A state law passed 10 years ago is interfering with efforts by towns in Southwest Colorado to improve broadband Internet for residents and businesses.
Bayfield town trustees discussed the issue Tuesday night, and they approved wording for any lease of town-owned fiber-optic capacity to one or more private providers. Ignacio town trustees discussed the issue July 1, and Durango city councilors also discussed it recently.
In his staff report, Bayfield Town Manager Chris La May wrote, “In general, (Senate Bill) 152 prohibits local governments from directly or indirectly providing cable television service, telecommunications service, or advanced service. Advanced service is defined as high-speed Internet-access capability in excess of 256K per second both upstream and downstream.”
Colorado SB 152 allows a local government to lease excess capacity on its network to a private provider if the amount leased is “insubstantial” compared with the government use of the network, but the law doesn’t define what qualifies as insubstantial, La May said. It also allows a local government to provide services with voter approval.
La May said, “We now have fiber in the ground that we would like to lease. We’re saying it’s an insubstantial amount (one strand out of 72). But as we lease more, we’d like to know we aren’t in violation of SB 152.”
