February 1, 2018 - Introduced by Representatives Anderson, Genrich, Hebl,
Considine, Berceau, Zamarripa, Vruwink, Ohnstad, Sinicki, Spreitzer, Pope,
Brostoff, Crowley, Billings and Hesselbein, cosponsored by Senators
Erpenbach, Larson, Hansen, Carpenter and Vinehout. Referred to
Committee on Government Accountability and Oversight.
AB908,1,2 1An Act to amend 16.75 (1) (a) 1.; and to create 16.756 of the statutes; relating
2to:
state contracts for broadband Internet access service.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill prohibits the state from contracting for broadband Internet access
service (BIAS) unless the state determines that the service provider does not do any
of the following:
1. Block lawful content, applications, or services or devices that do not harm
the network.
2. Throttle lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, application, or service
or use of a device that does not harm the network.
3. Engage in paid prioritization, which is the favoring of some Internet traffic
over other traffic in exchange for some form of consideration.
4. Unreasonably interfere with or unreasonably disadvantage an end user's
ability to select, access, and use BIAS or an edge provider's ability to make lawful
content, applications, services, and devices available to end users. An edge provider
is someone who provides any content, application, or service over the Internet, or a
device used for accessing any Internet content, application, or service.
5. Engage in any unjust or unreasonable charge, practice, classification, or
regulation.
6. Make any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices,
classifications, regulations, facilities, or services or subject any particular person,
class of persons, or locality to any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage
or prejudice or disadvantage.

7. Use, disclose, or permit access to any individually identifiable customer
proprietary network information except in the provision of the BIAS or related
service.
The bill also prohibits the state from contracting for BIAS unless the state
determines that the service provider 1) discloses its commercial terms, which must
include information on pricing, other fees, and data caps and allowances; 2) discloses
its network performance characteristics, which must include information regarding
packet loss; and 3) makes its services and equipment accessible to individuals with
disabilities.
For further information see the state fiscal estimate, which will be printed as
an appendix to this bill.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows:
AB908,1 1Section 1. 16.75 (1) (a) 1. of the statutes is amended to read:
AB908,2,102 16.75 (1) (a) 1. All orders awarded or contracts made by the department for all
3materials, supplies, equipment, and contractual services to be provided to any
4agency, except as otherwise provided in par. (c) and subs. (2), (2g), (2m), (3m), (3t),
5(6), (7), (8), (9), (10e), and (10m) and ss. 16.705 (1r), 16.73 (4) (a), 16.751, 16.754,
616.756, 50.05 (7) (f), 153.05 (2m) (a), 165.987, and 287.15 (7), shall be awarded to the
7lowest responsible bidder, taking into consideration life cycle cost estimates under
8sub. (1m), when appropriate, the location of the agency, the quantities of the articles
9to be supplied, their conformity with the specifications, and the purposes for which
10they are required and the date of delivery.
AB908,2 11Section 2 . 16.756 of the statutes is created to read:
AB908,2,13 1216.756 Broadband Internet access service contracts. (1) Definitions.
13In this section:
AB908,3,514 (a) “Broadband Internet access service” means a mass-market retail service
15by wire or radio, including both fixed and mobile service, that provides the capability
16to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all Internet endpoints,

1including any capabilities that are incidental to and enable the operation of the
2communications service, but excluding dial-up Internet access service. “ Broadband
3Internet access service” includes any service that the department determines is
4providing a functional equivalent of the service described in the previous sentence,
5or that is used to evade the provisions of this section.
AB908,3,76 (b) “Content, applications, or services” includes all traffic transmitted to or
7from end users of a broadband Internet access service.
AB908,3,148 (c) “Customer proprietary network information” means information that
9relates to the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, location, and
10amount of use of broadband Internet access service subscribed to by a customer and
11that is made available to the broadband Internet access service provider by the
12customer solely by virtue of the provider-customer relationship; and information
13contained in the bills pertaining to the broadband Internet access service received
14by the customer; except that such term does not include subscriber list information.
AB908,3,1715 (d) “Edge provider” means any individual or entity that provides any content,
16application, or service over the Internet and any individual or entity that provides
17a device used for accessing any content, application, or service over the Internet.
AB908,3,1918 (e) “End user” means any individual or entity that uses broadband Internet
19access service.
AB908,3,2520 (f) “Paid prioritization” means the management of a broadband provider's
21network to directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic, including
22through use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, resource
23reservation, or other forms of preferential traffic management, in exchange for
24consideration, monetary or otherwise, from a 3rd party or to benefit an affiliated
25entity.
AB908,4,5
1(g) “Reasonable network management” means a practice that has a primarily
2technical network management justification but that does not include other business
3practices, and that is primarily used for and tailored to achieving a legitimate
4network management purpose, taking into account the particular network
5architecture and technology of the broadband Internet access service.
AB908,4,8 6(2) Prohibition. (a) The state may not contract for broadband Internet access
7service unless the state determines that the service provider does not do any of the
8following:
AB908,4,129 1. Block lawful content, applications, or services, or devices that do not harm
10the network, except as needed for reasonable network management, or charge a fee
11to an edge provider to avoid having the edge provider's lawful content, service,
12application, or nonharmful device blocked.
AB908,4,1813 2. Impair, degrade, slow down, or render effectively unusable lawful Internet
14traffic on the basis of content, application, or service, or use of a device that does not
15harm the network, except as needed for reasonable network management, or charge
16a fee to an edge provider to avoid having the edge provider's lawful content, service,
17application, or nonharmful device impaired, degraded, slowed down, or rendered
18effectively unusable.
AB908,4,2219 3. Engage in paid prioritization. This subdivision does not apply to a petitioner
20who requests a waiver from the department if the department determines that the
21proposed practice would provide some significant public interest benefit and would
22not harm the open nature of the Internet.
AB908,5,223 4. Unreasonably interfere with or unreasonably disadvantage end users'
24ability to select, access, and use broadband Internet access service or the lawful
25content, applications, services, and devices of their choice and edge providers' ability

1to make lawful content, applications, services, and devices available to end users,
2except as needed for reasonable network management.
AB908,5,53 5. Engage in any unjust or unreasonable charge, practice, classification, or
4regulation, except that this subdivision does not apply to any charge, practice,
5classification, or regulation that the department has exempted by rule.
AB908,5,116 6. Make any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices,
7classifications, regulations, facilities, or services for or in connection with like
8communication service, directly or indirectly, by any means or device; make or give
9any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, class
10of persons, or locality; or subject any particular person, class of persons, or locality
11to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage.
AB908,5,1712 7. Use, disclose, or permit access to individually identifiable customer
13proprietary network information except in the provision of the broadband Internet
14access service to the customer or in the provision of services necessary to, or used in,
15the provision of such service to the customer, including the publishing of directories,
16unless such use, disclosure, or access is required by law or is approved in writing by
17the customer.
AB908,5,1918 (b) The state may not contract for broadband Internet access service unless the
19state determines that the service provider does all of the following:
AB908,5,2420 1. Discloses, in a timely manner, prominently, in plain language, and in a way
21that is accessible to current and prospective end users and edge providers, to the
22department, and to 3rd parties who wish to monitor the provider's practices,
23accurate information on all of the following, in addition to any other information
24required to be disclosed under state or federal law:
AB908,6,2
1a. Commercial terms, including pricing, other fees, and data caps and
2allowances.
AB908,6,73 b. Network performance characteristics, including information regarding
4packet loss, that is reasonably related to the performance the consumer would likely
5experience in the geographic area in which the consumer is purchasing the service,
6measured in terms of average performance over a reasonable period of time and
7during times of peak usage.
AB908,6,88 2. Makes its services and equipment accessible to individuals with disabilities.
AB908,3 9Section 3. Initial applicability.
AB908,6,1110 (1) This act first applies to contracts entered into, modified, extended, or
11renewed on the effective date of this subsection.
AB908,6,1212 (End)
Loading...
Loading...