A bill crafted to protect private sector interests in the expansion of broadband service attracted an afternoon's worth of attention today at the State House, where supporters and opponents of the legislation squared off on what some critics were referring to as a FairPoint bill. FairPoint Communications supports the measure, which would prohibit state agencies from providing telecommunications services to other state agencies or their tenants.

State Rep. Stacey Fitts, a Pittsfield Republican, insists that his bill is simply an attempt to level the playfield for telecommunications in Maine. "This bill is about unfair subsidized service to customers, especially commercial customers by governmental supported networks. Those capabilities should not be used for this purpose."

In a hearing before the Legislature's Utilities and Energy Committee, Fitts made it clear he was uncomfortable with the University of Maine's telecommunications network that connects the university with the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. Fitts says the proposed legislation would preserve that link, but would prohibit any further expansion by the university -- something that the lawmaker says would obstruct efforts of companies like FairPoint to expand high-speed Internet service to rural Maine.

"So LD 1697 does the following: It prohibits state entities from providing telecommuncations services to anyone other than themselves and their tenants; it prohibits the state from seeking bids for telecommunications services that intentionally discriminate against particular companies; it empowers individuals to sue the state, if it violates the law; and it makes the University of Maine play by the sames rules as private providers for pole connections -- there's no free lunch."

"We believe that this legislation actually creates a clear directive to the state entities, and essentially what's being asked in this bill is that state funds not be used to inhibit private investment in broadband infrastructure," says Beth Ossler of the Telephone Association of Maine.

Ossler says telecommunications providers have to be assured that they won't have to compete with a large state entity like the University of Maine System.

"Now it's not that anyone's trying to do something horrid, or trying to be sneaky," she says. "It's clear that sometimes you look at projects in the short term without realizing the significant and serious ripple effects making decisions can have in the marketplace. Broadband costs are high -- it costs a lot money to invest in the infrastructure in order to provide broadband, and those costs have to be recouped through rates assessed to customers."

"FairPoint is more concerned with attempting to undo the good work we have done encouraging the University of Maine System to provide broadband service to our citizens," says state Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, an Orono Democrat.

Schneider says FairPoint Communications should focus more on keeping its promise to expand broadband coverage in Maine. "FairPoint has demonstrated on numerous occasions they are unable to handle the customers they have today," she says. "Instead they seem bound and determined to take us back to the dark ages, attempting to limit the good work the Maine Legislature and the university system has done to expand broadband service to Maine entities that have previously been underserved or unserved.

Members of the Utilities and Energy Committee are scheduled to continue work on the boradband bill next month.