Mayor Ed Murray is about to dive into a perennial issue of broadband service, and whether the city ought to provide it.
ONE of the next topics for Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to address is whether taxpayers in Software City should support a new broadband network.
Murray is giving earnest consideration to the perennial question of whether the city should build and operate a municipal network. A feasibility study is due later this month.
If costs aren’t prohibitive, this might be an opportunity for Seattle to show leadership by creating a new public utility in the spirit of the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision that classified broadband is an essential service.
But any attempt to create the broadband equivalent of Seattle City Light should be planned from the start as a citywide service, providing the same quality to everyone in the jurisdiction.
Most Read Opinion Stories
Seattle already has better-than-average access to Internet service. Superfast broadband — with download speeds of one gigabyte per second — is available in some neighborhoods.
What’s missing from the current menu of options — and the discussion of broadband in general — is universal service, ensuring that everyone has access to a service that’s now considered essential for work, education and entertainment.
Seattle has been teased repeatedly by mayors dangling the prospect of cheap and fast broadband. A 2004 task force advised the city to have such a network in place by 2015. It never materialized.
Comcast, CenturyLink, Frontier and Wave Broadband have since improved their networks and decent service is generally available. About 86 percent of households in the Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma metro area have Internet access (88 percent in Seattle), according to 2013 Census estimates.
Competing in this arena would take a major commitment. It’s probably not worth pursuing if the city only does a demonstration project connecting a few more residents here and there. The decision is whether to buy a new blanket, not stitch another square onto the patchwork quilt.
Rates for city broadband must be kept low enough to be accessible and appealing. This would be a challenge for a city that’s found ways to load utility bills.
A city broadband network may be worthwhile if it offers something unique and of great public value. Leveling the playing field and providing top quality service to everyone would meet this criteria.