BILL REQ. #:  S-5421.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/12/08.   

     AN ACT Relating to a statewide high-speed internet deployment and adoption initiative; adding new sections to chapter 43.105 RCW; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 43.105 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The legislature finds that the deployment and adoption of telecommunications services and information technology has resulted in enhanced economic development and public safety for the state's communities, improved health care and educational opportunities, and a better quality of life for the state's residents. Further, continued progress in the deployment and adoption of high-speed internet and other advanced telecommunications services, both land-based and wireless, is vital to ensuring Washington remains competitive and continues to create business and job growth. The legislature finds that the state must encourage and support strategic partnerships of public, private, nonprofit, and community-based sectors in the continued growth and development of telecommunications and information technology for state residents and businesses, and do so through formalized and structured arrangements like the highly successful K-20 educational network.
     (2) The department, as the state agency responsible for coordinating with the education sectors on the K-20 educational network, shall work in similar partnership with the department of community, trade, and economic development and the utilities and transportation commission to oversee and lead a comprehensive, statewide high-speed internet deployment and adoption effort with the following goals:
     (a) Ensure that all state residents and businesses have access to affordable and reliable high-speed internet services;
     (b) Achieve improved technology literacy, increased computer ownership, and high-speed internet use among state residents, nonprofit organizations, and businesses;
     (c) Establish and empower local technology planning teams and partnerships to plan for improved technology use across multiple community sectors;
     (d) Establish and sustain an environment ripe for telecommunications and technology investment statewide, including solicitation and receipt of grants, loans, and other financial mechanisms; and
     (e) Create and regularly update a geographic statewide inventory at the census block level of high-speed internet service and other relevant telecommunications and information technology services.
     (3) After the broadband disparity study authorized by the legislature in 2007 has been completed, the partnership in subsection (2) of this section shall convene an initial work group of representatives of public, private, and nonprofit agencies and organizations representing economic development, local community development, community planning, technology planning, education, health care, and other relevant entities as well as representatives of telecommunications providers, technology companies, telecommunications unions, community-based organizations, and relevant private sector entities.
     (4) By December 1, 2008, the partnership in subsection (2) of this section and the work group in subsection (3) of this section shall develop a high-speed internet deployment and adoption strategy that will:
     (a) Create and regularly update a geographic statewide inventory of high-speed internet service and other relevant telecommunications and information technology services. The inventory must:
     (i) Identify geographic gaps in high-speed internet service through a method of geographic information system mapping of service availability and geographic information system analysis;
     (ii) Provide a baseline assessment of statewide high-speed internet
deployment in terms of percentage of households and businesses with high-speed internet availability;
     (iii) Provide updates to these data every six months; and
     (iv) Build upon the initial utilities and transportation commission broadband disparity study authorized by the legislature in 2007;
     (b) Track statewide residential and business adoption of high-speed internet, computers, and related information technology; identify barriers to adoption; and measure progress on these data annually;
     (c) Build and facilitate local technology planning teams and partnerships with members representing cross-sections of the community, including but not limited to representatives of business, telecommunications unions, K-12 education, health care, libraries, higher education, community-based organizations, local government, tourism, parks and recreation, and agriculture. Local technology planning teams shall benchmark technology use across relevant community sectors, set goals for improving technology use within each sector, and develop tactical business plans for achieving identified goals, with specific recommendations for online application development and demand creation;
     (d) Work collaboratively with high-speed internet providers and technology companies across the state to encourage deployment and use,
especially in unserved areas, through use of local demand aggregation, mapping analysis, and creation of market intelligence to improve the investment rationale and business case; and
     (e) Establish programs to improve computer ownership, technology literacy, and internet access for disenfranchised populations across the state.
     (5) The partnership in subsection (2) of this section and the work group in subsection (3) of this section shall provide a report to the fiscal and telecommunications committees in the senate and the house of representatives on or before December 1, 2008. The report shall identify and make recommendations as appropriate for:
     (a) Benchmarks, performance measures, milestones, deliverables, timelines, and such other indicators of performance and progress as are necessary to guide development and implementation of the statewide high-speed internet deployment and adoption effort;
     (b) A strategic plan to structure and appropriately scale and phase development and implementation of the effort so as to link to, leverage, and otherwise synchronize with other relevant and related funding, technology, capital initiatives, investments, and opportunities;
     (c) Budget and legislation to be considered before the 2009 legislature in order to implement the strategic high-speed internet deployment and adoption strategy;
     (d) Safeguards to protect proprietary and confidential information from unintended disclosure under chapter 42.56 RCW, which may be based upon existing models developed by other state broadband efforts to protect proprietary information;
     (e) A plan to complete baseline mapping of high-speed internet resources in the state in an eighteen-month period, subject to approval of the plan and appropriation by the legislature; and
     (f) A plan to launch community teams across the state.
     (6) The partnership in subsection (2) of this section shall provide an annual progress report together with any recommendations for strengthening the program to the fiscal and telecommunications committees in the senate and the house of representatives not later than December 1st, beginning in 2009, and cover the preceding fiscal year.
     (7) The partnership in subsection (2) of this section may contract with other organizations to accomplish the objectives in this section. Any such organization shall have an established competency in working with public and private sectors to accomplish wide-scale deployment and adoption of telecommunications and information technology.
     (8) This section expires June 30, 2011.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 43.105 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) By January 1, 2009, the department, in consultation with the utilities and transportation commission and other relevant agencies, shall identify and make publicly available a web directory of facilities that provide community technology programs throughout the state.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, "community technology program," also known as a digital inclusion program, means a program engaged in diffusing information and communications technology in local communities, particularly in underserved areas. These programs may include, but are not limited to, programs that provide education and skill-building opportunities, hardware and software, internet connectivity, and development of locally relevant content and delivery of vital services through technology.