While SBC is seeking to block municipalities from building and owning broadband networks, and cable operators campaign against the government usurping of what they believe is a private sector activity, Verizon is surprisingly warm to the idea of some municipal broadband.
Speaking at a webinar hosted by USTelecom, the trade association representing the phone industry, Link Hoewing, Asst. VP for Internet Tech and Business Policy at Verizon said “We will not support a ban by states [on municipal broadband].” Parting company with his fellow telcos and cable operators, Hoewing said that there are circumstances where the market doesn’t work and municipal broadband could be warranted.
But the risk is to ensure that muni-broadband doesn’t occur in a way that jeopardizes taxpayers. “Where it [the market] doesn’t work, we think local governments could issue bonds without engaging tax resources,” Hoewing said.
Joey Durel, City-Parish President of Lafayette, LA said he “begged the private sector people” to build a fiber system in Lafayette before setting out to construct a municipal system. The muni-fiber build was put to a vote earlier this year and was approved by the voters 62% to 38%.
Steve Proper, Franchising and Government Affairs executive at Comcast in Utah said that for cable operators, city-backed “operations put us in a precarious position of competing with the same people who are regulating us.”
The only solution to the scattershot approach to muni-broadband is federal oversight, according to Charlie Moses, Executive Director, Ohio Telecom Assoication and Bobby Hillert, Senior Legislative Assistant for Represenative Pete Sessions (R-TX). Sessions introduced a bill in May, H.R. 2726 or the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, which would allowing the federal government to bar municipal broadband systems in many circumstances.
Cynthia Brumfield at 5:53 PM|Comments(0)
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