STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2165

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2235

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Economic Development and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 2235 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to incorporate recommendations of the Hawaii Broadband Task Force in the Hawaii State Plan, by requiring the State to promote broadband services as critical infrastructure for twenty-first century communications and encourage the public and private sectors to ensure that every home and business in the State has access to broadband service at prices comparable to those in leading economies of the world, for educational, economic, social, cultural, and medical advancement by 2018.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, High Technology Development Corporation, University of Hawaii System, and Media Council Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that the importance of broadband to the educational, economic, social, cultural, and medical well-being of Hawaii's citizens in the twenty-first century is now well-understood and incontrovertible.  While there may be differences of opinion about the level of services necessary and the means to achieve them, your Committee believes that this measure would establish a shared visionary objective.

 

Your Committee further finds that establishing this shared vision through codification in the Hawaii Revised Statutes will provide a focus for collaborative efforts to identify and execute specific next steps to bring the vision to fruition.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by requiring the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to report annually to the Governor and the Legislature on the status of efforts to promote broadband services as critical infrastructure for twenty-first century communications and encourage the public and private sectors to ensure that every home and business in the State has access to broadband service.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development and Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2235, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2235, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development and Technology,

 

 

 

____________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair