§  69.803   Competitive market test.

   (a) The competitive market test is used to determine which counties
   served by a price cap local exchange carrier, as defined in § 61.3(bb)
   of this chapter, are deemed competitive and therefore warrant relief
   from price cap regulation and detariffing of DS1 and DS3 end user
   channel terminations, and certain other business data services, sold by
   such carriers.

   (b) Initial test. A county is deemed competitive in the initial
   competitive market test if:

   (1) Either 50 percent of the locations with business data services
   demand within the county are within one half mile of a location served
   by a competitive provider based on data from the special access data
   collection, or 75 percent of the census blocks within the county are
   reported to have broadband connection availability by a cable operator
   based on Form 477 data as of December 2016. Lists of counties deemed
   competitive, non-competitive or grandfathered by the initial
   competitive market test are published on the Commission's Web site.

   (2) The DS1 and DS3 end user channel terminations sold by price cap
   local exchange carriers in counties deemed competitive are no longer
   subject to price cap regulation and are detariffed according to
   § 61.201.

   (c) Subsequent tests. The results of the initial competitive market
   test will be updated every three years following the effective date of
   the initial test.

   (1) A county will be deemed competitive in a subsequent competitive
   market test if 75 percent of the census blocks within the county are
   reported to have broadband connection availability by a cable operator
   based on Form 477 data as of the date of the most recent collection.

   (2) No later than three years following the effective date of the
   previous test, the Wireline Competition Bureau will conclude a
   subsequent test and will publish a revised list of counties deemed
   competitive at the conclusion of the test.

   (3) A county deemed competitive in the competitive market test will
   retain its status in subsequent tests.