Communications networks cover wide geographic areas and represent large investments. There are significant opportunities for cooperative partnership with regional agencies and many of these partnerships have been initiated already by the City. The installation of fiber optic cables through downtown Seattle has allowed the City and its partners, including King County, the University of Washington and others, to acquire increased communications capacity at significant savings. Public Telecommunication Needs. The City of Seattle also owns and operates utilities which provide the utility poles and conduit often needed to provide telecommunication services.
Consideration needs to be given to promoting competition while minimizing public disruption.
The City has recently passed new regulations to promote coordinated planning of utility street cuts, including those by telecommunications carriers. The City must also facilitate access to newly developed services and technologies that can make Seattle a good place to live and do business. For example, Seattle was one of the first cities to approve Metricom's installation of its wireless modem technology. Together with other regional government agencies, the City can provide a leadership role in the development of policies to improve the supply of bandwidth and access to key technologies such as wireless. Improved regional bandwidth will require major private investments which may be influenced by access to the rights of way, for instance.