NH legislators in 2019 passed a law allowing municipalities to fund broadband networks through bond offerings – and that action already is spurring broadband deployment in sparsely populated areas of the state. One of the biggest beneficiaries of this is Consolidated Communications. Consolidated is already offering service on a new network in Chesterfield (NH) that was paid for, in part, by Consolidated and, in part, by the city. And as Consolidated Vice President of Consumer Products Rob Koester said, the company expects to build more broadband networks through public-private broadband partnerships in the state in 2020. Public-private broadband partnerships are “a very big deal” for Consolidated, Koester said .“We do rural broadband. That’s what we, in large part, do.” The NH law, which Koester calls “transformational,” requires networks funded through municipal bonds to support speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream – although the ones Consolidated is building will support higher-speed service. Another requirement: The network must serve an area where service at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps was not already available.

“What we brought to the table was the end user infrastructure fee that will be applied to any fiber connection until the bond is paid off,” Koester explains. This approach enabled Chesterfield to issue the bonds without a tax increase and without using any money from the general fund. This approach also has virtually eliminated potential opposition from residents who might not be interested in broadband and therefore wouldn’t want to help pay for the deployment. The city will own the network until the bond is paid off, at which point ownership will transfer to Consolidated. Until then, “we have an IRU [indefeasible right of use] to operate [the network], just as we would any other network we constructed,” Koester explained. The bonds will cover most of the costs of the aggregation infrastructure and Consolidated is covering costs from the pole to the home, along with customer premises equipment and labor.

Access to reliable, affordable broadband is critical in today’s economy, however, hundreds of Idaho communities have been left behind. Our state ranks 43rd for connectivity and 46th for speed. Too many Idahoans lack high-speed Internet service and those that have it pay too much because of weak competition. In May, Governor Little took an important first step, convening a Task Force to study how we improve Idaho’s broadband infrastructure. The Task Force determined that rural Idahoans should be given priority. Folks in communities like Orofino, Grangeville, McCall, Weiser, Challis, Rupert or Malad City have few options. But these communities are precisely the ones that benefit the most from high-quality broadband. The reality is that building broadband infrastructure in low-density areas is expensive. There is no getting around the physics. I would argue that this is not a technology issue but a business and regulatory one. Fortunately, we have the two models that will give us the upper hand: our irrigation infrastructure and our cousins in North Dakota.

Title 43 of the Idaho Code governs the creation and management of non-profit irrigation districts. We have had 100 years to fine-tune this model and it works. The task ahead of us is to update existing regulations for Internet Protocol packets instead of gallons of water. In North dakota, when CenturyLink began selling off unprofitable rural telephone lines, local independent and cooperative phone companies purchased these exchanges. 

There is bipartisan agreement that the broadband status quo is failing Idahoans. As we see in the city of Ammon’s hugely successful fiber broadband system, communities thrive when citizens take charge of essential broadband infrastructure. Let us work together and put the same focus into our broadband infrastructure that we put into our irrigation infrastructure and create the foundation for a $12 billion digital economy that provides opportunity for urban and rural Idahoans alike.

[Todd Achilles is the CEO of Edge Networks.He serves on the advisory board of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, and lectures in public policy with a focus on competition and technology.]

T-Mobile plans to light up its nationwide 5G on Dec 6, laying a foundation for the New T-Mobile’s massive network that will have the capacity to deliver breakthrough connectivity initiatives to millions if the T-Mobile/Sprint merger closes in 2020.

1. Introduces Connecting Heroes Initiative, a 10-year commitment for free 5G access to every first responder at every public and non-profit state and local police, fire and EMS agency across the entire country
2. Unveils Project 10Million, a $10 billion commitment built to eradicate the homework gap for millions of children, giving free service to 10 million households
3. Announces T-Mobile Connect, a groundbreaking prepaid solution for everyone at half the price of the lowest offer today – for just $15 per month.

The T-Mobile/Sprint merger already has approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. The remaining hurdle is a lawsuit filed by attorneys general from multiple states, which is expected to come to trial in Dec.

We don’t need to rank in importance the issues of special interest money, ludicrous redistricting, and big media.  They are each part of a linked democratic challenge.  There can be no real democracy without curbing big money.  There can be no real democracy without making Congressional districts representative of the areas they encompass.  There can be no real democracy without an electorate informed by media that digs for the facts citizens need to help chart the future of our country.   Bring these three abuses under control and democracy can flourish again.  Only We the People can make it happen.  It’s no spectator sport; it is a democratic imperative—for each and every one of us.

[Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009. In 2012, Copps joined Common Cause to lead its Media and Democracy Reform Initiative.]