HB 5949 Summary

• Expands the Michigan Public Service Commission's jurisdiction to regulate broadband service providers, requiring them to comply with quality standards, billing transparency, pricing, and nondiscriminatory treatment provisions.

• Establishes rate regulation for primary basic local exchange service, allowing providers to set initial rates but permitting increases only up to 1% less than the Consumer Price Index without approval, with larger increases requiring commission review and justification.

• Prohibits providers from subsidizing unregulated services with regulated service revenues, transferring assets to affiliates below fair market value, bundling unwanted services, or discontinuing regulated services for nonpayment of unregulated service charges.

• Requires telecommunication providers to file small and minority-owned business participation plans and mandates privacy protections through commission-promulgated rules governing customer information and caller identification services.

• Eliminates several outdated administrative rules related to privacy standards, billing, and service quality while streamlining the commission's rulemaking process to 180 days and expanding protections for customers, including those with disabilities and nonprofit organizations.