EPHRATA — A dark fiber rate schedule received the board of commissioners' OK last week for customers looking to use the Grant County Public Utility District's unlit "backbone" fiber optic system cables, and received final approval from the district's legal counsel Monday.

The new rate schedule officially becomes effective July 1.

The district also finalized a telecommunications facilities license agreement, enabling wholesale customers to utilize the utility's dark fiber, which refers to unused fiber optic strands in the district's high-speed backbone transport network.

The problem, however, is the rates can change at any time and the term of the license agreement cannot be guaranteed for longer than three months.

Earlier this year, a statewide telecommunications company submitted a request to lease dark fiber.

That company, Northwest Open Access Network, plans to use the dark fiber to help connect both Yahoo! and Microsoft Network's new facilities — planned for construction in Quincy — to NoaNet's network for transport to Seattle and out to the rest of the world.

NoaNet wanted the term of the license agreement to be five years, or longer, to serve their Internet-giant customers. Even more importantly, they wanted the rates to be locked during the length of the agreement. They'll get neither.

District general manager Tim Culbertson and treasurer-controller Nick Gerde said NoaNet was "disappointed," "surprised" and "taken-aback" by the resulting license agreement and rate schedule for dark fiber.

Tom Villani, strategic alliance manager for NoaNet, said they have been in contact with the district about the rates and license agreement, but he declined to discuss the impacts.

Last month, Villani said Yahoo! and Microsoft Network requested 10-year terms and that NoaNet would prefer to have rates fixed for five years, or more.

"It's essential that costs remain constant over the term of the agreement," Villani said. "That is likely to be a requirement of our customers. There's no point in a long-term contract where the rates can fluctuate monthly."

Under the current rates, the one-time connection charge is $750 per strand mile, or a minimum of $35,000, whichever is greater. The monthly charge is $55 per strand mile for the initial two strands of the district's dark fiber, and $20 per strand mile for the second pair, per customer.