Federal Government Should Protect Municipal Network Rights, LUS Fiber Director Says
Stakeholders centered on super-fast broadband networks defended and debated network models Monday at the Freedom to Connect conference in Silver Spring, Md., placing an emphasis on municipally owned networks and community needs. The gathering’s sponsors include Google Fiber, the Open Technology Institute, the consultants of CTC and the Atlantic Engineering Group, among others. Super-fast broadband networks are vital, executives said, describing projects in Louisiana, Minnesota, the Kansas City area and elsewhere, and the ways these projects have developed, and debating what models work best.
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Federal legislation is required to assure municipalities they can build their own networks without state obstacles preventing them, said Terry Huval, director of the Lafayette (La.) Utilities System. It’s “disappointing” there has been no such federal assurance for communities, he said. LUS Fiber served its first customer in 2009 and is now cash positive, Huval said. But he faces many opponents within Louisiana and from industry. He complained of having to field questions from a think tank member looking for negative data when he should be dealing with his network. Few communities will be brave enough to build their own networks without a federal effort preempting state obstacles, Huval said.
Multiple states have passed laws restricting municipalities’ ability to build their own networks, as opponents cite what they see as unfairness to private providers and financial risks to the communities who invest in such endeavors. “It’s just been this current turn of the screw that has made barriers all the more subject to attention,” said attorney and municipal network advocate Jim Baller, asking people to get involved at the federal and state level in fighting barriers for municipal networks. He described past victories in fighting obstacles. Community networks are “perhaps more challenging than they've ever been,” with cable and wireless competitors out there, Baller added. The Georgia Legislature is considering a high-profile bill looking at such restrictions, which is casting a national spotlight on these controversies (CD Feb 21 p11). FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski earlier this year pushed for a Gigabit City Challenge, calling for a gigabit-speed network in every state.
U.S. communities need to add bandwidth and should do so with fiber and by tapping electric utilities, argued Atlantic Engineering CEO James Salter. He has played a role in multiple fiber networks around the country and joked that he’s seen as “a buffoon in the industry” but defended his methods and the economics of his endeavors. “If we want big bandwidth, we need fiber.” Salter acknowledged struggles in the municipal sphere and slammed the open access model. “The poster child of that disaster is UTOPIA,” he said, referring to the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency cities that have partnered and now face considerable debt (CD Aug 10 p7). Fifteen percent of the U.S. is connected by fiber but it should be 100 percent, Salter said, saying the electric utilities need more incentive to get into the municipal telecom business. He suggested cybersecurity concerns as one motivation for entering the telecom business.
"It’s rather dangerous for me to be here,” said Gary Evans, former CEO of Minnesota’s Hiawatha Broadband Communications, noting he didn’t want any to judge him arrogant about the model of his fiber provider. “I don’t want you to think the HBC model is the only successful one -- it’s not.” The company evolved from an education non-profit, and now more than 40 percent of its stock is owned by non-profits in Winona, Minn., where it’s based. Its business plan has always come down to doing the right thing and it’s “found great partnerships in corporate America where we didn’t expect to find them,” Evans said. HBC never received any government money though it applied for stimulus dollars, he added. “The opportunities are so very, very great.”
The “jury’s out” on what model works best, whether public-private partnerships, municipal or private, said Aaron Deacon, managing director of a group called KC Digital Drive. Google Fiber, the gigabit network now under construction in the Kansas City area, is in its “infancy” and KC Digital Drive is attempting to foster the right conversations around its entry, he said. “We're very much a civic start-up” with an eye toward providing the “sociological framework to really leverage” Google Fiber for the community, he said. The organization has pressed Google with attention to free Wi-Fi networks as well as affordability and consumer concerns, he said. Deacon has discussed best ways to move forward with the people involved in the networks in Lafayette, La., and Chattanooga, Tenn., he added.
"Internet is the king,” Huval said of his Louisiana municipal network. “That’s what we built the system for.” LUS Fiber exceeds the competition in capacity and value and competitors charge 10 to 15 times what it does for the same quality of service, he said. The network is attracting business customers at a faster rate than residential at the moment, he said.