Illinois Code § 13-102

§ 13-102.

Findings. With respect to telecommunications services, as herein defined, the General Assembly finds that: (a) universally available and widely affordable telecommunications services are essential to the health, welfare and prosperity of all Illinois citizens; (b) federal regulatory and judicial rulings in the 1980s caused a restructuring of the telecommunications industry and opened some aspects of the industry to competitive entry, thereby necessitating revision of State telecommunications regulatory policies and practices; (c) revisions in telecommunications regulatory policies and practices in Illinois beginning in the mid-1980s brought the benefits of competition to consumers in many telecommunications markets, but not in local exchange telecommunications service markets; (d) the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 established the goal of opening all telecommunications service markets to competition and accords to the states the responsibility to establish and enforce policies necessary to attain that goal; (e) it is in the immediate interest of the People of the State of Illinois for the State to exercise its rights within the new framework of federal telecommunications policy to ensure that the economic benefits of competition in all telecommunications service markets are realized as effectively as possible; (f) the competitive offering of all telecommunications services will increase innovation and efficiency in the provision of telecommunications services and may lead to reduced prices for consumers, increased investment in communications infrastructure, the creation of new jobs, and the attraction of new businesses to Illinois; (g) protection of the public interest requires changes in the regulation of telecommunications carriers and services to ensure, to the maximum feasible extent, the reasonable and timely development of effective competition in all telecommunications service markets; (h) Illinois residents rely on today's modern wired and wireless Internet Protocol (IP) networks and services to improve their lives by connecting them to school and college degrees, work and job opportunities, family and friends, information, and entertainment, as well as emergency responders and public safety officials; Illinois businesses rely on these modern IP networks and services to compete in a global marketplace by expanding their customer base, managing inventory and operations more efficiently, and offering customers specialized and personalized products and services; without question, Illinois residents and our State's economy rely profoundly on the modern wired and wireless IP networks and services in our State; (i) the transition from 20th century traditional circuit switched and other legacy telephone services to modern 21st century next generation Internet Protocol (IP) services is taking place at an extraordinary pace as Illinois consumers are upgrading to home communications service using IP technology, including high speed Internet, Voice over Internet Protocol, and wireless service; (j) this rapid transition to IP-based communications has dramatically transformed the way people communicate and has provided significant benefits to consumers in the form of innovative functionalities resulting from the seamless convergence of voice, video, and text, benefits realized by the General Assembly when it chose to transition its own telecommunications system to an all IP communications network in 2016; (k) the benefits of the transition to IP-based networks and services were also recognized by the General Assembly in 2015 through the enactment of legislation requiring that every 9-1-1 emergency system in Illinois provide Next Generation 9-1-1 service by July 1, 2020, and requiring that the Next Generation 9-1-1 network must be an IP-based platform; and (l) completing the transition to all IP-based networks and technologies is in the public interest because it will promote continued innovation, consumer benefits, increased efficiencies, and increased investment in IP-based networks and services. (Source: P.A. 100-20, eff. 7-1-17.)