{"id":98361,"date":"2018-08-15T19:07:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T01:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-law-to-hold-large-internet-companies-accountable\/"},"modified":"2018-08-15T19:07:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T01:07:41","slug":"colorado-law-to-hold-large-internet-companies-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-law-to-hold-large-internet-companies-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado law to hold large internet companies accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A recently enacted law will require large telecom companies to provide internet services of equal speed and price if they take over state grants from smaller companies.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A recently enacted state law could help ensure that faster internet service reaches customers when companies apply for state grants to fund infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Legislature set aside $115 million to support rural broadband development from 2019 until 2023, and House Bill 18-1099<\/a> was written to hold large companies that receive the grants more accountable.<\/p>\n

The bill went into effect last week and was inspired by CenturyLink\u2019s failure to meet the expectations of residents in Ridgway, said Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, who sponsored the bill.<\/p>\n

Last year, a state grant was awarded to a small company to bring fiber-optic internet service to the town, according Colorado Counties Inc. But CenturyLink was able to legally take the grant under a state law that gives large companies providing internet in rural areas the right of first refusal on grants from the state\u2019s broadband deployment fund.<\/p>\n

\"McLachlan\"
McLachlan<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CenturyLink used the money to put in new DSL in Ridgway, which was not nearly as fast as the service the other company promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody just went bananas. It was just like bait-and-switch. \u2026 We wanted to prevent this from ever happening again,\u201d said Eric Bergman, policy director with Colorado Counties Inc. The nonprofit lobbied for the change in the law.<\/p>\n

Under the new law, if a large existing company takes a grant under right of first refusal it must provide internet services at the speed and price the smaller company promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt adds that little level of competition between a smaller company and CenturyLink,\u201d McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the state\u2019s broadband fund awarded two grants to smaller Southwest Colorado companies.<\/p>\n

ForeThought received $268,500 to improve service at Cascade Village, and AlignTec received $592,729 to improve service to an area northeast of Bayfield, according to the Department of Regulatory Agencies.<\/p>\n

Other areas in the region, such as the Lightner Creek area, could benefit from additional infrastructure, said Miriam Gillow-Wiles, the executive director of the Southwest Colorado Council of Governments.<\/p>\n

The state has budgeted $18.7 million for rural broadband grants in 2019, and it has set aside more that $20 million each year until 2023.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

invest $18.7 million in rural broadband in 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13,275,3025,2069],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-98361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-internet","tag-state-rep-barbara-mclachlan","tag-telecommunication-service"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98361"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=98361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}