STATE EYES FIBER-OPTIC CABLES OFF COASTLINE
Wednesday, July 12, 2000
BY Lesley Clark, Miami Herald

Today's Internet business world might operate at the speed of light, but some of those companies are discovering that state government doesn't. Two companies that want to put fiber-optic cables underwater off Florida's coastline agreed Tuesday to pay for the privilege as they wait for the state to come up with rules on who pays and how much.
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet urged state environmental officials to develop a pricing structure rapidly, warning that the state doesn't want to lose any e-business.

"In this field, six months is very important,'' Bush said. "We are the gateway in the `old economy' to Latin America; we sure as heck ought to be the gateway in the `new economy.' If we need to be wired, this isn't something that should take time and get tangled up in lobbying.''

At issue is whether - and how much - private companies should compensate the state for using state-owned land, even if it is underwater. For years, there's been no fee because the companies dropping cable to transmit voice and video were considered public utilities, like phone giant AT&T. But now that private companies such as Internet service providers are interested in fiber optics to carry data between the continents, ``the bright line between public and private purposes has faded,'' a research paper by the state Department of Environmental Protection said.

State officials said they've been studying the issue for a year, but haven't yet figured out who is a public party and who is private and how much they should pay.

Phil Coram with DEP said until AT&T laid cable in 1998 off Hollywood, the state had handled just four projects in the past 40 years.

"Now within the last six months, we've had six projects in the door,'' he said.

And with their applications pending, New York-based Atlantica USA and New Jersey-based Tyco Submarine Systems Limited agreed to pay a one-time fee of $5 a foot per cable - or about $90,000 for three miles of cable.

Tyco - with plans for two cables and four conduits for the future - is bringing cable ``up the coast of Brazil'' and would ``like to have it under the ocean floor before the heart of the hurricane season in September,'' said Gary Early, an attorney for Tyco. The company plans to run two cables off Boca Raton that will connect Florida to Central and South America.

An attorney for AT&T said the company has a ``little difficulty'' with the fees, noting that the land the cable traverses has been treated like a bridge or a road.

Cable, Michael Tammaro said, ``is merely an evolution in form, a new highway of commerce.''

And he noted the fee would likely be passed on to the consumer.

According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, Florida is one of the few coastal states that doesn't charge private companies for using submerged land to lay cable - other than a $200 application fee.

Steve Medina of the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, urged the state to charge more than $5 a foot, noting the cables are placed atop fragile coral reefs and that companies are sometimes required to replace damaged reef with artificial material.
"We ought to price in a very high way things that are unquestionably bad for Florida's environment,'' Medina said.