AN ACT to encourage deployment of competitive broadband service by public utilities.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 62‑2 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(b1)	Broadband service provided by public utilities as defined in G.S. 62‑3(23)a.6. is sufficiently competitive and shall not be regulated by the Commission."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 62‑3 reads as rewritten:
"§ 62‑3.  Definitions.
As used in this Chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the term:
(1)	"Broadband service" means any service that consists of or includes a high‑speed access capability to transmit at a rate of not less than 200 kilobits per second in either the upstream or downstream direction and either (i) is used to provide access to the Internet, or (ii) provides computer processing, information storage, information content, or protocol conversion, including any service applications or information service provided over such high‑speed access service. "Broadband service" does not include intrastate service that was tariffed by the Commission and in effect as of the effective date of this subdivision.
	(1a) "Broker," with regard to motor carriers of passengers, means any person not included in the term "motor carrier" and not a bona fide employee or agent of any such carrier, who or which as principal or agent engages in the business of selling or offering for sale any transportation of passengers by motor carrier, or negotiates for or holds himself, or itself, out by solicitation, advertisements, or otherwise, as one who sells, provides, furnishes, contracts, or arranges for such transportation for compensation, either directly or indirectly.
	(1b) "Bus company" means any common carrier by motor vehicle which holds itself out to the general public to engage in the transportation by motor vehicle in intrastate commerce of passengers over fixed routes or in charter operations, or both, except as exempted in G.S. 62‑260.
.…"

SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 13th day of June, 2005.

	s/	 Charlie S. Dannelly
		 Deputy President Pro Tempore of the Senate

	s/	 James B. Black
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved 9:07 p.m. this 21st day of June, 2005