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Committee backs bill to apply telecom rules to municipal broadband; cities and private providers split
Summary
Senate Bill 165 would subject municipal broadband projects to the same reporting, separation and voter-approval rules that apply to municipal cable and telecom services. The committee voted to favorably recommend the bill after testimony from city managers, municipal network operators and private-sector groups.
Senator Lincoln Fillmore told the Revenue and Taxation Committee that Senate Bill 165 modernizes the Municipal Cable, Television and Communications Services Act to explicitly include broadband, so municipalities that provide broadband must meet transparency and competition safeguards similar to those that apply to cable and telecommunications providers.
The bill would require municipalities proposing broadband service to conduct feasibility studies, benchmark annual reports against those studies, maintain separation between their regulatory role and their provider role, treat private providers nondiscriminatorily in access to municipal equipment, and obtain voter approval before pledging municipal debt to back broadband projects.
Supporters included the Utah Taxpayers Association, which said the bill creates accountability and helps taxpayers judge fiscal impact, and several municipal officials who described municipal broadband as a local response where private investment did not arrive. Gary Hill, city manager of Bountiful, said a multi-year local process led that city to become a wholesaler that allows multiple ISPs to compete on an open network and argued municipal projects have produced lower prices and more choices for residents.
Opponents and some local-government groups raised concerns about new voter-approval requirements for revenue bonds. Jared Tini of the League of Cities and Towns said his organization voted to oppose the bill in their legislative-policy committee because of the required voter approval for revenue bonds; he asked to continue working with the sponsor. Several municipal speakers said the voter-approval requirement would be a first-in-state constraint that could hamper essential infrastructure financing and could shift risk to general fund voters.
Roger Timmerman of Utopia Fiber, representing a large network of municipal fiber projects, said municipal networks typically operate on an open-access model that enables private ISPs and increases competition. He told the committee: “these networks build fiber on an open-access basis that the private companies then use,” and added that added procedural burdens on municipalities could impede the public infrastructure that supports private providers.
After extended public comment, the committee moved and passed a motion to favorably recommend SB 165; members voted to send the bill to the Senate floor with the sponsor's recommendation. Members asked the sponsor to continue discussions with stakeholders about specific language, and the sponsor indicated he had already met with some representatives.
