Congress steps up on broadband access

Dave Hughes

Published November 10, 2007 at midnight

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Well hurrah! Even a Democratic-dominated Congress is smarter than the Colorado legislature, which has given lip service to the importance of the Internet for all Coloradans but has toadied only to monopolistic-minded companies like Qwest and Comcast.

Both houses of Congress just passed legislation, the Community Broadband Act of 2007 (S. 1853), which allows municipalities to help fill the void in broadband access and enhance public safety development while bringing broadband services to their residents. That act would specifically set forth that no state or local regulation or requirement can prevent a "public" provider from offering broadband services.

Several years ago, Qwest intensely lobbied Colorado legislators of both parties to pass a law making it virtually impossible for Colorado municipalities to offer Internet service themselves, even where commercial telecommunications companies, like dominant Qwest, would not - especially hurtful to rural Colorado towns.

I testified against that bill in Denver. I knew that Qwest's motives were not to "let the marketplace solve connectivity problems except where private enterprise fails" but to let Qwest dictate when and where and at what cost they would offer services, and block elected town officials from providing their own services, wired or wireless, for their constituents.

Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, also testified against Qwest's Colorado bill. When a Qwest representative said at the hearings, "We will offer Internet to any Colorado town who asks for it," Merrifield piped up, saying, "You took eight years to extend DSL to Manitou Springs even when the city council asked you repeatedly for your broadband years before."

Qwest, and too many clueless lawmakers, along with "conservative" media editors, believe only in the "trickle down" private enterprise theory for all communications. They believe the myth that there is always a private enterprise competitor ready to fill every public need, competitively.

Of course, they don't believe that for services like roads, highways, power and water - they consider them "essential" infrastructure needs for the population.

But broadband Internet has already become an "essential," not optional, communications service for Americans - for public safety, medical services, small and big business, government services, and above all education for all 55 million K-12 schoolchildren.

America is already far behind other countries, even though we invented the Internet. But hurrah! Congress is trying to save Colorado for the information future even if its own lawmakers are not.

Dave Hughes is a resident of Colorado Springs.

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