Broadband and the city

Marguerite Reardon CNET News

Published: 16 Apr 2004 10:35 BST

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What does this mean for the future of municipally owned networks? Is it the beginning of the end?
Only a handful of states currently have barriers to municipal entry, and we hope that other states will take to heart the Federal Communications Commission's admonition that such barriers are unwise, unnecessary to achieve any legitimate state interest, and contrary to the purposes of the Telecommunications Act. Some states have already reversed or relaxed barriers enacted in the past, and we hope that this trend will continue as well.

We also hope that state legislators everywhere will realise that, without the involvement of local governments, our nation cannot achieve our national goal of rapid deployment of truly advanced and affordable telecommunications services and capabilities to all Americans, including those in rural and high-cost areas.

But you've got to be very disappointed by the outcome.
A victory in the Missouri case would have been helpful, but (the loss) is by no means the end of the road. We're basically right back where we started. A decision in our favour would have made it illegal for states to limit municipally owned networks. But even without the benefit of a federal law, we are still finding success in many areas of the country, based on the merits of these networks.

There's been a lot of activity going on around the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) project. How is that situation shaping up?
Qwest tried to kill the UTOPIA Project, but it did not succeed. The law that is currently on the governor's desk would not deal with the cities that were originally part of UTOPIA. It would essentially impose a three-year moratorium on other cities wanting to join UTOPIA or projects like UTOPIA.

Would you say that the telephone companies and the cable companies have been successful in keeping many municipalities from building new networks or have they just slowed the process?
I would say that they have been successful in some places and they have not been successful in others. There are only a relatively small number of states that have restrictions. But where those constraints exist, we have quite a lot of friction and heat. In places where there are not constraints, there have been a number of projects that have moved forward and been successful.

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