Open Access
Open Access Opportunity for Municipalities to Allay Competition Concerns
Open access provisions in municipal builds could alleviate fears of competition concerns with ISPs.
June 23, 2021—Municipal broadband networks can include open access provisions that allow internet service providers to sell services and allay competition fears, according to a some on a panel of experts hosted by Broadband Breakfast.
Over the past few months — and increasingly since President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan in March thrust the importance of municipal builds into the spotlight – there has been concern, specifically from Republicans, that municipal networks could cripple competition. Critics of those networks have sought to outlaw them as a result.
But allowing ISPs to use municipal networks to sell last-mile service to homes and business, cities can effectively reduce competition fears of critics, increase competition between providers, and ultimately reduce prices for consumers, said Ben Lewis-Ramirez, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Lit Communities, who was a panelist on last week on Broadband Breakfast’s live online event to discuss the intricacies of open access in the digital age.
Open access can thin margins, affect services
Some on the panel weren’t altogether convinced about the idea. Monica Webb, head of market development and strategic partnerships at Ting Internet, said on the panel that, in her experience, while dissatisfaction with cable and telco monopolies is often the driving force behind open access efforts, open access solutions will not necessarily yield better service to consumers.
“When it comes to competition in open access, prices generally do go down [for consumers],” Webb said. “However, the margins for ISPs can also be narrower, and sometimes service can be impacted.”
Webb and Lewis-Ramirez both agreed that the quality of service offered by telcos is not necessarily improved by open access models, and that municipalities that decide to pursue an open access solution must be sure to vet the companies that they decide to lease their infrastructure to, and establish strict standards for companies to adhere to.
Despite calling an open access a potential silver bullet, Lewis-Ramirez also agreed with Webb’s assessment that there are unique risks associated with open access. In an open access model, those who are deploying and leasing infrastructure assume the lion’s share of risk; ISPs that contract with those leasing infrastructure stand to lose very little, and must expend minimal capital to take advantage of said infrastructure.
Though open access might come with risk, both experts stated that in certain circumstances, open access infrastructure can provide significant value for both consumers and municipal bodies looking to improve network coverage.
The model is receiving attention at the federal level. Amy Klobuchar’s “Accessible, Affordable, Internet Act” would prioritize funding for projects that utilize an open access model.
The municipal network debate
The discussion comes at an interesting time: This month, Ohio’s Republican-controlled Senate passed a budget featuring an amendment that would essentially end municipal broadband in the State. The reason? Municipalities should not be allowed to compete against business for this essential service.
Ohio isn’t alone, either. If the budget passes Ohio’s House, it will be added to the list of more than a dozen states that outlaw municipal broadband services.
Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place every Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. You can watch the June 16, 2021, event on this page. You can also PARTICIPATE in the current Broadband Breakfast Live Online event. REGISTER HERE.
Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 12 Noon ET — “Innovation in Broadband Business Models: Open Access Case Studies”
One of the areas of greatest innovations in digital infrastructure investment concerns open access networks, a growing space for innovation and investment. Join Broadband Breakfast for a session considering how multiple American open access networks — including players in the ownership, network operations, and services areas — have tackled the unique challenges in crafting a business that works for a network that serves multiple stakeholders.
More about Digital Infrastructure Investment 2021 at Broadband Communities Summit
Panelists:
- Monica Webb, Head of Market Development & Strategic Partnerships at Ting Internet
- Ben Lewis-Ramirez, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Lit Communities
- Sean Buckley (moderator), Editor in Chief of Broadband Communities
Monica Webb is the head of market development & strategic partnerships at Ting Internet, working with local stakeholders in existing Ting towns and evaluates existing and prospective gigabit network locations and related business projects. Webb spent her early career working in marketing and management in the financial services industry, where she launched channel marketing platforms that continue to dominate channel strategy in the mutual fund industry today.
Ben Lewis-Ramirez is passionate about bridging the digital divide through building open application networks in under-served communities, and was one of the Lit Communities co-founders. He has over 10 years of executive management experience in the outside plant engineering and construction industries, with a focus in business development and strategic planning for the past 3 years. Ben is a vocal advocate for the open application business model, and has published numerous magazine articles and blog posts on the subject, in addition to speaking about it at conferences and other events around the country.
Sean Buckley is the Editor in Chief of Broadband Communities. Buckley comes to the magazine publishing and conference company after serving nine years as Senior Editor at FierceTelecom, a daily online newsletter. He also oversaw FierceInstaller, a weekly publication chronicling trends in network installation. Prior to coming to FierceTelecom, Sean spent eight years at Horizon House publications, serving as senior editor and later as Editor in Chief of Telecommunications Magazine and Telecom Engine.
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Open Access
Lewis County Public Utility District Pushes Forward with Open Access Fiber Plan
‘Getting broadband out to all rural areas and all residents of Lewis County,’ Washington.

Lewis County, Washington and the Lewis County Public Utility District are making progress with their plan to deploy an open access fiber network that should dramatically boost broadband competition—and lower prices—county wide by 2026.
In November 2019, Lewis County PUD received a $50,000 grant from the Community Economic Revitalization Board to study the county’s broadband shortcomings and determine whether taking direct action to address them made sense. In early 2020, the PUD formed the Lewis County Broadband Action Team to further study community needs.
Those inquiries found what most U.S. communities know too well: concentrated monopolization had left county residents overpaying for substandard, expensive, and spotty broadband access unsuitable for modern living.
In response, the Lewis County PUD announced in 2021 it would be building an 134-mile-long fiber backbone and open access fiber network for around $104 million. Around $23.5 million of that total will be paid for by a recently awarded grant by the Washington State Department of Commerce, itself made possible by the American Rescue Plan Act.
In December of 2021, Lewis County PUD public affairs manager Willie Painter was a guest on our Community Broadband Bits podcast in which he discussed the PUD’s vision of deploying fiber across the county’s 2,450 square miles, which is home to about 75,000 Washingtonians, or about 30,000 households. Painter noted then how the PUD’s “shovel ready designs and estimates” is what “empowered our utility to be very competitive in going after state and federal grant dollars to help fund these construction deployments.”
The latest development to have emerged since we last reported on Lewis County PUD, is who the PUD selected as a partner to build the network. The network will be built as part of a 25-year public-private partnership with ToledoTel. While ToledoTel will install, supply and maintain a new fiber optic network connecting more than 2,300 homes and businesses in the Winlock area, Lewis County will ultimately own the final build.
ToledoTel is currently in the engineering and design phase of the project, and has stated it will provide an additional $2.35 million in matching funds for the project, which is slated to be finished before 2026.
Details of the arrangement were finalized in January, and county leaders state that ToledoTel will have exclusive access to the infrastructure for up to three years. After that, ToledoTel will be required to open the network to competitors at a wholesale rate, boosting competition and driving down costs in a residential broadband market largely dominated by Comcast.

Photo of Lewis County PUD building courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
“There’s the convenience, there’s business purposes; all those are really vital and becoming more and more a part of everyday life, and we want to provide those services to everyone in Lewis County that we can,” Lewis County Manager Erik Martin told The Chronicle. “This project is really the beginning, in terms of getting service out to folks, and we want to focus on getting broadband out to all rural areas and all residents of Lewis County.”
A 2021 survey by the WA Department of Commerce found that 64 percent of state households reported download speeds slower than the base FCC definition of broadband, currently a paltry 25 megabit per second (Mbps) downstream, 3 Mbps upstream. The state is currently considering raising the base definition of broadband to 100 Mbps downstream, 20 Mbps upstream.
A local survey by Lewis County PUD found that more than 77 percent of survey respondents had broadband speeds well below the acceptable federal definition of broadband, despite nearly 98 percent of county survey participants considering broadband access an essential utility.
Lewis County is one of many PUDs in Washington State taking full advantage of a flood of new grants — and recently-eliminated Washington State restrictions on community broadband — to belatedly expand access to affordable fiber across the state.
This article by Karl Bode originally appeared on the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks project on March 13, 2023, and is reprinted with permission.
Open Access
Financing Mechanisms for Community Broadband, Panel 3 at Digital Infrastructure Investment
Panel 3 video. Join the Broadband Breakfast Club to watch the full-length videos from Digital Infrastructure Investment.

Video from Panel 3 at Digital Infrastructure Investment: Kim McKinley, Chief Marketing Officer, UTOPIA Fiber, Jeff Christensen, President & CEO, EntryPoint Networks, Jane Coffin, Chief Community Officer, Connect Humanity, Robert Wack, former Westminster Common Council President and leader of the Open Access Citywide Fiber Network Initiative, and moderated by Christopher Mitchell, Director, Community Broadband Networks, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
For a free article summarizing the event, see Communities Need Governance Seat on Broadband Builds, Conference Hears: Communities need to be involved in decision-making when it comes to broadband builds, Broadband Breakfast, November 17, 2022
Open Access
In Video Session, Christopher Mitchell Digs Into Community Ownership and Open Access Networks
The conversation dealt with open access networks, and whether cities are well-suited to play a role in developing them.

September 29, 2022 – Community-owned, open access networks protect communities against irresponsible network operators and stimulate innovation, said Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, at a Broadband.Money Ask Me Anything! event Friday.
“AT&T, Frontier, these companies have a history of failing to meet community needs,” said Mitchell. “If I had a choice between open broadband fixed wireless and fiber from AT&T, I’d be really, you know, checking it out.”
“[AT&T] is a company that will sell your data at the first opportunity, it’s a company that will raise your bill every chance it gets,” Mitchell added.
ILSR’s director said that in communities in which local ownership isn’t possible, such as in a town with a deeply corrupt government, there still exist contractual provisions that can maximize local control.
A right of first refusal, for instance, gives communities the option to purchase their local network if the original provider chooses to sell. Mitchell also suggested communities write performance-based contracts that institute penalties for network partners who fail to meet clearly outlined performance benchmarks.
Conversation entered realm of open access discussion
The wide-ranging conversation also dealt with the issues of open access networks, and whether cities are well-suited to play a role in developing them.
“The cities are the custodians of their rights of way – they need to be, they must be,” said Drew Clark, editor and publisher of Broadband Breakfast. Because of the cities inherent role as custodians of their rights of way, Clark said that open-access networks provide cities with the opportunity to own the infrastructure portion of their broadband networks, while still offering private companies the ability to serve as network operators or application service providers.
Mitchell agreed that open access networks can be critical to broadband innovation. “We need to have millions – ideally tens of million – of Americans in thriving areas that have open access to kind of see what we can do with networks,” he said.
“Maybe a lot of those ideas won’t work out, but I think we don’t want to foreclose that path.”
In addition to overseeing digital infrastructure projects, communities can promote digital equity by utilizing established, trusted community-based institutions – such as food pantries or faith groups – to boost digital literacy and distribute devices, Mitchell said.
Mitchell added that these efforts must be ongoing: “This is more about building connections now.”
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