EAGLE-Net Pressed for Answers, as It Seeks Operator
Colorado’s legislative audit committee pressed the EAGLE-Net Alliance to produce documents and meet next month. The auditors had first requested several documents from NTIA stimulus grantee ENA, focused on connecting Colorado’s schools, in March. “I am disappointed that ENA has refused to produce these documents requested by the Committee,” said the Tuesday letter from Colorado State Rep. Angela Williams (D), the committee chairwoman, and seven other state legislators. It asked the intergovernmental entity to produce the records by Aug. 15.
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The committee voted to send the letter at its Tuesday meeting, Legislative Audit Independent Contributor Jenny Atchley told us. The committee has tried with varying levels of success to work with the entity, which has undergone significant controversy in the last year. Controversies range from allegations of overbuilding starting last year to partial suspension by NTIA from December through April to questions of its funding and a need for more time and money to complete its goals. EAGLE-Net received a $100.6 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant from the agency and retains its obligations to NTIA and that grant now. Three congressional Republicans have also pressed the grantee for answers (CD June 21 p18) on its funding, operations and plans and called for answers by July 8. Natalie Farr, chief of staff for Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., told us that as of Tuesday, neither Gardner nor the House Commerce Committee has received any EAGLE-Net documents to her knowledge.
The audit committee wants “sustainability reports and revenue projections, together with reasonably detailed supporting information that demonstrates the feasibility of operating, maintaining, and upgrading ENA’s network based on a limited number of possible users,” said the letter from the eight Colorado legislators. It also asked for a complete list of services the entity planned to offer and the costs, fees and rates associated with those, in addition to the basis and methods for calculating those and for the margin of maintenance. EAGLE-Net must also inform the committee of “all agreements of any kind or description between ENA and any private providers of telecommunications or internet services,” the letter said.
The letter referred to a February meeting between the committee and EAGLE-Net in which the entity “agreed to return before the Committee to continue the incomplete discussion of important issues of statewide concern and to address outstanding questions” on its operations, it said. The audit committee reiterated that desire and said it now expects EAGLE-Net to appear the morning of Aug. 27.
In May, EAGLE-Net issued an invitation to negotiate (ITN), looking for a private operator to take over the operations of the network and infuse it with $8 million. That document said the entity hopes to have selected an operator by next week. EAGLE-Net reports that at a respondents conference in late May (http://bit.ly/15Nec2D), attendees included Affiniti, Bijou Telephone Corp., CenturyLink, Dobson Technologies, Forethought.net, G4S Technologies, Gunnison County LTPT, Indiana University, Integra, Kentec Communications, LightBound, Rebeltec Communications, Strata Networks, Unite Private Networks and Zayo Group.
This process alienated many of the smaller telcos that attacked the entity throughout the last year. “The terms of the ITN automatically preclude CTA [Colorado Telecommunications Association] members from participating due to the financial and operational requirements,” said Rep. Williams in a briefing submitted at the meeting Tuesday. “CTA believes that if the ITN is successful, it will further impact members where the ENA network has been deployed because it will subsidize new commercial competitors in the local market.” To make EAGLE-Net sustainable, it will need to “take customers and revenue away from the local providers,” she said, contrasting the cooperative and family-owned nature of some of the smaller companies and London-based G4S Technologies, a publicly traded potential bidder. CTA Executive Vice President Pete Kirchof confirmed to us that the document accurately captures the concerns of his members.
Williams questioned whether the grantee has meaningful oversight, noting that both it and NTIA “continue to avoid answering basic questions about their finances and operations.” NTIA defended the grantee and its finances when reactivating it this spring. EAGLE-Net didn’t comment by our deadline.