The Iowa communications network: The policy implications of publicly funded infrastructure

Telecommunications Policy

Volumn 22, Issue 7, 1998, Pages 617-627

  Caristi, Dom ^a  

^a BALL STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DISTANCE EDUCATION; LAWS AND LEGISLATION; LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE SYSTEMS; PUBLIC POLICY; TELECOMMUNICATION CONTROL; TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES; TELECOMMUNICATION TRAFFIC;

LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE TRAFFIC;

TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS;

EID: 0032138389     PISSN: 03085961     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0308-5961(98)00040-8     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. See T. Bonnett, Telewars in the States (1996) or The Twenty-one Most Frequently Asked Questions About State Telecommunications Policy, 1997.
2. The first RFP in 1987 was awarded but later challenged and rejected. The second, in 1990, was rejected by the state because the bids were too high.
3. Iowa Communications Network, 15 August 1997.
4. Remarks by Iowa State Senator Michael Gronstal and State Representative Brent Siegrist at the Iowa/Nebraska Cable Convention, Council Bluffs, Iowa, 17 July 1997.
5. Iowa Communications Network, 15 August 1997.
6. Iowa Code Section 8D.
7. See, e.g., Hanley, Small towns, big plans. Telephony 2 June 1997 (division administrator of business development at the Iowa Department of Economic Development claiming the ICN exists for economic growth).
8. Iowa Code Section 8D.
9. Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission Meeting Minutes. Johnston, Iowa, 10 June 1997.
10. Yepsen, Fiber-optic net's chief offers plan to finish it. Des Moines Register 16 February 1995, 12.
11. Coming soon to a school near you. ISEA Communique, June 1995, 1.
12. The Wiring of Iowa. The Economist 15 July 1995, 19.
13. Yepsen, Auditor urges slowdown on finishing fiber network. Des Moines Register, 28 February 1995, 8.
14. Shors, Fiber-optic frenzy. Des Moines Business Record, 16 June 1997, (statement by Iowa House Majority Leader Brent Siegrist).
15. Mollenkamp and Gray, Potential sites balk at info highway. Raleigh News and Observer, 1 April 1995, 1.
16. Donald D. Miller, Northwest telephone cooperative association. Interview with the author, 16 July 1997.
17. Eggley, ICN's expansion is unfair, unwise. Des Moines Register, 22 July 1997, 9.
18. Kao, Initiatives push privatization envelope. Government Technology, September 1997, 1.
19. Lutterbeck, Muni telecoms. Infrastructure Finance, April 1997, 14.
20. King, ICN study launches competition debate. Des Moines Business Record 12 June 1995, 7.
21. Shors, supra Note 1.
22. Eggley, supra Note 1.
23. Interview with J. Kent Jerome, Executive Vice President. Iowa Telephone Association, 18 August 1997.
24. Authorized users for Internet access via the ICN are the same as those for other services with the exception of hospitals and physician clinics.
25. Iowa Utilities Board, Study of the impacts of the Iowa Communications Network upon the Iowa telecommunications industry, 1995.
26. Id.
27. Iowa Senate File 519. 1997 Legislative Session.
28. Comments of the Iowa telecommunications association re: notice of intended action to amend 751 Iowa administrative code. Filed 19 August 1997.
29. This research was funded in part by the Rural Development Initiative of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. College of Agriculture, Iowa State University.
30. 94.4 percent of Iowa telephone company managers were interviewed by telephone during June, 1997. There are 153 Iowa telephone companies, but only 144 different managers because some manage more than one system.
31. 20 percent specifically named the ICN, while the other 12 percent answered generally, such as 'government entry into private enterprise', competition from the state or 'unfair competition'.
32. Couch, 'Local Internet set organizes for its own good'. Des Moines Register, Business Page 28 July 1997, 3.
33. Shors, supra Note 1.
34. Id.
35. ICN Homepage, http://www.icn.state.ia. us. As might be expected, this is not the perspective of private telephone companies. A Task Force reported to the ITTC in its 1995 report. 'Telephone companies felt alienated from the Part I and II bidding process for several reasons'. Some even contend 'the ICN was passed as a backroom, dark-hours-of-the-morning 'deal' with no real public debate. Key players who pushed the project through ended up as paid consultants or vendors to the project.' Eggley, supra note 1. See also Lutterbeck, supra Note 19 (the Iowa legislature created the ICN by 'slip[ping] a provision into a conference committee report').
36. PVC is the means by which a remote location connects to a frame relay switch. This allows more thorough monitoring of circuits.
37. DS-3 lines are high capacity lines which allow full motion video over the system. Many long distance carriers use DS-3 lines for heavy-traffic areas.
38. Report to the Iowa Legislature House File 461 Task Force from the Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission. 30 October 1995.
39. Id.
40. Lutterbeck, supra Note 19.
41. Elstrom, A collision on the Iowa I-way. Business Week, 19 May 1997, 44.
42. Iowa Legislature House File 730, signed by the governor 23 May 1997.
43. Telecommunications and Technology Commission of Iowa Administrative Rules, Chapter 10.2, as amended, 1997.
44. Information provided by Ingrid Johnson. ICN Outreach Coordinator, 25 August 1997.
45. See, e.g., Caristi, The Iowa communications network: a policy perspective'. 48, Annual Review of Communication, 1995, 679.
46. Eggley, supra Note 1.
47. Elstrom, supra Note 41.
48. Bragg, Iowa Communications Network suffers growing pains. Dubuque Telegraph Herald, 1 April 1997, A-10.
49. Brittain, What you need to know: New discounts cut the toll for diving the information superhighway. T.H.E. Journal, Septerber 1997, 52.
50. Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission. Federal Communications Commission Docket 96-45, 1997.
51. United States Telephone Association, Federal Communications Commision Docket 96-45, 1997.
52. 47 U.S.C. Sec. 153.
53. Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission, supra Note 5.
54. Id. at 5 (emphasis added).
55. Id. at 7.
56. United States Telephone Association. supra Note 5, at 4.
57. In fact there are some exemptions outlined. See 47 USC 254.