Lawmakers explore expanding Net access Excess university ITV capacity under study

AUGUSTA – With a quarter of Maine households without relatively inexpensive broadband access, the Legislature’s Utilities Committee has asked the University of Maine System to set up a study group to look at ways to maximize the uses of its ITV system to provide access.

“The taxpayers have contributed a significant amount to pay for this system, and I think should have a say in the excess capacity,” said Rep. Cynthia Dill, D-Cape Elizabeth. She sponsored legislation that would have directed the study, but lawmakers decided asking for the study was sufficient.

The study was prompted by news reports that UMS is negotiating to take advantage of a Federal Communications Commission decision that will improve its instructional television service by switching from analog to digital transmission.

The FCC is allowing educational institutions that hold licenses for frequencies used to broadcast instructional programs to lease some of that capacity to private companies for use in providing wireless broadband services.

UMS has 26 transmission sites from York County to northernmost Aroostook County, and the signal from each transmitter has a reach of about 35 miles. Nearly all of the populated regions of the state are covered by the transmissions.

“We have gone through a deliberative process to see who would be interested in leasing this excess capacity,” said Ralph Caruso, the chief information officer of UMS. “This group would work with us to look at how we would deploy the rest of the capacity.”

He told lawmakers earlier this month that the space occupied by one analog channel can hold several digital channels. He said there are “many opportunities” for the university system to work with the private sector to fill some of the holes in broadband coverage of the state.

“We believe we will make enough from the lease payments to build the new system and to operate it,” Caruso said.

In other states, the payments have been substantial. For example, Milwaukee area educational institutions signed a deal earlier this year that totaled $12.6 million upfront with monthly lease payments of $165,000 along with annual increases. The total estimated payments to the schools over the next three decades are $108 million.

Caruso said Maine is a smaller marketing area, so he does not expect the payments will be in that range. He said negotiations are still under way, but he expects the terms will be similar with an upfront payment as well as lease payments over a period of years.

Sen. Doug Smith, R-Dover Foxcroft, a member of the Utilities Committee, did not object to a study but did not want legislation to direct that it be done.

“I have a little problem with establishing legislatively appointed or directed stakeholder groups,” he said. “It may give the appearance the Legislature has predetermined what it wants to do.”

Smith said it was better to simply ask the university to involve the various parties as it proceeds and inform lawmakers next session of their progress and if any legislation may be needed to implement their recommendations. Other panel members agreed.

But some concerns were raised at the public hearing on the legislation by potential competitors to the companies that would lease the excess capacity from the university.

“What does that mean in terms of our ability to go to those same systems as either current or future customers of ours?” asked Steve Hudson, a lobbyist for FairPoint Communications, the company that recently acquired the Verizon land line business in Maine. That phone company provides broadband service through its phone lines to homes, schools and businesses.

“But we are ready to fully participate in any study,” he said.

Sen. Phil Bartlett, D-Gorham, the co-chairman of the Utilities Committee, said expanded, affordable broadband access will benefit the state’s economy. In some areas of the state, he said, there is no high-speed Internet access that has competitive rates, and the deal has the potential of increasing competition in the rest of the state.

Many cities and towns already have competition with cable companies and phone companies offering broadband access. Some areas of the state also have wireless access, and there is the option of satellite access anywhere in the state, but it is more expensive than other alternatives.

“There are a lot of potential benefits from a study like this,” Bartlett said.