Lafayette win could have broad impact

More than 18 months after citizens of Lafayette, La., voted in favor of a municipally owned fiber-to-the-home network, the Louisiana State Supreme Court has reversed a court challenge to that network, paving the way for construction of the network. That decision is being hailed by municipal network advocates as a crucial victory at a critical time, and the possible impetus for greater cooperation between public and private forces to extend the reach of broadband networks.

“This victory -- and it is a complete victory, it was a unanimous vote by the Louisiana Supreme Court – will certainly send positive spirit around Louisiana, around the U.S. and perhaps even more broadly around the world,” said Jim Baller, the Washington attorney and municipal broadband advocate. “It comes at a very important time, because the debate about where the U.S. sits in the world today and what it needs to move forward to catch up to the leading nations is beginning to gather steam.”

The key issue, Baller said, is that incumbent service providers and public governments need to be working together to bring fiber networks to U.S. businesses and homes to enable residents of even smaller communities to broadband capability needed to compete globally and sustain their economic development.

“The Lafayette decision is very much a piece of that puzzle – the communities that are not going to be served any time soon with the kind of broadband capability that America needs are looking to communities like Lafayette to lead the way,” he said. The city’s almost three-year battle to allow its municipally owned utility service to issue bonds and build an FTTH network was met at every step by resistance from incumbent service providers BellSouth and Cox Communications, Baller said.

The legal battle wound up costing Lafayette $1.5 million in legal fees, in addition to the substantial delay in network construction.

“We don’t have the luxury of time to sit back and quarrel when the U.S. in the broadband area is significantly behind the leading broadband nations of the world,” Baller said. “Given the importance of broadband infrastructure – many things in many areas will pass us by and will be much more difficult to seize – we can’t waste time fighting. I hope this will stimulate the sense of greater cooperation between the public and private sectors that will make much more rapid strides forward possible.”

That cooperation becomes more important, he added, as companies such as AT&T and Verizon face challenges in their own efforts to push fiber deeper into the network. AT&T has been criticized for a network plan that doesn’t take fiber all the way to the home and Verizon has been criticized for the cost of building its FTTH network, Baller said.

“AT&T is not investing in fiber-to-the-home, they don’t have the funds to invest in as much fiber as our country needs,” he commented. “Their particular solution is a method of delivering their services that many question because of its bandwidth limitations, particularly on the upload side that is the real key to economic development. Why shouldn’t an AT&T look to cooperate with communities on the fiber side as well as in the wireless side? It seems to make a lot of sense that we have that kind of cooperation.”

The Louisiana Supreme Court decision, which overturned an appeals court ruling, found that a portion of the lower court’s ruling was based on plaintiff arguments that had not been submitted in the legally approved time frame. More importantly, according to Baller, the court ruled that Lafayette’s 2006 bond ordinance did not violate the Louisiana Local Government Fair Competition Act.

Throughout the long process, Lafayette has received attention and support from around the country and around the world, Baller said.

According to a report in The Daily Advertiser, a Lafayette newspaper, the Lafayette Utility System expects to turn up its first customers in 18 months and to charge about $85 a month for phone, cable and Internet. City officials have also told the paper that they expect the network will enable Lafayette to attract new businesses almost immediately, and that they are likely to face a new round of legal challenges when a legally required audit is conducted a year after the first customers are turned up.