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Iowa Communications Network Built By State

Posted on: Sunday, 21 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Aug. 21--Iowa has a more intimate history with optical fiber than most places, having built a fiber network a decade ago that connects all 99 counties in the state.

That system, called the Iowa Communications Network, was paid for by the state and continues to be a source of controversy.

By law, the network is limited to serving schools and some state agencies, courts, libraries and the National Guard. Cities aren't allowed access to the network, nor are private businesses and residences.

"Because of opposition from the telecom industry, it's been greatly restricted," said Terry Branstad, the former governor of Iowa. "They tried to strangle it from the get-go."

Branstad, who describes himself as a conservative Republican, supports establishing municipal communications utilities. He also supports opening up the state network to anyone willing to pay the fee to use it.

"We should make it a public utility, open to all," he said.

A one-time Branstad political foe, Bonnie Campbell, a Democrat, agrees. Campbell, who served as Iowa attorney general and ran unsuccessfully for governor, supports programs like Opportunity Iowa and opening up the state-owned fiber network to general use.

Privately operated telecom firms in Iowa were united in their opposition to the state's fiber network, but they are split about what to do with it now, said Max Phillips, Iowa president for Qwest Communications International Inc., the state's dominant phone company.

The state's fiber network "is a good example of why the government shouldn't get involved," said Phillips. "Every year it requires an appropriation to keep operating. A number of legislators wish there was an exit strategy."

Qwest favors selling the network to a private buyer, if one could be found. But most independent phone companies oppose privatizing the network and instead prefer "the uneasy status quo," Phillips said.

Phillips said that between his company, independents and cable operators, "we've got plenty of competitors in Iowa" without getting municipalities involved.

Another former state official, Richard Johnson, said that when it was proposed, the price tag on the statewide fiber network was placed at $50 million, but costs escalated to where "it's now a $400 million white elephant."

Johnson, who served as state auditor for 24 years, lobbies against municipal broadband on behalf of a group financed largely by phone and cable companies.

Municipalities should be forbidden to offer broadband before doing an independent feasibility study that would lay out the true costs of such systems, he said.

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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