[1st-mile-nm] Santa Fe, now entering 3rd year of trying to get Fiber Franchise

[John Brown]

The City Different wants to continue to be the City Un-Connected.

700+ days and counting

Folks on this list have talked about the recent Google Fiber initiatives
and how it would be great for Santa Fe to have Gig-a-bit services.
Google will still need legal access to the Rights of Way.  Those are
acquired via a NON-EXCLUSIVE Franchise with the municipality.

CityLink (a New Mexico Company) is already doing Gigabit services in
Albuquerque, and made application 700+ days ago to do the same in Santa
Fe.  Here is a brief overview of the journey taken so far.

CityLink (my company) applied for a Franchise on March 4, 2008.  We met
at 1:30 pm with Mayor David Coss. It was a fast paced 30 minute meeting.
We presented to the Mayor what we would do with our fiber, how it would
help the City, its Citizens, its Schools, its Libraries, its Public
Buildings, Reduce costs for the City, Create another revenue source,
significantly improve Santa Fe's economic development abilities, and
most importantly give Santa Fe Open Access CHOICE.

The Mayor was positive.  Immediately following the meeting the Mayor
introduced us to Mr. Fabian Trujillo of the City's Economic Development
Department.

On March 20th, 2008 at 1pm we met with Mr. Trujillo, Ms. Kathy McCormick
and Mr. Thomas Williams.
We presented the same power-point data we had presented to the Mayor and
answered questions.  The "take away" was that Mr. Trujillo would seek to
determine the specific process and people within the City that we needed
to meet with to move the request forward.

In the passing YEARS, we met with Mr. Trujillo and other members of the
City's Economic Development group. Dozens of meetings, emails, and phone
calls over the years took place.  Each of those meetings resulted in the
same thing.  City representatives saying they will go and figure out the
process, or they will go to City Legal and figure out the process.

Each time, NOTHING WOULD HAPPEN and we would basically start over.

I've seen bureaucratic red-tape before, and in the spirit of the Olympic
Games, this takes the Gold Medal.

Finally in late July of 2009, we informed Mr. Trujillo that unless
significant positive process was made within a very short period of
time, our intent was to litigate in Federal Court.  The basis of our
litigation would be Federal Policy that states a Municipality may not
take longer than 90 days to grant a telecommunications Franchise, and if
they do, then the applicant can apply to the FCC and the FCC can
basically force the issue.

Shortly afterwards a meeting was setup between ourselves, Mr. Trujillo,
the City Manager, and the City Attorney.  The meeting was positive.  The
City Attorney (Frank Katz) assured us that his department would move
rapidly on the matter.

To Mr. Katz's credit and the credit of his department, they did move
rapidly.  Hats off to the City Attorney's staff.

By November a new Telecommunications Ordinance was presented to City
Council along with several franchise requests (ours included).

Throughout November and December I attended a number of City Council
committee meetings.  At each meeting the committee had brief
conversations about the new ordinance and in the end they voted to PASS
the ordinance forward to full Council.  Everything was moving forward
smoothly.

In January 2010, the full City Council voted to approve publication of
the Ordinance.

Then on February 10, 2010 the City Council had a long and mostly
repetitive debate about the ordinance.  My take was that it was probably
the first time that several of the City Council members had actually
read the documents.  Many of the concerns and questions raised should
have been raised AND RESOLVED in committee.  Issues raised at this
meeting all focused on wireless issues.

The City Council voted to delay the ordinance vote until February 24th,
2010.

I have now learned that the City Administration wishes to DELAY the vote
until some point in the future.

The news media has reported mostly on the "juicy" stuff, people in
conflict, people yelling and cussing,  the "Wi-Fi" opponents and the
issues they raise.  As is typical the news media has gotten it very
WRONG.

This isn't WiFi.   WiFi is a specific technology that uses specific
frequencies and protocols.

The franchise applicant that wishes to do wireless, wishes to deploy a
"DAS" or Distributed Antenna System network.  This DAS will use small,
low power antennas to fill in "dead-spots" for CELLUAR PHONE SERVICE.

There are several IMPORTANT differences between WiFi and Cellular Phone
Service.

1. WiFi is NOT licensed by the FCC. It uses UN-LICENSED spectrum.
2. Cellular Phone Service DOES use LICENSED spectrum.  That spectrum is
controlled by the FCC.

3. Cellular Phone Companies MUST also be licensed by the State as a
carrier.
4. WiFi providers DO NOT need to be licensed by the State.

5. As a FCC license holder, the FCC regulates the output power,
frequency, direction, antenna design, etc.  If a FCC license holder is
out of compliance there are enforcement methods the FCC can employ. 


I am not an expert and will not pretend to be an expert on the
biological hazards, if any, that wireless signals have or may have on
the population or a segment of the population.  As such I don't have an
opinion at this time.


The opponents to Wireless have hurt the City by trying to kill the
entire ordinance, instead of focusing on the wireless issues.  To me
this clearly shows they do not get the technology, the process, the
legal issues, or the benefit that fiber brings to the City of Santa Fe. 


The City Council has three actions that it needs to decide on.

1. Replacement of the existing and already ruled "illegal"
telecommunications ordinance.

This replacement helps get the City into compliance with the 10th
Circuit Courts rulings from 2004.

The replacement is will help create a level playing field for the future
of Santa Fe.

The replacement allows Santa Fe to entice and attract competitive
providers, which in turn helps Santa Fe.

The replacement creates a better process by-which franchises can be
created.


2. Approve, Deny, or Further Discuss/revise a franchise application by
New-Path to deploy a DAS wireless (NOT WiFi) system.



3. Approve, Deny, or Further Discuss/revise a franchise application by
CityLink to deploy GigaBit based Fiber to homes, schools, businesses,
libraries, and community centers.


By approving the ordinance replacement, The City Council sets the way to
a bright future for Santa Fe.

By delaying, the City exposes itself to significant legal risk and
costs.  All at the expense of the Citizens of Santa Fe (read voters and
tax payers).

If the people of Santa Fe want to have fiber optic based communications
and services to their homes, businesses, schools, libraries, and
community centers, then they should let their City Council members know
that this matter SHOULD NOT BE DELAYED and should be voted on February
24th, 2010.

City Council should APPROVE the new ordinance and then also approve the
uncontested CityLink franchise.

Elections are just around the corner.  Santa Fe's elected officials
should MOVE Santa Fe forward into the 21st century.


Respectfully,

John Brown, President
CityLink Fiber Holdings, Inc.
505 938 6309