New broadband internet coming to town

Mike Mores, senior manager of the Wyoming division of government affairs for Charter Communications/Spectrum, met with the governing bodies of Moorcroft and Pine Haven last week to discuss contracting the installation of fiberoptics into the municipalities via town easements in order to increase broadband, internet phone service and other benefits for customers.

Many people are familiar with Spectrum, a cable company with offices in Gillette and many other communities across the nation. They are also Charter Communications and Charter recently bid on providing increased access to high speed internet service through ten specific areas of Wyoming. One of the first to break ground will be Crook County, according to Mores.

Beginning this effort, Mores had previously emailed a contract draft to each town within the county for their perusal. Pine Haven's council gave the document to town attorney Pat Carpenter, who returned an adjusted draft with a number of points to be changed to protect the towns' interests.

Mayor Karla Brandenburg started negotiations at Pine Haven's dialogue with the spokesman by advocating the possibility of working with Charter, "We would love to work with you...We have a lot of people who work from home here. This would be a huge asset to have here...but we want it to be equal on both sides."

The first issue of discussion was the franchise fees; the company's draft asked for no charge and if there was a charge, that it be payable annually. Brandenburg explained that the town charges these fees to "everybody who's here" and the fees are to be paid quarterly.

Carpenter had suggested for both communities, charging the maximum allowed 5% of the customer-based gross revenue in town.

Mores agreed to this, saying the company is willing to pay a fee and five percent is acceptable. When considering this point at Moorcroft's council meeting, Moorcroft Councilman Dale Petersen asked from where this fee is taken by the company and Mores admitted the cost of the franchise passes directly on to the customers.

Another point is the company's desire for a 20-year contract. Moorcroft Mayor Ben Glenn noted, "The 20-year thing is pretty striking – that's a long franchise." Brandenburg iterated the attorney's thoughts as well, "The town should look more at a three to five year with possibly extending it."

Mores expounded on the company's reasoning, "We recently won this award from the state of Wyoming and for Crook County, the total build cost for our project is $8,767,000. $5m is our own money so we were awarded $3.75m to build out Crook County. The state contract is for 20 years and that's why we put that in there."

Charter is willing to lessen the length of the agreement to ten years ideally, but no less than seven is acceptable to the company.

Moorcroft's Councilman Petersen smiled as he asked, "Have you ever provided free broadband to local government instead of franchise fees?"

Mores replied, "That's tricky because we're a cable company and regulated by the Cable Act. Although we sell broadband, this is a cable franchise. We could give you free cable for [town hall], but we can't give free internet."

A significant concern to Pine Haven residents, expressed by Brandenburg, is the cutting of trees at the company's discretion, "I can tell you right now, if you come into town and cut a limb off a tree in this town, you're going to get burned at the stake."

"If there's an issue where we have a tree that's encroaching on a telephone pole," the spokesman said, "I don't know that they'd take the entire tree down, but they would want to trim the branches away,"

Glenn brought up the Range fiber optic project also coming through the county, "How is that going to affect you guys? Is it going to be a thing where we have three different fiber optic companies in one area?"

Charter's representative opined, "There probably won't be an overlap there unless someone does it on their own dime because the locations we won are unserved or underserved."

"We'll be able to provide 1000/1000 symmetrical speeds to subscribers," Mores expounded on the difference between Charter and Range, "We're not the same as Range; we'll also bring the availability of cable and voice over internet telephone."

Carpenter also added to the draft, "If any established facility must be moved to enable trenching, the company is responsible for repairing or restoring said facilities." To which Mores agreed, "Not a problem, we're going to put everything back the way we found it."

The spokesman answered the question of a timeline for this endeavor, "We have to have these projects built by December 31, 2026." Glenn, speaking as a contractor who has laid many miles of pipe over the years, said, "That's a lot of pipe to put in the ground in two and a half years."

"We're a national company," Mores responded, "if we have to bring in resources from other places to get it done, we will because there is too much to lose, if we don't get it done, we don't get paid."

When asked the direction from which the fiber optic will originate, Mores admitted not knowing for sure, "but we are in Weston County also and I know we are picking up Osage and Upton."

Carpenter will draw up the final agreement using Charter's draft as well as the existing contracts the town has with Range and other leases as templates. Glenn proposed beginning the enterprise with the first of three readings to grant the franchise at the first June meeting of the Moorcroft Council, and asked when the company could begin their side of the work.

Mores will contact the company's construction crew to establish a practical time to break ground. "We want to get going as soon as possible."