Bill would allow PUDs, ports to provide retail Internet

Wahkiakum Public Utility District commissioners are keeping an eye on Washington House bill 1711, which authorizes PUDs and rural port districts to provide retail telecommunications services to customers within or adjacent to their district.

The bill also allows PUDs and rural port districts to provide wholesale telecommunications services in areas adjacent to their district, and authorizes cities and towns to provide telecommunications services to their residents.

Giving PUDs or ports the ability to provide retail services, including broadband, is intended to reach unserved and underserved rural areas. The bill is being met with strong opposition from lawmakers intent on leaving that service to private enterprise.

“Of course there will be a lot of lobbying against it,” said Commissioner Dennis Reid who represents Wahkiakum PUD in the Washington PUD Association

Rep. John McCoy (D-Tulalip), the bill’s lead sponsor, argued that the legislation would provide an increasingly necessary service to those lacking it.

“Everybody agrees we have underserved areas,” said McCoy following a stakeholders’ meeting in Olympia. “But we do not have Internet service providers willing to go out to those extreme rural areas to deliver service. So the question is: How do we get them served?”

McCoy, chairman of the House Technology, Energy and Communications committee in which the bill is being heard, said his bill allows PUDs and rural port districts in counties with populations under 300,000 the ability to offer service to individual households.

According to Erik Poulsen, government relations director at Washington Public Utility Districts Association, PUDs have used the wholesale authority they were granted in 2000, building 4,500 miles of fiber-optic cable, investing $300 million in infrastructure and partnering with 150 retail providers. However, he said it’s not possible to wholesale in certain parts of the state.

“The idea was that PUDs would build critical infrastructure and private companies would come in and provide direct service,” Poulsen said. “This wholesale arrangement serves many of our PUDs well. Others believe they need expanded authority to overcome some of the barriers that still exist.”

Reid said that some PUDs have taken advantage of grants to build infrastructure.

Rep. Cathy Dahlquist (R-Enumclaw), who also serves on the TEC committee, said she’s also concerned that PUDs, as government entities, would have an unfair competitive advantage over private companies since they can draw from taxpayer money to fund their retail operation.

“In order to get permission to do this, they (the PUDs) have to hold public hearings with an extensive business plan that has to be approved by their ratepayers. They need to go through that process before they make a decision on whether they’re going to provide the service or not,” McCoy said.

“It’s the only way the outlying areas are going to get that (service),” Reid said. “It’s hard to get the service out in the valleys.”

Commissioner Bob Jungers said, early on he had tried to get DSL, but the company wanted “an astronomical fee to go 200 or 300 yards. I finally got broadband with satellite, but I have to cut more alder trees down to make it work right.”

The bill was scheduled for a hearing on January 17 in Olympia.