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Telecom override

County and its municipalities should be allowed to invest in infrastructure

In 2005, the Colorado Legislature passed a measure that ostensibly aimed to ensure that the regulatory environment governing telecommunications infrastructure was consistent across Colorado’s 64 counties and 270 municipalities. What SB 152 really did, though, was prohibit county and local governments from investing in cable, fiber optic or other telecommunication infrastructure and services, leaving that option for the private sector.

The trouble with the measure – aside from its blatant industry protectionism – is that in many rural communities, that private sector investment never arrived to install the needed infrastructure, and when cities and counties wanted to facilitate telecommunications development, they could not. La Plata County voters, as well as those in the towns of Bayfield, Ignacio, and the city of Durango can fix this illogical scenario on Nov. 5 – and should do so.

In a countywide ballot initiative, Question 1B – as well as individual municipal questions for Durango, 2C; Ignacio, 2A; and Bayfield, 2E, voters will be asked to allow the county and its municipalities to opt out of the SB 152 restrictions. In doing so, these governmental entities will be able to facilitate telecommunications access to residents and businesses throughout the county. This primarily occurs during infrastructure improvement projects – street improvements, or installing fiber optics to connect public facilities throughout the region. Under SB 152, a city or county could not lease bandwidth on the newly installed infrastructure to cable, internet or phone providers, meaning any company that wanted to expand service in the region would have to install its own lines. Such was the case when the city of Durango improved its downtown sidewalks: Crews installed a conduit with fiber optic lines that could not be leased to service providers, even though there was ample bandwidth to go around. That burdensome level of redundancy unnecessarily inhibits expanded bandwidth – particularly in rural communities where service is less robust than in metropolitan areas.

By letting La Plata County and its cities and towns opt out of SB 152’s prohibitions on public-private telecommunications partnerships, voters would increase efficiency in infrastructure projects and, in the aggregate over the long term, speed the arrival of increased bandwidth in the region. Vote yes on La Plata County ballot question 1B, city of Durango ballot question 2C, town of Ignacio ballot question 2A and town of Bayfield ballot question 2E.



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