Future-Proof Fiber Broadband
Connection to the internet has become an essential utility like electricity and water. And while consumer demand for bandwidth skyrocketed during the pandemic, it revealed that the communication infrastructures in small towns and rural areas are painfully out-of-date.
The lack of reliable broadband access is driving residents out of communities they love, and preventing people from moving in. Communities can’t rely on the incumbent carriers to build the infrastructures they need. Residents and businesses need reliable high-speed bandwidth now.
Although years away from mass market deployment, 5G wireless networks are still heavily dependent on a high fiber backbone to connect the access points. They also require electrical power at the node to operate. Starlink, the 100Mb satellite Internet delivery system being launched by SpaceX, is a cost-effective solution for truly rural areas of the world. However, it will never deliver the gigabit service that land-based fiber provides.
Municipality owned passive optical fiber networks are the most reliable, cost-effective solution to deliver gigabit speed services and ensure an infrastructure that can support future technology services.
Advantages for Municipalities
Lower Capital Costs
As a municipality, you have an advantage over private businesses with your access to the tax-free bond market and the ability for long-term revenue payback.
Right of Way
Municipalities own the right of way. This is a significant advantage over private service providers when constructing underground cable plants, especially in large cities.
Easy Upgrade Path
Fiber is future-proof. The entire network is passive. Bandwidth is limited to the capability of the electronic equipment at the ends.
Community Benefits
Economic Development
Revenue-generating broadband networks open communities for business growth. Reliable, high-speed internet access improves the productivity of existing businesses, allows telecommuting, creates new jobs, and attracts new businesses to remote communities.
Enhanced Property Values
Direct access to high-speed fiber Internet can add an average of 3.1% to a home’s value according to research by the Fiber to the Home Council Americas. It also showed that private properties with 1 Gbps connections are selling for an average of 7 percent more than those with 25 Mbps or lower. Beyond this, renters are willing to pay more for apartments with fiber connections.
Job Creation
FTTx access brings new jobs to communities. These jobs are generated by growth of existing businesses and new business creation. Many fields are now knowledge-based rather than location-based, and employees can choose to live anywhere that has a reliable high-speed connection.
Enhanced Community Services
High-speed communications networks can promote social good and advance human services by simplifying access to health care, enhancing public safety services, improving schools, expanding the offerings of libraries, and allowing remote enrollment in higher education and participation in the arts.
Telemedicine
FTTx networks provide greater access to health care without traveling long distances. Health outcomes can improve for people inclined to delay medical visits if they must travel to see a doctor. Communities with healthier populations enjoy stronger local economies as the economic burden of health care is reduced.
Residential Growth
FTTx networks attract people to move into town, tourists to visit, and existing residents to stay to enjoy the benefits of bandwidth. Often newcomers are young families who use local schools and support local businesses and institutions. More bandwidth means more connected devices, more streaming, and more choices.
New Income Sources
FTTx networks can generate revenue. For example, in tourist locations like Block Island, local businesses can advertise on public WIFI networks that are free to visitors. When the town owns the network, these advertising revenues flow to the community.
