Rural broadband bills fail to advance in Colorado

In Jan, Gov John Hickenlooper (D-CO) announced the creation of a broadband office that he said would move the state from 70 percent to 80 percent coverage by the end of 2018 and to 100 percent by 2020. He'll likely have to do it with little to no help from the General Assembly.

In the past two weeks, efforts by Democratic senators to find ways to expand broadband coverage to mostly rural areas have fallen by the wayside, lacking support in the Republican-controlled Senate. The first bill would have lifted a restriction on local governments (cities, towns and counties) that want to offer cable television, telecommunications service, or high-speed Internet access. State law currently requires those local governments to seek voter approval before creating their own local broadband access. That bill died on a 4-3 vote in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee. The second bill, also killed by the business committee, would have required the Public Utilities Commission to move a little faster on implementing parts of the state's 2014 broadband reform law. That included coming up with a definition of effective competition; once that's done, the PUC would be expected to transfer more dollars from a state account that is funded by fees, paid for by telecommunications companies, based on landline services. The fund, known as the "High Cost Support Mechanism," has seen revenues decline in the last few years as people move away from having landlines.