Legislators heard testimony Thursday from local governments and others who want $20 million in state funds for a pilot program to build out high-speed Internet infrastructure.
Senate Bill 331 would require several state agencies to work together to issue a request for proposals from cities and towns, whether individually or in groups. Those applicants could also partner with Internet service providers, telephone companies and other entities.
The winning bidder(s) would receive a state grant to develop high-speed infrastructure – meaning one gigabit or faster – “where access to high-speed Internet service does not exist or is severely limited,” according to the bill. Localities would be required to match the grants.
Supporting testimony was submitted by Farmington and Westport representatives, as well as the Capitol Region Council of Governments, the League of Women Voters of Connecticut and North West Connect, which supports universal fiber-optic communications in rural Litchfield County.
As of Friday morning, the legislature’s website didn’t show any written testimony on the bill from the telecommunications industry. But the industry, represented by the New England Cable & Telecommunications Association (NECTA) has fiercely opposed what it views as the state’s encroachment into the market, including the CT Gig Project, which has organized interested towns and sought input from telecom providers.
NECTA argues that Connecticut has some of the fastest Internet speeds in the country, pointing to studies by the Federal Communications Commission and others, and that the state is ill-equipped to step into a market where technology is fast changing.
Meanwhile, Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz argues that high speeds are either too expensive or not widely enough available.
The pilot program faces an uphill climb. Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed eliminating funding for OCC’s Broadband Office, which recently issued a controversial study about Connecticut’s high-speed infrastructure.
Read more
