Rural Broadband & Pole Attachments
- TCCRI Staff
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Ensuring that broadband development is both consistent across jurisdictions and in accordance with the directions of the Legislature is key to delivering access.
House Subcommittee on Telecommunications & Broadband
The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) takes great interest in the two charges before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Broadband today, both of which relate to critical infrastructure in our growing state.
TCCRI takes policy positions based on its LIFT principles of Limited government, Individual liberty, Free enterprise, and Traditional values. For many years, the expansion of broadband service was an effort TCCRI supported as a free enterprise endeavor. As a general matter, however, TCCRI opposed government subsidization and promotion of broadband as an illegitimate function of government. That changed in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of school children in Texas to rely on remote virtual learning. Once the state showed a willingness—albeit in extreme circumstances—to force public schooling to take place in the home, it became the state’s responsibility to ensure that all children could access those services.
This committee should earnestly endeavor to find out if the BDO has administered the various broadband expansion programs in accordance with the legislature’s wishes. That includes finding out if awards have been improperly held up or improperly distributed, and if the BDO has the tools and authority necessary to properly administer the program.
Five years into the state’s initiative to ensure high-speed internet access across Texas should have produced more tangible results by this point. Legislators should uncover the issues holding up the process, address any legitimate concerns about the awards process, and move forward to achieve the state’s original interest, which is providing high-speed internet access to all of Texas.
Because of the large “make ready” costs associated with the state’s significant high-speed internet buildout initiatives, the state set aside $75 million to create the Texas Broadband Pole Replacement Program (TBPRP).
Despite availability of the TBPRP, disputes related to financial responsibility still exist, particularly with respect to municipally owned utilities because they lack a statutory framework on “make ready” costs. Instead, arrangements are negotiated and privately contracted in a manner that gives the municipalities considerable leverage over providers that need access to poles.
Read the full testimony in the link above.
