PUD asked for comment period before ending dark fiber

Fiber business plan being studied

EPHRATA - An operations manager with Northwest Telephone Inc., asked Grant County PUD commissioners Monday to allow time for public comment before ending the dark fiber wholesale program.

Dark fiber is unlit fiber without equipment installed, as opposed to lit fiber, which includes equipment, said Bill Mattson of Wenatchee-headquartered NTI.

NTI is a long-haul transport company that provides connectivity to rural markets for phone companies or the Internet, he said after the meeting.

Mattson said the company has been trying to secure dark fiber from the utility for the past two months.

NTI wants to start a 10-year contract with the PUD for dark fiber services, which would amount to $2 million, he said.

Grant PUD Commissioner Tom Flint told Mattson the commission would take what he said under advisement. The utility is in the process of reviewing its business plan for its fiber program, Flint added. He didn't confirm or deny if the program was ending.

Mattson also said other utility districts that don't offer dark fiber struggled to sell services on their network and are seeking retail authority at the state level. He asked commissioners to take his comments into consideration before going down the same path.

State law prevents public utilities from selling Internet services directly. Grant County PUD supplies a fiber-optic network and the Internet service providers directly retail Internet services to customers.

Grant County PUD program specialist Warren Miller said during the April 21 commission meeting that accusations alleging he was trying to bring "retail authority" to Grant County were "absolutely not true."

He also said the e-mail from an Internet provider representative also alleged Internet connection rates were being raised because Grant PUD wanted to prepare for retail authority.

Miller said the e-mail also claimed that retail authority was being sought in Pend Oreille County and Okanogan County.

Miller, a former telecom manager for Okanogan County PUD, said he didn't know if the claim was necessarily true.

The e-mail apparently linked Miller to Okanogan County because he used to work there, he said.

Miller said there was one point in time when he thought retail authority would work in Okanogan County because services weren't available in the matter the PUD could provide.

Joe Onley with Pend Oreille County PUD verified on Tuesday that two years ago the utility went before the state Legislature with a contingent of PUDs about retail authority in a group effort. Onley said legislation was proposed for a pilot project to see how retail authority would have worked for a public utility district.

The project would have included Pend Oreille PUD and Okanogan County PUD, but the proposal later died, he said.