Kansas Seen 'Not Ripe' for 2015 Municipal Broadband Restriction Bill After Chanute Go-Ahead
The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) voted unanimously Tuesday to allow the city of Chanute to issue revenue bonds for its planned expansion of its municipal broadband network, affirming a KCC staff recommendation that said the expansion wouldn’t duplicate existing private sector broadband services (see 1412090041). The KCC’s approval of the Chanute expansion caps a year in which the city also opposed the controversial Municipal Communications Network and Private Telecommunications Investment Safeguards Act (SB-304), which would have restricted municipal broadband deployments. The state Senate Commerce Committee scuttled SB-304 in February amid opposition from Chanute, Google and others (see report in the Feb. 4 issue). The Kansas Legislature appears unlikely to reconsider municipal broadband restrictions during its next session, but 2015 could prove active for such legislation elsewhere, industry observers told us.
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The Kansas Cable Telecommunications Association (KCTA), which submitted SB-304 to the state Senate, “has not had any conversations about revisiting” legislation on municipal broadband restrictions during the 2015 session, President John Federico said. KCTA’s members include Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable. The group’s board expressed no interest in “reintroducing that legislation,” Federico said. That lack of interest was not a response to the outcry over SB-304 when the state Senate considered it earlier this year, he said. KCTA had backed scuttling the bill in order to revise its scope to make it less restrictive. Kansas Senate Commerce Chairwoman Julia Lynn, a Republican, told us in an email that she had “not seen any legislation nor have I heard a similar bill relating to governmental competition with private industry being pursued for introduction.”
“It just doesn’t seem like Kansas is very ripe” for introducing municipal broadband restrictions, Next Century Cities Policy Director Christopher Mitchell said, citing the KCC’s approval of the Chanute network expansion plan and the SB-304 controversy. Even if legislation wouldn’t stop Google Fiber from expanding in metropolitan Kansas City, “I’d expect Google and other big companies would lobby against it,” Mitchell said. “Google wants to see Chanute build out its network.”
The Chanute City Commission could vote as soon as Monday to affirm the KCC’s decision, effectively directing the city to begin issuing the revenue bonds, said Sega utility planning and technology strategist Mikel Kline, who has been consulting for Chanute’s network expansion project. The city plans to begin providing expanded service on its network by the late spring or early summer, Kline said. Chanute plans to use a combination of its own workers and additional contractors to expand its network, with final buildout projected to occur in Q1 2016, he said. The expansion will allow Chanute to offer municipal broadband to residential and additional business customers. Chanute’s existing network only serves government and community buildings, plus some local businesses.
Mitchell said Kansas will remain on his watch list for possible legislation in 2015 based on persisting speculation about reintroduction of a bill like SB-304, but said he also has concerns about legislation moving in Georgia and Maine. Georgia legislators voted down bills on municipal broadband restrictions in 2012 and 2013 (see report in the March 11, 2013, issue), which makes the state a prime target for future legislative efforts, Mitchell said. Maine “hasn’t had this kind of fight before,” but FairPoint Communications has become increasingly frustrated over competition, Mitchell said. “I’d expect them to do something,” he said. FairPoint didn’t immediately comment.
Madery Bridge Associates Managing Director Bartlett Cleland said he “wouldn’t be surprised to see more efforts to have statewide limitations” in 2015. “There are a lot of legislators who think that a North Carolina-like model is not bad, that there are certainly guidelines for what a municipality needs to do if it’s going to get into the provision of broadband,” said Cleland, who is also co-chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Communications and Technology Task Force. “I think there are probably a few states that are going to consider outright bans, from what I’ve heard.”
Tennessee could be one state where further restrictions are up for debate in 2015 “given that they have been frustrated” by the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga’s petition to the FCC to pre-empt the state’s existing municipal broadband restrictions, Cleland said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see some group of state legislators push back.” Tennessee also appears likely to consider legislation in 2015 to lift its existing municipal broadband restrictions (see report in the Sept. 10 issue).