Promoting broadband growth is an important issue with which all states need to contend. However, a communications policy analyst told the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) that Alabama has been slow to tackle issues recently handled by other states that impede broadband growth.

Utility pole attachments and replacements can be a significant cost for the installation of fiber broadband, especially as pole owners tend to have monopolies and set high rates in situations that aren’t regulated. But, Alabama lawmakers haven’t yet followed the lead of many other states to close the loopholes that lead to higher rates.

“I know some of the carriers are trying to make [legislators] serious about it, but it’s hard to do,” George Ford, chief economist at the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, told TPA.

Just as some states have been more proactive on the issues related to poles, others have not, such as North Carolina. So, Alabama isn’t alone in that regard, but the state has made inroads on connectivity in other ways. Lawmakers created the Alabama Digital Expansion Authority, a panel charged with establishing a statewide broadband expansion plan. That authority will determine where money from the federal American Rescue Fund stimulus plan will be allocated for broadband.

Ford worries about how that money will be distributed. He said no money should be allocated to an area that isn’t unserved.

“Every snake in the grass is going to come up to Montgomery looking for their cut,” he said. “There should be no money spent any other way [than in unserved areas] other than the replacement of poles.”

While municipal networks aren’t plentiful in Alabama, some cities learned their lessons the hard way – such as in Opelika – where bureaucrats sold their OPS One network for cents on the dollar. Residents will pay for that mistake for years to come in the form of higher power bills, since money from the electric division of Opelika Power Services (OPS) was used to subsidize the broadband division. An auditor called the broadband fund of OPS “a financial sinkhole.”

While government networks aren’t “all the rage” in the state, advocates will likely continue to push to connect every home with fiber. Ford thinks that’s a mistake. He said there will never be enough money to ensure 100 percent connectivity. But even those areas can generally get internet through their mobile phones, which Ford calls the future of broadband.

“You have to draw the line somewhere,” he said. “It’s a tough decision for policymakers to make.”

Alabama state Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville) who carried Senate Bill 215, which created the digital expansion authority in the House, expressed his goal of connecting as many homes as possible without putting more money into underserved regions. The state ranks 47th in the nation in broadband access.

“Our priority must be the unserved areas of the state,” Garrett said.

Lawmakers in the state hoped to pass sweeping gambling legislation in 2021, which would have legalized everything from casino games to sports betting with much of the money going toward broadband, but that effort failed.

Ford noted that the most expensive fiber connections for residents in the most out-of-the-way locations would cost an average of $50,000 per location.

“You can’t justify that,” he pointed out. “It would be cheaper to pay them to move.”

Ford expects a flurry of bills in 2022 dealing with how to divvy up money from the federal infrastructure bill. He said the legislation is full of pork at the federal level and he expects the money to go the same way at the state level – wasted on unnecessary projects.

“It would be nice to get most of the unserved areas served if we’re going to have to pay the taxes on the money,” he said. “All I know is there will be great effort to screw this up.”

Johnny Kampis is a senior fellow and investigative reporter for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. He is a former The Cullman Times and Tuscaloosa News reporter.