
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
The city of Hudson in Northeast Ohio is considering ways to improve its broadband connectivity. As part of developing its “Broadband Needs Assessment and Business Plan,” the city has begun soliciting responses to a brief broadband survey. The goal is to get input from both residents and businesses to “examine the current state of the city's broadband services to identify ways the City can positively impact the delivery of broadband internet services in Hudson.”
We wrote about Hudson back in July, when they issued an RFP for their needs assessment and business plan. The current incumbent, Windstar, has left residents and businesses frustrated with slow speeds and poor customer service. The city already has an institutional network that connects some of its schools, utility and public safety facilities, and town hall. It hopes to be able to leverage and expand on those assets to further economic development and possibly provide home service at some point in the future. From the Hudson Hub Times:
"Our first step in this process is to assess the current broadband capacity and determine ways to help ensure we have access to the broadband and technology we need for Hudson to thrive," said City Manager Jane Howington. "We encourage Hudson residents to make their voices heard by taking the short residential survey on the city's website."
The survey, as well as a brief informational video from the city discussing some of the possible uses and value of fiber optic connections, is available here.
Subscribers to FairlawnGig – Fairlawn, Ohio’s municipal broadband network – are being upgraded to new service levels as the city-owned network bumps up speeds and slashes prices to make its fiber Internet service faster, and even more affordable. Earlier this week, FairlawnGig announced that subscribers who had been getting Fairlawn’s basic service tier of symmetrical 300 Megabits per second (Mbps) were being upgraded to symmetrical gig speed service – for the exact same price of $55/month.
In northeast Ohio, 15 miles north of Akron, the City of Hudson looks to modernize its telecommunications infrastructure through a public-private partnership that would expand the city-owned municipal fiber network, which now only serves part of the city, to reach all 22,000 residents who call Hudson home. The city wants every resident and business to have access to gig fiber service for the same afforable rate now being offered by its geographically-limited Velocity Broadband network. Proposals from prospective Internet service providers are due by Dec. 2.