Title
Broadband Community Survey and Community Broadband Network Project Updates and Possible Action
Recommended Action
I move that Council adopt a policy position that broadband is a basic essential service and direct the County Manager to pursue a procurement for an open access network operator to assist with the final network design, and potentially to build the infrastructure, that would enable the fiber to premise Community Broadband Network (CBN) project to proceed.
County Manager's Recommendation
The County Manager recommends that Council approve proceeding with the CBN project as requested.
Body
The notion of improving the community's access to high-speed internet services was studied in 2012 resulting in the 2013 Community Broadband Network (CBN) Study by Crestino Telecommunications Solutions. At the time, no further implementation action was taken due to the high cost and other infrastructure funding priorities. However, since that time the community's desire for improved internet connectivity persists and has heightened with the shift of more students doing remote learning and people tele-working and businesses offering their services and goods online - both during the Covid-19 pandemic and into the foreseeable future.
Council authorized $500,000 in the County's fiscal year 2022 budget to update the CBN study to identify and estimate necessary and/or potential investments in broadband infrastructure and evaluate service delivery options within the County. A service agreement was executed in March 2022 with Columbia Telecommunications Corporation (CTC) dba CTC Technology and Energy. CTC's and staff’s presentation is included as Attachment A.
Since the last update to Council on June 28, 2022, CTC has implemented the Community Survey, as well as facilitated stakeholder interviews and a public meeting this past October. The Attachment A presentation includes the summary survey results, updated costs to build the necessary CBN infrastructure, descri...
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