LTE: I Recommend Council Approve The CBN Contracts On Tuesday – Part 1

BY ANDREW FRASER Los Alamos

Dear Councillors,

Since the Friday meeting at the Cliffs, the agenda for your Tuesday meeting on 11/19 has been posted. I've looked at the slides for the presentation about the two Community Broadband Network (CBN) contracts and the contracts themselves.

I hope that you approve the contracts, and in a later message I will explain more reasons for my support. This email is about my concern that some privately owned infrastructure is ignored in the attachemnts to the agenda. Exhibit A, CBN Asset List, is part of the second contract, AGR24-46b. On page 110, there is a map entitled "Los Alamos County Fiber Inventory". The inventory lists assets that the County owns that could be useful for the CBN. It does not list assets owned by others that could be useful for the CBN.

In my many messages to you about telecommunication I often claim that telecommunication infrastructure is a natural monopoly. There is no need for parallel conduits running under our streets just as there is no need for parallel water lines or electric power lines. Both Comcast and LA-Net already have conduit in some parts of the County. I hope the County and Bonfire will explore the possibility of purchasing some or all of those assets. If they can be purchased for fair prices, it would get the CBN built sooner and it would avoid wasteful duplication.

Since we moved to Los Alamos in 2005, we have used several ISPs including Xfinity and Comcast Business. While my wife ran Rose Chocolatier, LA-Net provided the business with WiFi and telephone, and for some years they were the ISP we used at home. They are remarkably responsive and pleasant to do business with. I hope the County and Bonfire can recruit them as partners rather than competition.

In summary, I recommend that on Tuesday you press County Staff to explore buying any existing infrastructure that would be useful and reasonably priced.