Qwest Short-Changes Colorado Jurisdictions by Not Bringing Fiber, They Say
A Colorado mountain town asked the state utility commission to force Qwest to bring it the same fiber service the company delivers to the state’s other 63 county seats. Acting in concert with San Juan County, Silverton petitioned the commission for an order requiring Qwest, under threat of financial penalty, to complete a fiber line that now stops 16 miles short of that town, the county seat. The petitioners sent a letter to NTIA and members of Congress impugning Qwest’s candidacy to participate in the broadband stimulus program because the telco hasn’t done what it said it would do in Colorado.
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"Qwest has fulfilled its contract with the state and is proud to be offering the Town of Silverton among the fastest speeds it provides,” a company spokeswoman told us by e-mail.
Silverton and San Juan County officials dispute that claim. Unless Qwest brings the fiber to Silverton, they told us, the town will continue to lag behind the rest of Colorado in telecom technology. Silverton’s year-round census is 400 to 500, but the population swells in summer with vacationers and tourists, sometimes reaching 20,000, town clerk Jason Wells said. “All we have is one microwave radio link that’s non-redundant,” he said. “And we're worried about the sunspot activity predicted for 2012."
The town and county based their complaint to the utility commission on a state requirement for uniformity of service cited in the $37 million fiber contract the state made with Qwest in 2000 for the Link-Up project, Wells said. “The Legislature clearly set a standard in 2000 when it let this contract to Qwest that every county seat was to get a fiber optic link,” he said. “This is a compelling issue for the utility commission. If a county seat isn’t connected, there isn’t uniform service statewide."
Along with a fiber connection, the town seeks unspecified damages from Qwest for the delay. “Ten years ago they were supposed to replace microwave with fiber optic,” Wells said. “We needed it then, never mind now. This situation has strong implications for the broadband stimulus program that Qwest is trying to enroll in. … We have protested their application to NTIA,” he said. “When we heard they were applying for a multi-state, multi-million-dollar project, we laughed. Why should anyone trust them?"
In a letter to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) also sent to members of the U.S. House and Senate, the town and county said Qwest’s NTIA grant application “came as a surprise to us.” In an exchange with Link-Up coalition members, Qwest president Charles Ward had said company wouldn’t be seeking NTIA funds, they said. “This response seemed plausible to us, given that Qwest had recently begun marketing the company’s fiber network (some of which included the network funded by the Colorado taxpayer), as being for sale. … We chose to contact you on behalf of the numerous concerned taxpayers in our region discontented by the prospect of your agency awarding public funds to a company that failed to deliver on a fundamental pledge to our community the last time it was so awarded."
Lack of access to faster, more reliable service deprives the town and the county of the opportunity to evolve technologically in step with the rest of Colorado, the petition said. Qwest’s failure to complete its build-out to Silverton/San Juan “deprives Silverton/San Juan the right to basic service,” the petitioners said.