Illinois § 21-101

§ 21-101.

Findings. With respect to cable and video competition, the General Assembly finds that: (a) The economy in the State of Illinois will be enhanced by investment in new communications, cable services, and video services infrastructure, including broadband facilities, fiber optic, and Internet protocol technologies. (b) Cable services and video services bring important daily benefits to Illinois consumers by providing news, education, and entertainment. (c) Competitive cable service and video service providers are capable of providing new video programming services and competition to Illinois consumers and of decreasing the prices for video programming services paid by Illinois consumers. (d) Although there has been some competitive entry into the facilities-based video programming market since current franchising requirements in this State were enacted, further entry by facilities-based providers could benefit consumers, provided cable and video services are equitably available to all Illinois consumers at reasonable prices. (e) The provision of competitive cable services and video services is a matter of statewide concern that extends beyond the boundaries of individual local units of government. Notwithstanding the foregoing, public rights-of-way are limited resources over which the municipality has a custodial duty to ensure that they are used, repaired, and maintained in a manner that best serves the public interest. (f) The State authorization process and uniform standards and procedures in this Article are intended to enable rapid and widespread entry by competitive providers, which will bring to Illinois consumers the benefits of video competition, including providing consumers with more choice, lower prices, higher speed and more advanced Internet access, more diverse and varied news, public information, education, and entertainment programming, and will bring to this State and its local units of government the benefits of new infrastructure investment, job growth, and innovation in broadband and Internet protocol technologies and deployment. (g) Providing an incumbent cable or video service provider with the option to secure a State-issued authorization through the termination of existing cable franchises between incumbent cable and video service providers and any local franchising authority is part of the new regulatory framework established by this Article. This Article is intended to best ensure equal treatment and parity among providers and technologies. (Source: P.A. 100-20, eff. 7-1-17.)