SB1405

The statutory broadband standard rises from 25 megabits per second download and 3 upload to 100 download and 20 upload. It retains the limit of 100 milliseconds for round-trip delay, measured at the 95th percentile, and the comptroller’s existing authority to adopt different federal standards by rule. Pole-replacement program definitions now follow this broadband standard. The map’s unserved category follows applicable speed standards and also includes public schools and community anchor institutions lacking reliable gigabit-level service. The final text retains the existing 100/20 underserved thresholds rather than the Senate proposal’s 250/25. Final law, sections 1, 3–4; Prior standards and rule authority.

The office may use an adopted FCC map that identifies unserved, underserved and served locations instead of producing its own. The act repeals specified state mapping-data, consultant, confidentiality and reclassification procedures; it does not declare all government broadband information public or abolish every possible challenge. For infrastructure applications under section 490I.0106(a-1), protests during the 30-day posting period now address whether the included locations are eligible for funding, rather than the former broader applicant/project criteria. Providers that fail to supply required federal-commitment information cannot use that protest process. Map and protest changes, sections 4–5, 10; Prior map and protest procedures.

Contracts join grants, low-interest loans and other incentives as available funding tools, including for middle-mile networks and adoption/access projects. The existing 80% unserved-or-underserved project provision remains. Award priorities concerning poorly served areas and education, federal support and defaults still apply to the extent applicable. The commercial-provider preference is limited to last-mile awards to noncommercial providers when an eligible commercial provider applies for the same location. A separate restriction covers locations with existing federal deployment commitments, subject to the existing forfeiture/disqualification exception for locations otherwise eligible for funding. This is not a blanket ban on last-mile funding. The existing fiber preference and its alternative-technology exceptions also remain. Award rules, section 5; Existing federal-funding and fiber exceptions, section 4.

Recipients of covered infrastructure awards must make a reasonable effort to restore affected private property to its pre-project condition. The office may revoke or reduce an award for a material misrepresentation about compliance with the published expenditure/restoration requirements. The final law does not enact the Senate floor proposal’s separate affidavit-based withdrawal process for repeated unauthorized use or damage. Final property and enforcement requirements, section 5; Nichols amendment.

Pole-program statistics for the preceding state fiscal year must be posted by November 1 annually, including applications, awards and estimated available money. Infrastructure-grant disclosures must identify recipients, target areas, amounts and progress. The act repeals the Governor’s Broadband Development Council. Its text also adds contracts to a board-member affiliation restriction, but the separate SB2900 expressly repeals that board-of-advisors statute; that line should not be read as proof that the board remains in operation. These advisory-body changes do not repeal the broadband development program. Reporting and institutional provisions, sections 2, 5–6, 10; SB2900 board repeal, section 8(12).

For franchise tax, the definition of qualifying broadband grants expressly includes comptroller grants under the named state programs and treats pole-replacement reimbursements as grants. The existing framework excludes qualifying proceeds from total revenue and allows otherwise eligible expenses paid with them in cost-of-goods-sold or compensation calculations. This is not a new automatic grant payment. The act removes internet access from the sales-tax service list and repeals the old first-$25 monthly exemption, while preserving other taxable services except the specified incidental-service rule. Prior accrued tax liability is preserved. Tax provisions, sections 7–12; Existing franchise-tax treatment, section 1.

Both floor amendments were adopted at their respective stages, but adoption was not the end of the story. The House substitute added contracts, disclosures and pole-definition changes and dropped the Senate’s 250/25 underserved threshold and affidavit-based process. Conference retained the House’s main approach and added reasonable restoration efforts and the material-misrepresentation remedy. The Craddick House amendment’s proposed 2027 repeal of the provider-equipment refund and 2028 four-percent equipment tax rate, with its refund transition, were omitted from the final law. Versions and conference-report index; Amendment dispositions; Craddick proposal; Enacted text.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Higher statutory service expectations and additional funding tools may help direct projects toward inadequately served locations. Residents and institutions do not receive a guaranteed award or connection; outcomes depend on funding, awards and construction. Reporting can make grants easier to follow, while the property requirement adds obligations for recipients. Narrower protest grounds and repeal of the separate state reclassification procedure change how applicants and affected providers can challenge funding decisions. Final program rules; Previous procedures.

The conference fiscal note anticipates no state or local fiscal effect. It reports the comptroller’s explanation that internet-access sales taxation had already ceased after June 30, 2020, under federal law, and calls the franchise-tax change clarifying. Therefore, deleting those obsolete sales-tax provisions is not evidence of a new 2025 household tax saving. This fiscal estimate is not proof that administration takes no work or that broadband prices fell. Conference fiscal note.

Earlier estimates describe different proposals: the Senate-passed note estimated $1.384 million in costs over fiscal 2026–27 for the affidavit-related process and administration; the House-passed note estimated $324,000 in fiscal 2026 and later revenue changes tied to its equipment-tax provisions. Those are not the final law’s estimated cost, an appropriation, or actual spending. Senate-passed estimate; House-passed estimate; Final conference estimate.