Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper Signs Broadband Bills
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed legislation Monday updating the state broadband support program. SB-2 would speed transition to broadband from voice support, while HB-1099 would condition an incumbent’s right of first refusal under the program upon matching the speed…
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and price proposed by a new entrant. The Colorado Broadband Office supports SB-2, emailed Chief Operating Officer Brian Shepherd. Starting 2019, it “dramatically accelerates” how much money is transitioned to the rural broadband program, completing that migration in 2023, he said. While supporting rural broadband deployment, CenturyLink raised concerns that SB-2 will rush the transition. “We advocated for a plan to transfer funding from the High-Cost Support Mechanism at a reasonable 20 percent per year while the broadband board begins the process of granting funds for broadband applicants over the next five years,” a CenturyLink spokeswoman said. “We are disappointed with SB-2’s accelerated step-down amendment, as it drastically increases the initial transfer percentage to 60 percent. This will have an impact on the high-cost rural consumers who depend on receiving voice services at comparable rates to those in larger metropolitan areas.” Ken Fellman, a Colorado telecom attorney for local governments, supported SB-2 and HB-1099. The first bill “puts a lot more money into the broadband fund a lot quicker than some of the carriers would have wanted, and that’s a good thing,” he said. Localities next year will seek more changes to the fund, including getting more local officials on the fund’s board and opening the fund up to municipal broadband projects, Fellman said.