Amends TCA Title 65, Chapter 25.

ON MARCH 25, 2019, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 210, AS AMENDED.<br /> <br /> AMENDMENT#1 rewrites this bill. Under present law, the Rural Electric and Community Services Cooperative Act provides:<br /> (1) That the Act does authorize any existing electric cooperative to provide or perform services or activities in any geographic area in the state where such services or activities are currently being provided or performed by a wireless cable (microwave) system authorized and licensed by the FCC as a multi-channel and/or multipoint distribution system (MDS) on April 7, 1988, without the express written consent of the MDS/MMDS owner/operator; and<br /> (2) That the provisions in item (1) apply only to a wireless cable (microwave) system authorized and licensed by the FCC as a multi-channel and/or multi-point distribution system (MDS) in existence and operating on April 7, 1988.<br /> <br /> This amendment deletes the above-described present law provisions.<br /> <br /> Generally under present law, the Act authorizes a cooperative to provide telephone, telegraph, voice over internet protocol, telecommunications services, or any other like system. However, present law, enacted April 25, 2000, provides that notwithstanding that authority, a cooperative is not allowed to provide such services unrelated to its electric services within the service area of an existing telephone cooperative with fewer than 100,000 total lines organized and operating under the laws governing telephone cooperatives, and therefore must adhere to those regulations of the 1995 Tennessee Telecommunications Act and rules of the Tennessee public utility commission, which are applicable to the telephone cooperatives. This amendment limits the applicability of these provisions to "an entity in existence and operating as a telephone cooperative on April 24, 2017" instead of to "an existing telephone cooperative".<br /> <br />