Municipal broadband restrictions taken out of Ohio budget; new aid limited to private providers

Language that would have significantly restricted municipal broadband internet projects has been taken out of Ohio's biennial budget, which is awaiting a signature from Gov. Mike DeWine. State officials announced Tuesday that $75 billion in spending is set to include $250 million for broadband expansion projects, which is meant to ease the process of providing access to more remote areas across Ohio. However, legislators say those new dollars will only be available to private entities such as Spectrum, AT&T and Frontier. Similar language had been introduced earlier this year in Ohio House Bill 2, which drew opposition from Medina County and other statewide municipalities. Even with new state aid being limited to private providers, Medina County Commissioner Steve Hambley said a worst-case scenario for municipal broadband was avoided. Now-removed provisions would have stopped publicly owned broadband internet providers from obtaining new customers and make most related infrastructure projects ineligible for state and federal aid. "Before they were going to tell us how we can spend our own money and now they're just telling us we can't have any state money," he said. "There's going to be these limitations but we're still going to be able to use the federal money coming in for the fiber network. Overall, I still have to say this is a win for Verizon, all the other companies who want this. Still, there will be some public-private partnerships and that's good." Hambley served in Columbus as Ohio's District 69 representative until winning election in Medina County last November. "With this additional $250 million, (private providers) are still winning the battle as far as I'm concerned," he said. "We won't be able to have access to it, the county won't." Under removed provisions, municipal networks would have been limited to only providing service to areas within that political subdivision labeled as "unserved" under state standards. That was defined as an area lacking access to internet exceeding 10 mbps download speed and 1 mbps upload capability. Political subdivisions, unlike private providers, would have been prohibited from putting federal funds or public service revenue toward construction, deployment, purchase, lease or operation of broadband facilities or the provision of services to subscribers. Ohio District 69 Rep. Sharon Ray, R-Wadsworth, said she expects private companies taking in new state aid to be held accountable in terms of using that money to build "last mile" connections into unserved and underserved areas. "I would certainly advocate for that," Ray said. "That's something I'd support in the future, to take another look at it. If there aren't going to additional pools of money available for the 33 municipal broadband systems, I'd support that we're making sure the money that is going out is being used as intended." Ray added that since Medina County Fiber Network has built a publicly funded backbone to be used by private internet providers, those providers will have access to new aid for projects related to the fiber network. "The (private) providers can use this money for the last mile coming off (Medina County Fiber) network," she said. "That can still go towards getting those folks hooked up. You'd still have the fiber link with the private company doing that final part." Long-awaited construction of Medina County Fiber Network's residential infrastructure broke ground this spring in Seville, the start of a multiyear process delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain pockets of Seville are only a few of many within Medina County where residents have been unable to gain reliable internet access, or any access at all. Alabama-based Lit Communities is leading the fiber network's expansion. The company had initially planned to start construction of residential fiber infrastructure in spring 2020. Hopes remain to expand service to roughly 50,000 local households over the next three to five years. Ohio District 70 Rep. Darrell Kick, R-Loudonville, agreed with Ray in regards to taking municipal broadband restrictions out of the budget. "This was more of a market fairness issue," he said. "I too would rather see the private sector take care of (broadband) but we've had situations where, especially with broadband, things weren't happening at the speed that's been needed, especially for business. They found a way to get it done other ways, and I was all for it." "I know there are some in the legislature who never want government run situations like that," he added. "It kind of got caught up in all those talks. We finally said these municipal broadband systems are preexisting for a reason so let's not mess with it." If previous budget restrictions for municipal broadband had been included, a fully public service such as Wadsworth's CityLink would have been unable to acquire any new customers outside of areas classified as "unserved." City officials stated those rules would have applied even in the event a CityLink household was vacated, with a new occupant having to opt for a private provider. Ray and Kick said that, for now, they're both satisfied with new broadband aid being limited to private providers. "I think what we have for right now is good," Ray said. "No one is going to be happy with everything and the provisions to prohibit the municipal broadband coming out of the budget was a very good thing. We're very happy about that." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.