A state law passed 10 years ago is interfering with efforts by area towns to improve broadband internet for residents and businesses.
Bayfield town trustees discussed the issue Tuesday night and approved wording for any lease of some town-owned fiber optic capacity to one or more private providers. Ignacio town trustees discussed the issue on July 1, and Durango city councilors also discussed it recently, according to the Durango Herald.
In his staff report, Bayfield Town Manager Chris La May wrote, "In general, SB 152 prohibits local governments from directly or indirectly providing cable television service, telecmmunications service, or advanced service. Advanced service is defined as high speed internet access capability in excess of 256K per second both upstream and downstream."
SB 152 allows a local government to lease excess capacity on its network to a private provider if the amount leased is "insubstantial" compared to 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 told trustees, "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." The Colorado Municipaal League is advising that getting voter approval to opt out is a lot more likely than getting the legislature to revise or rescind SB 152, he said.
Quite a few other towns and counties have received voter approval to opt out, and Durango and La Plata County are likely to seek approval in November, La May said.
Trustees agreed to move forward on this, with an election in November. Trustee Michelle Nelson wanted the voter question to say up front that it would not raise taxes.
"We are re-establishing the right that we had before 2005," La May said. "It (opting out) removes some of the barriers to the competetive environment, kind of breaks up the monopoly" held by Century Link.
Trustee Ed Morlan said, "Century Tel sat in a room and threatened to sue us."
Mayor Rick Smith added, "They are the ones that stand to lose the most by letting other providers come in. They could say it's not insubstantial. They (legislators) set the threshhold really low with 256K. That's copper wire. They (Century Link) can say you were served. Most people want more than that. I don't want to deal with Century Link. I want staff to be able to work with the competition. I believe in competition."
La May said other local providers might still worry that the town would provide direct service to homes and businesses.
Morlan said one of the assumptions of the SCAN (Southwest Colorado Access Network) project was to build the infrastructure so private companies wouldn't have to do it. The Southwest Colorado Council of Governments got a $3 million state grant several years ago and passed money along to participating towns, including Bayfield, to build fiber optic loops to serve government buildings, with extra fiber to lease to private internet service providers that would serve businesses and residents.
At their June 23 meeting, trustees debated an agreement for the Council of Governments to be the billing and payment collection agent for leases to private prviders. The lease wording approved Tuesday night has the town doing those functions for itself.
In Ignacio on July 1, town planner Dan Naiman said he was contacted by County Manager Joe Kerby about SB 152. "Apparently it's not very conducive to local control," Naiman said. "The county, Durango, Bayfield, all want to opt out, put something on the ballot to opt out."
Mark Garcia, current interim town manager for Silverton and a prospective interim manager for Ignacio, said Silverton and San Juan County will have opt out elections. "Most communities that were part of the SCAN project are looking at opting out. The laws are leaning more to telecom companies. This is for the community to have dark fiber and run it yourself. If it's your system, you can use it for economic development. In Silverton, we are looking at creating a free wifi for everybody" with limited bandwidth.
Ignacio trustees did not discuss whether to hold an opt out vote.
