Erica Meltzer

Boulder may ask voters to give the city the authority to provide its own high-speed Internet and telecommunications services. In a memo to the City Council, Boulder officials asked that a ballot measure "affirming" the city's right to offer such services be placed on the November ballot.

There are no specific plans in place to provide such services as a city venture or as a public-private partnership, the memo said. However, state law does not allow cities to offer telecommunications services unless their voters approve an exemption.

The Boulder City Council decided to consider a ballot measure after lobbying efforts to change state law were unsuccessful this session.

Boulder has roughly 100 miles of fiber-optic cable providing high-speed Internet capabilities to city offices, the University of Colorado and the federal labs, but because the city is restricted by state law, Boulder hasn't been able to expand that network to offer similar capabilities to residents or businesses, officials said.