At NATOA, Cities Eye Muni Broadband as ‘Utility’ for Residents

New Orleans is mulling how it may legally deploy municipal fiber under competitive restrictions, said city Chief Information Officer Kimberly LaGrue Monday at NATOA’s virtual conference. State rules prevent cities from creating fiber broadband networks, LaGrue said: “We’re looking for legal opinions.” To ease potential ISP concerns, the city plans to make “some offers" for "partnerships that they could live with,” she said. “We don’t want to offer service to residents.” Municipal fiber is key to equitably distributing internet “as a utility to our residents,” said the CIO. The project recently got city council OK; the locality next will design fiber rings and seek bond funding, she said. Dublin, Ohio, has a fiber network for government, public safety and businesses, but the city isn’t selling to residents, said CIO Doug McCullough, although “eventually, we are going to have to become a service provider if we want to see broadband as a utility.” Boston Broadband and Cable Director Mike Lynch said broadband “should have been a utility back in 1996,” but “25 years later, we can’t put the cork back in the bottle.” That creates a “dilemma” for local governments seeking to address digital equity, he said. “I don’t think we can go back and make it a utility. On the other hand, we have to find the dollars to make it available.” Boston’s Wicked Free Wi-Fi uses the city’s network that’s “supposed to be for municipal use only,” so the municipality is careful to limit hot spots to parks, government buildings and business districts, Lynch said. “We do not try to make it available in home. We are not seeking to compete with broadband providers who gave us this fiber under the caveat that we would not compete with them.” NATOA plans to return its conference to Denver in 2022, this year’s original location before it went virtual due to COVID-19, Executive Director Tonya Rideout said. “What about 2021?” Rideout asked. “Well, the truth is we don’t know.” Depending on the pandemic and restoration of members’ travel and training budgets, next year’s conference could be virtual, in-person or a hybrid, she said.