LCO No. 4237 1 of 2
General Assembly Raised Bill No. 990
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 4237
Referred to Committee on ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduced by:
(ET)
AN ACT PREVENTING NE W DATA CAPS DURING C OVID-19.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) As used in this section: 1
(1) "Broadband Internet access service" means a mass-market retail 2
service by wire or radio that provides the capability to transmit data to 3
and receive data from all or substantially all Internet endpoints, 4
including any capabilities that are incidental to and enable the operation 5
of the communications service, but excluding dial-up Internet access 6
service; 7
(2) "Broadband Internet access service provider" means any person or 8
entity that provides broadband Internet access service through facilities 9
occupying public highways or streets authorized by the Public Utilities 10
Regulatory Authority, including through a certificate of public 11
convenience and necessity, a certificate of video franchise authority, a 12
certificate of cable franchise authority, or as a certified 13
telecommunications provider; 14
(3) "COVID-19" means the respiratory disease designated by the 15 Raised Bill No. 990
LCO No. 4237 2 of 2
World Health Organization on February 11, 2020, as coronavirus 2019, 16
and any related mutation thereof recognized by said organization as a 17
communicable respiratory disease; and 18
(4) "Data cap" means a limit on, or a fee-based structure with the 19
purpose of limiting, the broadband Internet download and upload 20
speeds a consumer may utilize during a period of time specified by a 21
broadband Internet access service provider. 22
(b) Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes, no 23
broadband Internet access service provider shall impose new data caps 24
on such provider's customers for the duration of the public health 25
emergency declared by the Governor related to COVID-19. 26
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage New section
Statement of Purpose:
To prevent the imposition of new data caps during COVID-19.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]