TMCnet News
Boulder Issue 2C gives city broadband authority [Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.](Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 18--The city of Boulder has roughly 100 miles of high-speed fiber-optic network at its disposal, but under most interpretations of state law, the city cannot make that network available to the public. Even the wifi network in the Boulder Public Library could technically be considered a violation. Issue 2C on the Boulder ballot would allow the city to provide its own broadband service to the public or to partner with private companies to expand access to the city's network. Supporters say voting for Issue 2C will help Boulder stay competitive with Longmont, which is developing its own municipal broadband network, and Denver, where there is the population to support privately funded high-speed Internet. It also ensures that high-speed Internet service will be available throughout the community, not just to those who can afford it. "This allows the city of Boulder to determine what to do with a resource that already exists and is already paid for," said Timothy O'Shea, a member of the Yes on 2C steering committee who has worked with Boulder start-ups. "The role of access to the Internet has become essential to our private and our professional lives. The bandwith here is so-so despite getting ranked among the top tech communities nationally. My thoughts are there is an existing resource that we could leverage but we are prevented from doing so by a rather outdated law. Opponents say the private sector is providing adequate Internet service, and if there is a market for fiber in Boulder, it will be developed without government help. "If there is a market for the citizens to use it, my guess is that some business will find a way to make this possible," said Jon Caldera, executive director of the libertarian Independence Institute and a resident of Boulder. "This is a very connected town. It just isn't an issue in Boulder." No organized opposition to Issue 2C There is no tax or bond issue associated with Issue 2C, and the city has no immediate plans to enter into a private partnership or expand service. Rather, Issue 2C simply gives the city the authority to offer broadband service to the public. Since 2005, state law has prohibited cities from doing just that unless they get explicit permission from their residents. Longmont voters in 2011 approved a ballot measure authorizing the city to create a fiber-optic broadband network, and last year approved bond funding to pay for it. The city is in the process of designing the network. Service will be rolled out over the next several years. Members of the Boulder City Council have pointed to Longmont's capabilities as one reason the city needs to improve the availability of high-speed Internet in Boulder. The Boulder Chamber of Commerce backs Issue 2C. Telecommunications companies spent $245,000 to defeat Longmont's first attempt to get voter approval for citywide fiber optic in 2009, making it the city's most expensive election ever at the time. In 2011, opponents spent $420,000, but voters approved the measure by 61 percent. There has been no organized opposition to Issue 2C. In an email, Comcast Vice President for Public Relations Cindy Parsons said the cable and Internet provider does not believe broadband service is a good use of municipal resources. "Comcast does not believe that government-owned networks are a good use of municipal funds in areas where the private market is already providing services," she wrote. "To the extent such deployments occur, they should be targeted to unserved areas and managed as a commercial enterprise without subsidization and subject to the same rules as a private provider. "Government entry into direct ownership of broadband facilities is risky and costly-- especially at a time when other priorities, like transportation infrastructure, desperately need public funds," she added. "Building, maintaining, and upgrading a broadband network is a complex endeavor requiring enormous funds and experience." Parsons did not respond to follow-up requests for an interview. Caldera said offering broadband service to support Boulder's economic competitiveness amounts to "corporate welfare," and he wants the city to focus on its tradition purview. "It sure would be nice if the city would fix the potholes in front of our house, but I guess this is more interesting," he said. O'Shea said Issue 2C does not commit the city to any one course of action or commit any taxpayer money to a new venture. But by releasing the city from the restrictions in state law, the city and its residents can have a conversation about all the possibilities. "It will not be the City Council determining that we'll have municipalization of those services," O'Shea said. "Yes on 2C is not about that. It's about the beginning of a dialogue and getting out from under a state law that prevents us from innovating with our existing resources. My personal opinion is that I don't think this is something the city can do on its own, and we already have a lot of savvy people in our community. Connectivity seen as critical to participation in democracy Boulder's Director of Information Technology Don Ingle said the city has been building its fiber-optic network for 15 years, through agreements and in-kind donations from private companies that were developing their own networks. In exchange for permission to use city right-of-way, companies like Level 3 Communications and Zayo provided conduit, fiber and cash donations to the city. In addition to its own fiber-optic network, the city also has numerous pathways where fiber could be run without opening up the street. The city has also used cash donations to lay conduit for future fiber into the neighborhoods when public works crews had the street open for other projects. Some of the network connects the city, the federal labs and the University of Colorado. Some city buildings already have gigabyte capabilities. At the same time, the city has significant "dark fiber," fiber that is not currently being used to transmit information, and that extra capacity could be made available to the public. Ingle said amount of data and media being moved around the Internet means the existing copper wire infrastructure increasingly won't do the job. "The Internet is growing and the ability to push these big blobs of data back and forth is something people want in their homes," he said. "We have a lot of high tech people who work from home, and they are pushing big files back and forth. We have people who want these media capabilities at home." Ingle said the city has no concrete plans in place, though he expects private partners will come forward if Issue 2C passes. "We're taking this one step at a time," he said. Katie Fleming Dahl, associate director of Colorado Common Cause and a member of the Yes on 2C steering committee, said her organization sees Internet service as a utility to which people have a right and an important tool for participation in the democratic process. Common Cause is a liberal advocacy group that focuses on government transparency. The organization has made equitable internet access and net neutrality among its key issues. Net neutrality means that all data on the Internet should be treated equally. For example, a telecommunications company could not set up a competitor service to Netflix and deliberately slow down Netflix content. Community groups organizing around political causes would have the same ability to move data as private companies. "We think Inernet is a utility, and we think it is critical to participate in democracy," Dahl said. "We think everyone should have high-speed access, and we think it should be the highest speeds at the lowest cost. We don't care who is providing it as long as it is there. It could be public, private or a public-private partnership." The Internet 'needs to be a utility' Rick Stevens, associate professor of media studies at CU's College of Media, Communication and Information, said Issue 2C touches on an ongoing debate about Internet service. "The central question goes back to the 1990s and is over whether the Internet is infrastructure or a service and whether it's better managed by the public or private sector," he said. The Internet was developed within the Department of Defense with taxpayer dollars, but the government needed the help of the private sector to expand the network into homes and businesses. The idea of the Internet as an "information superhighway" speaks to a vision of the Internet as part of the public infrastructure, but in the last decade, the more dominant view, pushed by the telecommunications companies, has been that the Internet is a service like cable television that people can pay for according to their wants and needs. Telecommunications companies are developing capabilities of a gigabyte and beyond in some areas, but Stevens said that infrastructure is focused on the business districts of the largest cities, where there is a density of demand that justifies that investment. That level of service is much farther away in smaller cities. "If we are indeed to be an information economy and information society, the Internet needs to be a utility, like electricity is a utility or water is a utility," Stevens said. "And that's the ideological debate. Is it a utility or is it a consumable service that should be paid for by the individual? The view seems to be: If telecomms would do it, then fine, but they're not." Contact Camera Staff Writer Erica Meltzer at 303-473-1355 or [email protected] ___ (c)2014 the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) Visit the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) at www.dailycamera.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |