1. (1) Before providing retail telecommunications services, a public utility district must report to its governing body and to the state broadband office the following about the area to be served by the public utility district:

   1. (a) An assessment of the current availability of broadband infrastructure and its adequacy to provide high-speed internet access and other advanced telecommunications services to end users;
   2. (b) The location of where retail telecommunications services will be provided;
   3. (c) Evidence relating to the unserved nature of the community in which retail telecommunications services will be provided;
   4. (d) Expected costs of providing retail telecommunications services to customers to be served by the public utility district;
   5. (e) Evidence that proposed telecommunications infrastructure will be capable of scaling to greater download and upload speeds to meet state broadband goals under RCW 43.330.536;
   6. (f) Sources of funding for the project that will supplement any grant or loan awards; and
   7. (g) A strategic plan to maintain long-term operation of the infrastructure, and the expected installation charges and monthly costs for end users.
2. (2) The state broadband office must post a review of the proposed project on their website.
3. (3) For the purposes of this section, "unserved" means an area of Washington in which households and businesses lack access to broadband service at a minimum 100 megabits per second download speed and at a minimum 20 megabits per second upload speed.

[ 2021 c 294 s 3.]

Notes:

Short title—2021 c 294: See note following RCW 54.16.330.