Broadband Policy Coordinator William Vallee

Deck: 

Office of Consumer Counsel

Fortnightly Magazine - February 2019
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PUF's Steve Mitnick: Your job at the Office of Consumer Counsel is a little unusual. What is it like?

Bill Vallee: I love this job. This is the best job I've ever had, and I'm blessed to have it. [Connecticut Consumer Counsel] Elin Katz is the agency head and she truly gets broadband and the digital divide. She's dynamic with explaining issues and concepts. She's skilled at things I'm not, like the politics, and how to interact with folks. I'm a corporate finance lawyer by trade, coming from tax exempt bonds at a Wall Street firm.

My job is to try and find external investors to invest in Connecticut. The goal of all of this is to get one fiber line, just like there is only one electric line, to every house. Fiber to the Premises is what it's known, or as the last mile.

PUF: What are you working on now? More broadband?

Bill Vallee: Yes, more than ever, since cable and telephone have been almost entirely subsumed into broadband and internet access services. And the companies are largely deregulated under state law and PURA regulations.

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