Senator Curt “Take My Check, Pizza Girl” Bramble is working on amending RDA laws in Utah to make sure that funds aren’t spent on any telecommunications projects. This is reportedly a direct reaction to Centerville’s proposed use of RDA funds to build fiber-optic infrastructure within the city, even though the proposal on the table allows any network to use it. Sen. Bramble has a well-deserved reputation for being prickly, so be prepared if you decide to communicate directly with him.
It’s very important that you write, call or speak with your senator or representative to make sure they know how you feel about this change. UTOPIA cities are working to make sure that the language will allow for it so long as it is vendor-neutral, but your voices are much, much louder.
Sen Bramble was on the iProvo review committee that was formed by the city council to beat up on the mayor. In one of the meetings that I attended there was an attempt to bring up the possibility of changing the state law preventing the city from providing services directly. Sen Bramble got a little heated even at the suggestion – saying that there was no need to even suggest such a thing because it was never going to happen. I learned later that he was one of the legislators that championed that state law.
So thank you, Senator Bramble, for protecting the poor incumbent telecommunication companies. I’m sure without your help they would have had to do horrible things like upgrade infrastructure, improve service, and offer competitive prices. It’s a good thing we aren’t like South Korea or Japan or France.
It would be so nice to have a state government that worked with city governments to accomplish their goals with fiber initiatives. Instead we have state legislators that throw up roadblocks to make sure they fail. I guess it’s more important for Quest and Comcast to make their profit targets than it is to improve infrastructure so Utah is the best place for high tech industry and technical innovation.
Also, I wonder, when the federal government starts spending some of that stimulus money on broadband initiatives, would such a state law prevent Utah from participating?
What is wrong with these people.
I guess he needs to be fired since he’s no longer working for the people who hired him.
Jarrod: Utah’s law would actually be a plus for any federal broadband stimulus. The package is likely to preserve the “open access” terminology which means… open wholesale networks like UTOPIA and the original iProvo.
Since we are talking about the federal broadband stimulus, I thought you might find this article interesting about the current debate on the stimulus:
Broadband funding in stimulus plan sparks debate
There is now a boxcar bill, SB205. The link to the bill is http://le.utah.gov/~2009/htmdoc/sbillhtm/sb0205.htm. You’ll be able to track the bill, with that link. Language should be added to it shortly. Keep in mind that this bill does a number of other things that have no relation to telecommunications. The pertinent portion of the bill for telecommunications will be in section 17C-1-409. Stay tuned.
The problem is that Sen Bramble is from my district in Provo. So he pushes through a law that hurts UTOPIA. What do we care? It doesn’t hurt iProvo.
He was also the guy pushing through changes to prevent use of eminent domain (or something like that) to build a soccer stadium. But then, I thought he was right to do that one.
Thanks for the info, Paul. I’ve forwarded the bill number to my state senator so he can keep an eye on it. He’s pretty reasonable, so I would expect him to see the vendor-neutral compromise to be acceptable.