House committee advances rewrite of Wyoming Telecommunications Act, extends sunset to 2031

The House Corporations Committee on [date not specified] advanced Senate File 51, a broad update to the Wyoming Telecommunications Act that, among other changes, extends the act's sunset date to July 1, 2031 and narrows universal-service support to certain local telephone service.

Committee members and industry representatives said the bill is intended to modernize language in the three-decade-old law and to preserve state primacy in telecom regulation. "If we lose our primacy in Wyoming ... it goes to the federal government, the FCC," Jason Hendricks, a telecom industry representative, said during the presentation.

The bill updates definitions and clarifies what telecommunications services remain regulated and eligible for support from the state universal service fund. Under the rewritten definitions, only noncompetitive local exchange service and switched access service would remain regulated and eligible for support; wireless and most broadband would not be regulated or supported. Hendricks said the bill's authors…