When the FCC decided late in 2017 to abandon network neutrality policy, Fort Collins City Council decided the time was right to move forward. In January, they voted to establish a municipal telecommunications utility. Their first step was in approving $1.8 million for startup costs, including hiring personnel, equipment, and consulting; the measure passed unanimously. The city council approved the loan from the city's general fund to the city's electric utility, which will establish the broadband utility to operate the network. After reviewing the many possible municipal fiber models, Fort Collins decided on the retail modelin which the city establishes a utility to offer services directly to each premise.
Check out the Fort Collins Broadband Business Plan to learn the details.
It's so crucial to keep energy high, yet maintain patience with the citizens and businesses. This community is excited and ready for the service. We're tired of being just another city with Comcast and CenturyLink. I think the lesson learned for us and the City of Fort Collins is learning to keep the public consistently informed and engaged, even if shovels aren't in the ground yet.
As the business plan states, it will take three to four years for the community to build out its Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) network within its entire growth management area. As a result, connecting every premise in the community will take time. Community leaders also want to keep people interested and engagedin order to learn from and use their input to develop a better utility.
They're posting news and information online and asking community members where they want the new infrastructure to serve them. Early this year, they launched a map where locals could drop a pin in locations where they'd like to see municipal Internet access. As the city plans the new network, this map can help them get an early indication of where interest is highest.
In addition to the mapping feature, the City's Broadband Project website allows individuals to sign up for updates, check out information, and follow the latest news about the network. People can leave questions in an open forum and city officials reply so others can also learn from their questions.
I'm quite pleased with the work being completed and milestones hit since the election last November. The citizens had high expectations post-election and they're being met. Council and staff have worked harmoniously in issuing the bonds, establishing governance, and updating the City Code in preparation for launch. I've been very impressed by how smooth and cohesive everything has been since the vote.
On April 24th, the City Council will begin finalizing appropriations for the bonds; Colin Garfield tells us that he anticipates a unanimous vote to pass the current bond issuance plan. Fort Collins plans to use the bulk of the bond issuance for capital and operating costs in 2018 to get the project off the ground while setting aside a smaller amount in reserve for 2019-2020 expenses.
You can review a detailed report on the plan for the bond issuance here.
Fort Collins is one of many Colorado communities that are leading the charge to shed themselves of the burdens that come with relying on giant, distant, corporate ISPs like Comcast. Places like Longmont, Rio Blanco County, and Cortez are taking steps to improve connectivity in the community. In the mean time, more than 120 local communities have already taken the first step by reclaiming local telecommunications authority.
Early in the campaign to bring the community together to educate and inform them about the facts of municipal networks, Garfield and Akins began scheduling local "Broadband and Beers" events. The idea has caught on and next they're heading up a similar get-together in Boulder, where the community has considered publicly owned Internet infrastructure for a few years. Christopher will also be at the event to answer questions. At the event, they'll also screen the documentary, "Do Not Pass Go" that tells the story of monopoly telecommunications power in North Carolina and Greenlight, Wilson's muni, has helped the tiny town of Pinetops begin a rebirth with gigabit connectivity. If you're interested in screening the film to share the message with your community that publicly owned options are worth investigation, check out our resource material, with information on scheduling a screening.
Listen to Colin and Glen talk with Christopher about "Broadband and Beers" and their work to bring the Fort Collins community to the polls in episode 282 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast.
Opinions expressed to us over the past few months are more in line with 'We're ready. When can we sign up?', rather than the old, broken tune of 'Why do we need this?'. It feels good to see that dynamic shift in the public sphere. Fortunately, we haven't encountered the same onslaught of misinformation and negativity that we did during the campaign. I attribute this shift to the fantastic community that is Fort Collins.
Photo Credit: Image of Downtown Fort Collins courtesy of Citycommunications at English Wikipedia [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.