A. The licensing of video service providers and the regulation and use of video service are matters of statewide concern. Except as provided in this chapter, the licensing of video service providers and the regulation and use of video service are not subject to further regulation by a county. The regulation of video service pursuant to this chapter, including application to the local licenses of incumbent cable operators, is reasonable and necessary to promote all of the following:

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 11-1902

  • Agreement: means any agreement or contract. See Arizona Laws 11-1901
  • boundaries: means all of the area of the county that is not within the corporate limits of any city or town, including unincorporated territory that is surrounded on all sides by a combination of one or more cities, towns or Indian reservations. See Arizona Laws 11-1901
  • Holdover cable operator: means an incumbent cable operator that elects under sections 11-1912 and 11-1913 to continue to operate within its service area pursuant to its local license. See Arizona Laws 11-1901
  • including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • License: means a franchise as defined in 47 United States Code § 522. See Arizona Laws 11-1901
  • Local law: means any code, ordinance, resolution, regulation or other law of a county. See Arizona Laws 11-1901
  • Person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Telecommunications service: means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the equipment, facilities or technology used. See Arizona Laws 11-1901

1. Provision of competitive video, telecommunications and information service throughout this state.

2. More uniform regulation of competitive video service throughout this state.

3. Streamlined licensing by counties and more uniform terms and conditions for video service providers that use highways to provide video and other services over video service networks.

4. Continued management by counties of use of their highways with reasonable burdens on construction and maintenance across boundaries for video service providers to use highways to provide video and other services over video service networks.

5. Continued levying of license fees by counties on subscriber service revenues derived from operating video service networks to provide video service.

6. Support for federal subscriber service standards.

B. To the fullest extent allowed by federal law, this chapter occupies the entire field of licensing and regulation of video service.

C. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, from and after December 31, 2019 this chapter preempts and limits the ability of a county to regulate or enforce all of the following:

1. The application of Title 9, Chapter 5, Article 1.1 to video service providers.

2. Any local law and any agreement with a county that does any of the following:

(a) Requires a person other than a holdover cable operator to obtain or hold from a county any license, permit or similar authorization that is a prerequisite to providing video service or to constructing, maintaining or using the highways to operate a video service network in the highways within its boundaries.

(b) Regulates the provision of video service or the construction or operation of a video service network if the local law does not conform to this chapter.

(c) Imposes on a video service provider any requirement that is related to infrastructure, facilities or deployment of equipment that does not conform to this chapter, including office location, institutional network, build-out, line extension, investment or other operational requirements that are not directly related to the county’s management of development, use and occupancy of the highways.

(d) Requires a video service provider to obtain a license or other authorization from the county to provide telecommunications service, information service, interactive computer service or other service if the video service provider uses its video service network within the boundaries of the county to provide the service.

(e) Requires a video service provider to pay to locate in ducts or conduits or on poles owned by the county if the county requires installation in the ducts or conduits or on the poles.