[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Community Broadband

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Young, Mary

Dear Colleagues, IT staff and consultants,


Having had the benefit of sleep and more time to reflect, here are some of my additional thoughts on how we move forward with broadband access.


The biggest questions should be:

-What is the highest and best use of our public asset (the 100 miles of fiber?)

-Who is best served by how we move forward?

-How does the public benefit from how we move forward?

-Does it provide equal access for all?


I am not convinced that a wholly private interest will uphold what we embarked on: community broadband. Private investment will only take care of private investment, public interest is last on their list, if at all.

Let's think about the broader impacts of a private investment move, such as what impacts will it have on small businesses? How will it impact commercial lease rates? Will it further displace the mom and pop businesses that we profess to love? Do other factors cancel out whatever benefits are created? What impact will this move have on housing? Will it further exacerbate the issue? Will they leave us high and dry when they are done milking the city?

I was not satisfied with the answer regarding the cost "savings." The expectation that what we would see is not a drop in price but only an increase in speed for the same price is unsatisfactory as it only redefines the digital divide: those with the ultra-high speed and those with the "other" cheaper service that the private company has been forced to provide. Everyone should be on an equal playing field. In the Daily Camera former Erie trustee, Jonathan Hager, who spent years managing fiber networks, was quoted as saying "Internet access has become so ubiquitous and necessary that it could be seen as just another municipally provided utility, such as water and electrical service." Longmont, with its municipal utility, provides access to its 1 gigabit service to everyone for $49.95/month.

Responding to the the whims of the market because we want to "strike while the iron is hot," may only burn us.

I understand that what staff was looking for last night was only direction on whether or not to explore the ideas of private or public/private approaches. That is fine. But, let's not forget that our priorities are to serve the community at large and to take the long view way out into the future with the big picture in mind. When the ballot measure passed by 84%, I don't think the public was envisioning being ruled by three corporations instead of only two.

Best,


Mary Dolores Young
Mayor Pro Tem
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

"All ethics . . . rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts . . ." - Aldo Leopold