Sens Heinrich, Heller Introduce Bipartisan Legislation To Increase High-Speed Internet Access In Indian Country | Benton Foundation

Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, and Dean Heller (R-NV) introduced the Tribal Connect Act of 2017 to improve broadband connectivity in Indian Country. The bill would increase access to the Federal Communications Commission's schools and libraries universal service support program, known as E-rate, that provides discounts to assist public schools and libraries obtain high-speed internet access and telecommunications at affordable rates.

Sens Heinrich, Heller Introduce Bipartisan Legislation To Increase High-Speed Internet Access In Indian Country | Benton Foundation

This is misguided policy that emulates the market segmentation strategy employed by incumbent telephone and cable companies that produced the very access disparities prompting this bill. Instead of targeting certain areas, buildings or ethnic groups, American telecommunications policy should be to construct fiber to the premise telecom infrastructure serving all -- and not just some -- premises.

As feds reclassify Internet as information service, will state and local governments finance fiber telecom infrastructure to deliver it?

With Net Neutrality Vote Looming, Cities Look to Publicly Owned Internet Options: (TNS) — It's going to cost somewhere between $70 million and $140 million, officials estimate, to build out the underground fiber-to-the-premises network that Boulder needs to make communitywide broadband a reality. The question for the City Council has never been whether this pursuit is worthwhile, as voters and elected leaders clearly agree on the value of open-access, affordable, high-speed Internet — the introduction of which would put pressure on the incumbent Comcast-CenturyLink duopoly to lower their prices and offer higher speeds. Rather, the question is: Who is going to pay for this buildout? And, for much of the past year, based on advice of a consultant, Boulder has paid $186,000 to date, the most likely answer seemed to be that the city would partner with an outside provider willing to pay for the buildout.

The economic question here is will households and businesses be willing to pay what they now pay for landline Internet access in the form of a tax or utility fee? This question now takes on greater significance as the federal government prepares to reclassify Internet service as an information rather than telecommunications service. That would leave building the fiber telecom infrastructure to deliver those information services to states and localities.

A related question is whether this hands off federal regulatory policy will prompt states to repeal existing statutes restricting the construction of telecommunications infrastructure owned by local governments? It would be difficult for states to justify maintaining these restrictions if the federal government doesn't consider Internet service as a telecommunications utility.

Legacy incumbent telcos, cablecos not entitled to state sanctioned monopoly without FCC enforcement of Title II universal service requirement

Colorado Localities Vote for Broadband, but Must Get Creative to Actually Deploy It: “Cities don’t do this because they want to compete with the incumbent — they do it because the incumbent refuses to,” said Tom Roiniotis, general manager of Longmont Power & Communications, which runs the network.

Why the refusal? One big incumbent legacy telco explains: 

Mark Soltes, CenturyLink’s assistant vice president in Colorado for public policy and government affairs, said the gaps in service across the state are due to rugged landscapes and far-flung population centers. “You’re looking at deployment in some places where there’s no payback,” he said.

That's the economic reality and there's nothing unreasonable in CenturyLink's justification. It owes its investors a profitable return. But if a public sector entity steps into the gap where the numbers don't pencil for CenturyLink or other legacy incumbent, that's hardly market competition. In an open market, competitors compete for market share and profitable business. That's not the case when a public sector entity provides an essential telecommunications utility that's not being provided a private sector player because there's not a sufficient business case to do so. It's simply serving the need where the private sector cannot.

Nor do incumbent telcos and cablecos have a right to a state sanctioned monopoly. Particularly when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is not enforcing the universal service and anti-redlining requirements of its current Open Internet regulations based on Title II of the Communications Act and is poised to repeal those rules later this month. If the FCC did enforce the rule, then the incumbents would have a far stronger and reasonable position. At present, they do not.