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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2018)
Street Roots • Jan. 12-18 2018 Page 7 News Should Portland have publicly owned internet? O n the heels o f the F C C ’s ruling on net neutrality, advocates have renewed their efforts for a city-owned internet utility BY EMILY GREEN Building its own network is an idea the city looked into about 10 years ago, rganizers behind a new campaign want but determined would be the city to lay and operate its own fiber too expensive. The optic network to ensure that all city residents have access to an open and free upfront cost of roughly $500 million would have internet. been funded with revenue Municipal Broadband PDX wants the city to bonds. become an internet service provider that In 2007, the city operates like any other public utility. The examined two options for group plans to hold its first public rally at City collecting funds to pay for Hall this Sunday. those bonds once the Campaign organizers believe that if Portland network was built: It could were to have its own public internet utility, it either sell access to any would protect users and businesses from the number of internet censorship and paid prioritization that have providers who shared the network, or the city become a threat since the Federal could become the internet provider itself, Communications Commission recently charging individual households a monthly fee repealed its net neutrality rules. That repeal is to connect. being challenged in court and in Congress. “We decided not to move forward as the Members of the Municipal Broadband PDX results of the study concluded it was too risky campaign include people working in for taxpayers,” said Brendan Finn, technology, government and advocacy. This Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s chief of staff. includes Russell Senior, president of Personal Saltzman’s office was overseeing Portland’s Telco Project, a nonprofit that’s been providing Office of Community Technology at the time. free wireless hotspots around Portland since While there is renewed support for the start of the millennium. re-examining the possibility of a city-built “The problem is larger than net neutrality, network among staffers at City Hall, there’s it’s a cost thing,” said Senior. “Every year we less enthusiasm around the city becoming an have a cable service, it’s like $1,000 going out internet service provider once it’s built. the window.” “There’s a lot of things that public agencies He said that long after the upfront do well. Being nimble competitors in fiercely investment in building infrastructure has been competitive marketplaces is not what the recouped, cable companies continue to raise public is good at,” said Marshall Runkel, chief prices. But if internet service were a public of staff to Commissioner Chloe Eudaly. utility, subscribers would ultimately pay less In the late 1990s, Runkel was the liaison to per month for higher quality service. what is now the Office of Community While in the past Portlanders have not Technology when he worked as an assistant to shown a lot of support for internet service as a former city commissioner Erik Sten. public utility, campaign spokesperson and He said he was thrown into telecom policy game designer Garrett Hour thinks the tide when A T & T challenged in court Portland’s has changed. right to require open access to its cable lines. “Comcast has been providing awful, The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately unreliable, expensive service, but we all just found that Portland did not have that right, but kind of got used to it,” he said. “Now they have the case laid the groundwork for the net successfully lobbied to strip away our internet neutrality debate. freedoms, and that’s the point in which people In the years that followed, Portland began to are finally saying that they’ve had enough.” look at other options, such as contracting with Hour and other campaign backers say if an internet provider to build an open-access Portland had publicly owned internet service, network or building such a network itself. consumers wouldn’t have to worry about their Infrastructure the city originally considered internet provider selling their personal building would have connected each home to a information, such as browsing history. cable network, costing roughly $3,000 per Another core principle of the campaign is to home. ensure a network that is accessible to all But Runkel said in the current market, it Portlanders. This would mean a pricing system would make more sense to build a system that that correlates with income and free Wi-Fi in connected fiber optic cables to poles that public spaces and on public transportation, would in turn send out wireless signal to the according to the campaign’s website. surrounding area. And that would come in But the campaign may be in store for quite with a significantly smaller price tag. a fight if it gains any traction. In a state where Hour suggested that Portland could have Comcast has made $1.4 million in campaign additional cost savings if it figured out a way to contributions to local politicians since 2007 - use pre-existing public infrastructure, such as including to several members of Portland City along M AX routes. Council - creating a public-owned internet While Commissioner Eudaly is supportive of service will be no easy feat. revisiting plans to build an open access That being said, it’s not a new idea. S E N IO R S T A F F R E P O R T E R / ; O t network, Runkel said, “We don’t have the organizational ability to have this conversation in a competent way right now.” That’s because today the city’s Office of Community Technology is a shell of its former self. He said the first step would be establishing a city office to oversee strategic technology. But there are reasons why it’s a conversation the city should be having. “Right now access to the internet is 100 percent predicted by income,” Runkel said, with a large percentage of the people left behind being kids that go to public schools and the elderly. Secondly, he said, “as network owners are given more and more power, there is a threat to free speech, and there is a threat to innovation.” Additionally, an open-access network where providers had to compete with each other would spark innovation. Locally-owned internet service providers would pop up, bolstering the local economy, and consumers would have access to more options. But the idea that Portland could go one step further and become an internet service provider itself is not so far fetched. Portlanders need look no further than 20 miles southeast to Sandy, which has been operating its own broadband utility since 2003. Tacoma, Wash., also offers its residents quality internet service. In these municipalities, subscribers pay anywhere from $40 to $75 per month for internet, depending upon speed. In Tacoma, the public utility Click! employs 90 people and offers combined internet and cable T V packages starting at $52 per month. Hour said he expects roughly 50 to 100 supporters will attend the campaign rally, which begins at 2 p.m. at City Hall this Sunday, Jan. 14. Those in attendance will hear from a variety of speakers before marching around downtown and returning to City Hall for more speeches. emily@streetroots. org @greenwrites •, 1
