Connecticut Officials See Public Role in Broadband Expansion
Getting fast broadband for residents is worth the fight against incumbent industry over municipal broadband, said Connecticut mayors and state legislators Thursday. Officials at a Connecticut State Broadband Office and Next Century Cities forum livestreamed from Hartford dared incoming Gov. Ned Lamont (D) to focus on future gain instead of preserving the status quo. Tuesday’s election brought the state a Democratic trifecta (see 1811070043). Local governments and the state consumer counsel are suing the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority for agreeing with ISPs “municipal gain” space on poles may not be used for muni broadband (see 1811010036).
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Lamont must decide "if it's appropriate to kowtow to businesses when the infrastructure of our state has to be developed," said New Haven Mayor Toni Harp (D). Lamont understands the broadband industry well and wants to keep tech companies in Connecticut, said state Sen. Beth Bye (D), also re-elected. Lamont listens and has vision, she said. Lamont’s background at Campus Televideo bringing cable TV to college campuses shows he understands the importance of building a future workforce, said Stamford Mayor David Martin (D).
State Rep. Josh Elliott (D) has been “surprised by the amount of pushback” to seeking gigabit broadband, including resistance from ISPs, unions and government officials. “We should be finding a way to work on this project together,” said the lawmaker, re-elected for a second term.
That politics may be “stopping the very infrastructure … needed to advance our state” is “very disturbing,” said Mayor Marcia Leclerc (D). East Hartford last year signed an agreement with SiFi Networks to build a buried fiber network. She expects "some political pushback" from the current providers of broadband: "But I don't work for them. I work for the residents of our community.”
“We've got to allow for competition,” and municipalities “are a big part of that,” said Bye, who wrote the 2013 law saying municipal-gain space may be used “for any purpose” and disagrees with PURA’s restrictive ruling. Broadband was developed as a private service and it’s challenging to transform it into public-private, she said. Water services started privately, too, said Harp, “but when we recognized it was something that was for the common good, we made it a utility that was accessible to everyone.”
Economic success depends on connectivity, but it’s complicated, cautioned Martin. Technology changes rapidly and governments are bad at predicting investment risk, he said. Numerous cities made investment in recent decades that turned out to be “dollar sinkholes,” he said. “I’m struggling with how to make this work.”
The muni-gain case probably won’t be decided until 2020 or 2021, said Office of Consumer Counsel Principal Attorney Joseph Rosenthal. Connecticut Superior Court could rule this spring, but that probably will be appealed to the state Supreme Court, which may not decide until 2020, he said. Remanding the case to PURA could take more time, he said.
The U.S. needs a new national broadband plan, said Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy fellow Gigi Sohn. The FCC plan developed by Blair Levin is more than 8 years old and "needs a bit of refreshing,” she said: “That plan must come with a commitment of federal resources adequate to fund both the infrastructure needed to serve communities without broadband and the digital inclusion programs to make sure that these networks are utilized.” The Connect America Fund isn't enough, she said: “I’m talking about real money from the Treasury.”
Federal legislation to pre-empt state bans on municipal broadband has a chance in the new Congress, said Sohn. "I'm actually somewhat hopeful that with the Democratic House and a bunch of rural Republican senators that are not pleased with the choices their citizens have, and with the fact that this was a major election issue, that perhaps … we could get legislation that pre-empts the state laws" restricting muni broadband, she said.