I have many of my own opinions about Burlington Telecom, its role in our community, and its future. As a member of this committee, I’m more interested in bringing the opinions of others forward. If you’re part of the Burlington community, please share with me your thoughts about Burlington Telecom. What do you want out of Burlington Telecom? What attributes of Burlington Telecom are important to you? Please share these thoughts publicly on Google Moderator. I’ve shared a few of my own thoughts to get things started.

As I mentioned, I have my own opinions about Burlington Telecom. To understand further where I’m coming from, I’ve included here a truncated version of the letter I sent applying to be on the committee.

Dear City Councilors:

Enclosed for your consideration is my application to join the Burlington Telecom Advisory Committee. I was one of the first beta customers when Burlington Telecom launched. I am now both a residential and a business customer. I was enthusiastic about the vision for Burlington Telecom from the moment I first heard about it. As someone who spends a good portion of his personal and professional life online, I understood immediately the cultural and economic benefits that an advanced fiber optic network could bring to our city.

…

Burlington Telecom is the 21st century equivalent of rural electrification, at a local scale. Like electricity in the 1930s, private companies are unwilling to invest in a telecommunications infrastructure that will spur economic growth in less populated areas. Companies like Verizon have gone so far as to divest their networks in non-metropolitan areas so that they don’t need to build-out modern broadband infrastructure in these places.

The Burlington Electric Department proudly states, “public power since 1905.” The City of Burlington created the Burlington Electric Department a full 30 years before the forming of the Rural Electrification Administration at the federal level. The City of Burlington seemed to have similar foresight when they created Burlington Telecom. Perhaps Burlington Telecom is an idea that is ahead of its time. Maybe we should wait several decades for a national initiative on telecommunications infrastructure. Alternatively, we can be proud of what has been done with Burlington Telecom. There are serious challenges to maintaining Burlington Telecom as a public resource, but these are challenges worth addressing.

Like the Burlington Electric Department, I believe that the people of Burlington can again be proud of Burlington Telecom. During Tropical Storm Irene, my house lost power for only 30 minutes. This was a point of civic pride for me and provided an exemplar of how our public utilities can be operated. Burlington taxpayers have regularly voted to fund Burlington Electric Department initiatives around green energy, energy efficiency, and general infrastructure improvement. If people can be proud of things as intrinsically boring as utilities and electricity, then we can be proud of a state-of-the-art fiber optic network that provides high-speed Internet, television, and telephone services.

As a member of the Burlington Telecom Advisory Committee, I hope to understand more fully the challenges facing Burlington Telecom and advise the City Council on addressing these challenges while maintaining Burlington Telecom as the vital public resource that it is. I am an advocate for a vision of Burlington Telecom not as a burden, but as a source of great opportunity for our city.

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Since then, several people have shown their support using the #rebootbt hashtag on Twitter. Hopefully many have also been calling their City Councilors to tell them that they support pursuing this plan. Bill Simmon posted the letter he wrote to Councilor Keogh. Today Councilor Shannon sent the following draft resolution to her fellow City Councilors (I’ve been told that this is public information which is why I’m posting it here):

Sponsors:  Councilor Shannon

Resolution to Consider offer of Reboot BT

WHEREAS on February 17, 2010 a group of 9 telecom and business professionals offered both their expertise and substantial financial resources to support Burlington Telecom;

WHEREAS the Mayor has chosen not to engage this group in discussion;

WHEREAS Burlington Telecom was created by resolution of the city council and it remains subject to the orders and ordinances, and ultimate oversight, of the city council;

WHEREAS the City must give thoughtful consideration to all options available to address the financial distress of Burlington Telecom and the City of Burlington;

WHEREAS this offer has become known as “Reboot BT”; and

WHEREAS many Burlington citizens have urged the Mayor and City Council to reconvene the Blue Ribbon Committee to give consideration to the proposal of “Reboot BT”; and

WHEREAS the City Council views this proposal more as a short term proposal that may open the door to more partnership options and a stronger negotiating position in the longer term; and

WHEREAS the administration and Council have taken steps to hire financial advisors to negotiate both with our current lender, CitiLeasing, and with potential partners;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the City Council requests that the Blue Ribbon Committee reconvene for the purpose of evaluating the offer from Reboot BT and advising the Council as to whether or not the City should entertain this offer and under what conditions and terms this offer could benefit the City of Burlington.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the City Council requests that the Blue Ribbon Committee review and evaluate any other offers that the administration deems pertinent to the discussion and decision making process.

It’s my understanding that this resolution will be discussed at Monday’s City Council meeting. If you’re a Burlington citizen and support the Reboot BT plan, then please contact your City Councilor if you haven’t already.

Here in the city of Burlington, Vermont (where I live and work) I am proud of the fact that we have a municipally-owned, state-of-the-art fiber-optic telecommunications network. Municipal control over the network, Burlington Telecom, helps keep its goals aligned with the interests of Burlington’s citizens.

Burlington Telecom is currently experiencing some financial troubles. The City Council has formed a Blue Ribbon Committee to assess the viability of Burlington Telecom. The committee’s official report is due out today. Tomorrow (Thursday, 2/11) the City Council will discuss this report.

The scope of the Blue Ribbon Committee’s assignment and the City Council’s thinking seems too limited. They seem focused on the short term financial sustainability of Burlington Telecom rather than the long term benefits (which are many) of owning our own telecommunications infrastructure. A recent Ars Technica article on why municipal fiber needs more FDR localism and fewer state bans quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt as saying:

I therefore lay down the following principle: That where a community—a city or county or a district—is not satisfied with the service rendered or the rates charged by the private utility, it has the undeniable basic right, as one of its functions of Government, one of its functions of home rule, to set up, after a fair referendum to its voters has been had, its own governmentally owned and operated service.

Other telecommunications options in this city include Comcast and FairPoint. Comcast is not interested in creating an open network that can be used equally by all. Comcast, a telecom provider, is in the process of buying a controlling stake in a content producer, NBC Universal. This is bad news for advocates (like myself) of network neutrality. FairPoint just filed bankruptcy plans. They do not have the resources to create the infrastructure that our city needs in the 21^st century. This is why Burlington Telecom was created.

Locally owned businesses give more to the community, spend more money in the community, and are far more likely to stay in the community. Verizon left us when they sold their Vermont network to FairPoint. Comcast is a massive corporation with little interest in our small city. Locally run and municipally-owned telecommunications will serve us much better than the alternatives.

The options being discussed revolve around selling off Burlington Telecom, either in part or in whole. If we decide to sell off Burlington Telecom to private equity we will look back in 10, 20, or 30 years and regret that we off-loaded such a great resource to private interests. If we keep it, the current financial issues will look insignificant in comparison to the revenue that Burlington Telecom will generate and the opportunities of having a municipally-owned open network will create.

I hope that Burlington citizens and City Council can put their heads together and come up with a solution that allows Burlington Telecom to continue to be owned by the citizens of Burlington. Several ideas have surfaced from the  #isupportbt_vt conversation on Twitter including:

• invite other providers to compete using Burlington Telecom’s infrastructure;
• convert Burlington Telecom into a cooperative; and
• have a referendum asking Burlington voters if they want to fund Burlington Telecom.

Have other suggestions? Please come to Thursday night’s meeting so that you can share your ideas with the City Council.