Clerk's Home     Council Members      Meeting Info.      Schedule & Agendas     Civic Awards      Clerk's Site Map
 

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT:

Interim Municipal Access Agreement with Urban Networks Inc.

 

RECOMMENDATION

COMMENTS

POLICY

Execution of legal agreements by the Director of Legal Services and General Manager of Engineering Services with respect to access to City streets requires Council approval.

On July 30, 1996, when dealing with a report on Telecommunications Policies, Council approved a number of goals including one to ensure that the City maintains its authority to regulate equitable access to rights-of-way, secure valuable compensation for their use, minimize negative impacts associated with their use, and utilize them in a manner that furthers other telecommunications policy objectives.
PURPOSE

This report seeks Council approval to authorize staff to negotiate and execute an agreement with Urban Networks Inc.("Urban Networks") to allow them to install fibre optic cable in the City of Vancouver (the "City").

BACKGROUND

Urban Networks is a new telecommunications company that has submitted a proposal in response to a Request for Proposals issued by BCNet for the provision of fibre for high-speed internet access between local universities, colleges and teaching hospitals. BCNet is a computer network jointly managed by UBC, SFU and UVic to connect institutions of higher learning with business, government and non-profit organizations.

Urban Networks' proposal is to initially install a fibre optic network connecting the major universities, colleges and teaching hospitals. In addition, they intend to overbuild the network in order to market the use of these additional fibres to carriers, internet service providers, government agencies and commercial users. Urban Networks will install and own the fibre and lease the use of these fibres to others. Urban Networks will not be providing services in competition with the lessees of these fibres. Instead of having to construct their own build parallel to any alignment constructed by Urban Networks, carriers and service providers may choose to lease fibres from Urban Networks.

Over the past year, Council has approved general terms for interim agreements to allow WFI Urbanlink Ltd. (360networks), Novus Telecom Inc., Bell Intrigna Inc. and Wispra Networks Inc to install fibre optic cable in the City. These interim agreements all expire 90 days after the final decision (including appeals) on Vancouver's application to the CRTC concerning access to City streets by telecommunications companies. At that time, a new agreement with these companies will be negotiated based on that decision.

Under the interim agreement, the companies pay the City for up-front costs associated with permit application reviews, inspection of construction, traffic signing costs, lost parking meter revenues and street pavement repairs. While the City will recover these up-front costs, no amount is collected for street access fees until the final resolution of Vancouver's application to the CRTC, when such fees will be determined in accordance with the final decision and collected retroactively from the date of installation of fibre optic cable. Council also approved terms and conditions for an interim agreement with TeraSpan Networks Inc. to do a pilot fibre optic installation in Gastown. This differs from the other agreements in that TeraSpan agreed to pay a fixed fee rather than have a fee apply retroactively based on the CRTC decision, to provide more certainty on the fee amount.

The CRTC decision was released on January 25, 2001 and subsequently, the City filed an appeal to the Federal Court. On May 14, 2001 the Federal Court granted the City's request for leave to appeal and we expect the Federal Court will hear that appeal by the Spring of 2002. A further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, with leave of that Court, is a possibility, which would mean that this matter may not be resolved for a few years.

DISCUSSION

Urban Networks is the first company requesting a municipal access agreement since the CRTC decision was released. As the decision is under appeal, the form of interim agreement currently being used is appropriate to ensure consistent treatment of telecommunication companies and preserve the City's ability to recover access fees retroactively.

To allow Urban Networks to install and operate a fibre optic network in the City of Vancouver it is proposed to enter into an agreement with this company which is substantially in the form of the interim agreement approved by Council for WFI Urbanlink Ltd., Novus Telecom Inc., Bell Intrigna and Wispra Networks Inc.

Similar to the terms of the other interim agreements recently approved by Council, no street access fees would be collected from Urban Networks until the final resolution of Vancouver's application to the CRTC. Other proposed terms and conditions in the agreement with Urban Networks would be as follows:

· Term to be limited to 90 days after the resolution of the CRTC decision
· City to approve the locations of fibre and other equipment
· Urban Networks to pay the City for up-front costs associated with permit application reviews, inspection of construction, traffic signing costs, lost parking meter revenues and street pavement repairs.
· Urban Networks to provide as-built information relating to their facilities
· Urban Networks to indemnify the City to the satisfaction of the Director of Legal Services
· Urban Networks to pay for relocation costs where requested by the City

CONCLUSION

Staff recommend that Council allow installation of fibre optic networks in the City by Urban Networks subject to the execution of an interim Municipal Access Agreement to the satisfaction of the General Manager of Engineering Services and the Director of Legal Services.

* * * * *

ag010731.htm

Comments or questions? Send us e-mail at info@city.vancouver.bc.ca
© 2002 City of Vancouver