition;
     (b) The impact of disparate regulatory treatment on consumer choice in telecommunications services;
     (c) Means of achieving regulatory parity among competitors in the telecommunications marketplace; and
     (d) The reform of the regulatory oversight of video and telecommunications franchising.
     (2) The joint task force shall deliver its report and recommendations to the legislature and the governor by December 15, 2007.