House Energy committee reviews H.11 to expand consumer‑protection, monitoring and reporting for broadband

The House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Thursday reviewed H.11, the Vermont Broadband Secure Protection Competition Act, a bill that would create a new subchapter under the state’s consumer‑protection statutes to target unfair or deceptive broadband industry practices and to require market monitoring, annual reporting and provider data submissions.

Committee chair Representative Kathleen James opened the session by outlining H.11’s main pieces: findings and intent language, definitions, a set of enumerated prohibited practices, a requirement that providers file information and complaint records annually, and a monitoring and reporting regime centered on the attorney general’s office.

The measure’s proponents say the bill is designed to “promote a thriving broadband market in Vermont, free of anti‑competitive, unfair, deceptive … practices” and to give the state better visibility into outages, performance, marketing and provider conduct. The draft text would expand the current state certificate requirement (now tied to state contracts) so that any entity selling broadband service to Vermonters would be covered by the new subchapter. The bill also authorizes an assessment on providers to cover the cost of monitoring and reporting, and creates an annual public report summarizing market competition and enforcement activity.

Why it matters: broadband is treated in the bill as critical infrastructure the committee said, and the state’s capacity to monitor provider practices is tied to questions about competition in high‑cost, rural areas. Committee members repeatedly tied the bill’s goals to broader climate and economic policy questions: better data on the broadband market could guide where public dollars are targeted and whether consumer protections are working.

Key issues raised in…