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Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Fort Collins' Connexion Continues to Expand and Adds Construction Projections for Residents
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on
With a little less than a year left in its projected build schedule, Fort Collins (pop. 168,000) continues to make progress on its municipal fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, while also releasing new resources to help keep citizens informed and help households with affordability challenges stay online.
When we last checked in on Fort Collins' Connexion a little more than a year ago, the network was nearing a milestone, having spent roughly 49 percent of its construction budget. Today, the network is well over the halfway point of its $142 million-dollar build. In fact, it expects to be done placing vaults and with boring work in July.
Along the way, local officials have taken steps to increase transparency and improve communication with local residents. Last summer, it released a construction map of the networks' anticipated 357 fiberhoods, delineating which areas were in design, under construction, or fully lit.
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In addition, at the end of November of 2020 the network released a Network Status tracker so that users could see in each of the four quadrants of the city if connections were down.
The network also continues to offer a tier for income-qualified households who might have trouble paying for service. Anyone with access to the network currently "in a City income-qualified program," can get symmetrical gigabit Internet access for just $20/month. This means those connections are free for those able to particicipate in and apply the current federal Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB).
In fact, even after the the EBB transitions to the new Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) on March 1, the $30 monthly subsidy will still mean that the network's income-qualified access tier remains free, which should be a significant benefit for those in the city who desperately need to stay connected to the Internet but face financial pressures.
All the networks on the Front Range in Colorado continue to make progress, with 2022 looking like it will be a good year.
Watch a short video of the history of Fort Collins Connexion below.
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