Template revised January 10, 2019.
COMMISSION
AGENDA MEMORANDUM
Item No.
8c
ACTION ITEM
Date of Meeting
September 9, 2026
DATE : August 14, 2026
TO: Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director
FROM: Jason Johnson, Asst Dir Airline Affairs & AV Properties
Matt Breed, Chief Information Officer
SUBJECT: Meet Me Room Term License Agreement
ACTION REQUESTED
Request Commission authorization for the Executive Director or Designee, to execute an Airport
Term License Agreement with Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast), and
other service providers on a form substantially similar to this License Agreement with Comcast,
to use the Meet Me Room (MMR) building and related infrastructure at Seattle-Tacoma
International Airport (Airport) on a non-exclusive basis. The proposed license term is for ten (10)
years.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Part of the Airport’s overall communication program is to improve core technology services and
modernize our infrastructure in an effort to provide the airport tenants with multiple available
service providers, while creating a new communication provider business model to recover some
of the costs of the infrastructure that has been built and installed. The Airport is in the midst of
completing (or has completed) multiple new communications infrastructure projects (i.e. the
MMR, Fiber Upgrade Project, Tenant DMARCs or demarcation points) that updated outdated
infrastructure. Upon completion, we will be able to connect the service providers from the street
to our tenants in the terminal. The next stage is to get these service providers under license
agreements so they can start providing telecommunication services (i.e. internet, phone, etc.) to
our tenants.
JUSTIFICATION
The Port has invested over $20 million in infrastructure that allows multiple service providers to
provide telecommunication services to our Airport tenants using Port-controlled fiber. This
investment responds to a long-standing request from our tenants. To support this, Port Legal
developed a license agreement that includes an easement exhibit, enabling service providers to
connect their systems to our tenants.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Action Item No. 8c Page 2 of 3
Meeting Date: September 9, 2026
Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).
This License with Comcast considers the installation of an empty conduit across International
Boulevard (which will be memorialized in a separate agreement between the Port and Comcast)
in lieu of furnishing the standard security deposit for the License. This conduit provides the
Airport a pathway from the MMR to provide service to International Place (aka the SeaTac Office
Center or STOC) that we recently acquired (subject to a future project to extend the service north
on the east side of International Boulevard). The cost savings we will realize from them providing
this pathway significantly exceeds the amount of the security deposit. The standard License
Agreement (as attached to this item) with other service providers includes the security deposit
requirement.
LICENSE TERM DETAILS
MMR Term License Agreement Terms
Tenant Name
Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC
Term
10 years
Monthly License Fee
$993.27 per rack per month (total TBD based on design)
License Fee Adjustment
License Fee will increase 3% annually on June 1
Permitted Use
Comcast shall use the Licensed Premises for the purpose of
providing communication services (on a non-exclusive
basis) to the Port, its customers and tenants at the airport.
Security Requirement
Comcast is running an additional 2” conduit for the Port in
lieu of providing a deposit. The License with other service
providers will contain the standard security deposit
requirement.
Insurance Requirement
General Liability ($5M), Auto ($5M)
ALTERNATIVES AND IMPLICATIONS CONSIDERED
Alternative 1 – Do not execute a license with Comcast (or any other service provider)
Cost Implications:
Pros:
(1) None
Cons:
(1) Airport tenants remain limited to using the sole legacy provider, resulting in a potential
single point of failure for tenant communications.
(2) The expensive assets we just built solely for this purpose sit empty/unused, or used only
by the Port, which means the costs are recovered through airport rates and charges
without receiving the benefit anticipated by the installation of those assets.
This is not the recommended alternative.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Action Item No. 8c Page 3 of 3
Meeting Date: September 9, 2026
Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).
Alternative 2 – Execute a license with Comcast (and other service providers on the standard
license form attached, as approved by Port Legal)
Cost Implications:
Pros:
(1) Utilize port-owned facilities and infrastructure by agreement which gives the Port more
control over its assets and utilization.
(2) Airport tenants will have a choice of service providers, fostering competition and more
robust products.
(3) We are able to recover some of the infrastructure costs through license fees, rather
than solely through Airport rates and charges to Airport tenants.
Cons:
(1) None
This is the recommended alternative.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The license fee is $993.27 per rack per month. Number of racks a service provider uses will be
determined during initial design, with some built in capacity for future growth. We can recover
some infrastructure costs through license fees instead of relying only on Airport rates and charges
to tenants.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
Our airport is in a unique situation in that we own the fiber backbone infrastructure. We designed
and implemented these integral projects (mentioned above) purposefully to connect service
providers to our tenants. By owning this infrastructure, we are able to control where it is
distributed throughout the Airport, rather than having service providers randomly distributing
this infrastructure as they see fit. This allows us to keep more accurate information regarding
this infrastructure in the future. We also keep these service providers from having to access
operational areas of the Airport that they really have no need to access.
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS REQUEST
(1) MMR License Agreement (attached is the boilerplate that includes the security deposit
language that will be used for other service providers)
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS
September 12, 2023, Item 8d, Final authorization for MMR Fiber (and building) Construction.
March 14, 2023, Item 8c, Communication Enhancement – Construction Authorization.
March 12, 2019, Item 6c, Tenant Network Demarcation (DMARC) Upgrade.
