Section 45-39-250.01 Authority to Operate Cable, Telecommunication, Etc., Systems.

In addition to all other power, rights, and authority heretofore granted by law, municipalities and municipal instrumentalities in Lauderdale County may acquire, establish, purchase, construct, maintain, enlarge, extend, lease, improve, and operate cable systems, telecommunications equipment, and telecommunications systems, and furnish cable service, interactive computer service, and Internet access and other Internet services and telecommunications service, or any combination thereof, to the inhabitants of the municipality and surrounding territory. Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, municipalities and municipal instrumentalities in Lauderdale County may furnish to the inhabitants of the municipality in Lauderdale County and surrounding territory: Internet access and other Internet services; meter reading services; appliance, equipment, or facilities monitoring; alarm monitoring service and other security monitoring; surveillance or monitoring services; and billing and financial services. The governing body of any municipality in Lauderdale County, by ordinance to be entered on its minutes, and any municipal instrumentality in Lauderdale County, by appropriate action of its governing body to be entered on its minutes, also may lease to others any of its cable system and telecommunications equipment not needed for public or municipal purposes and may couple the lease with the provision of cable service, interactive computer service, and Internet access and other Internet services and telecommunications service, or any combination thereof. A lease made by the mayor in accordance with the ordinance or by the duly authorized officer, officers, or agents of the municipal instrumentality in Lauderdale County, shall be binding for the term specified in the lease, not to exceed a period of 25 years. Any municipality or municipal instrumentality in Lauderdale County which acquires a cable system, telecommunications equipment, or telecommunications systems for purposes of furnishing cable service, interactive computer service, and Internet access and other Internet services and telecommunications service, or any combination thereof, to others shall provide, to any requesting telecommunications carrier for the provision of a telecommunications service, nondiscriminatory access to any of the municipality’s or municipal instrumentality’s telecommunications equipment not needed for public or municipal purposes or used by the municipality or municipal instrumentality in the provision of telecommunications service to others on an unbundled basis at any technically feasible point on rates, terms, and conditions that are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory. A municipality or municipal instrumentality in Lauderdale County shall make available any of its telecommunications equipment not needed for public or municipal purposes or used by the municipality or municipal instrumentality in the provision of telecommunications service to others on an unbundled basis to requesting telecommunications carriers upon the same terms and conditions as the telecommunications equipment is made available to other telecommunications carriers by the municipality or municipal instrumentality. Nothing contained in this part shall affect the authority of the state or local governmental agencies to manage the public rights-of-way or to require fair and reasonable compensation from telecommunications providers, on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis, for use of public rights-of-way.