Image
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Waterloo, Iowa Unveils Affordable Pricing For City-Owned Fiber Build
By
on
After years of strategizing, Waterloo, Iowa officials announced in February that they were moving forward with their plan to create a new utility aimed at delivering affordable fiber to every last city resident. While the resulting network is still very much in the planning and construction phase, officials this month released a new website for the project revealing service pricing.
According to the Waterloo telecommunications board, locals will have access to symmetrical 300 megabit per second (Mbps) service, symmetrical 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) service, and symmetrical 10 Gbps service for $50 a month, $70 a month, and $110 a month, respectively. The offerings will see no long-term contracts or usage caps.
Image
Unlike many municipalities, Waterloo is also offering both phone and television bundles. Phone and TV service bundled with 1 Gbps service will cost locals $180 per month, while phone and TV service bundled with 10 Gbps service will be $224 per month.
Andy Van Fleet, chairperson of the board of trustees, tells the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier that the pricing is notably lower than the prices charged by regional cable monopoly Mediacom. Van Fleet told the paper that Mediacom currently charges him $129 a month for 300 Mbps service, plus the added costs incurred by technically unnecessary usage caps and overage fees.
Image
Mediacom has long tried to undermine community broadband efforts using propaganda and misleading arguments, and in 2020 unsuccessfully lobbied for legislation attempting to eliminate municipal authority to offer market-based prices for Internet access.
Thanks to the network’s popularity with the public, Mediacom’s efforts have repeatedly failed in Waterloo. The city’s network will cost $115 million, take roughly three years to build, and ultimately deliver affordable fiber access at speeds up to 10 Gbps to all municipal buildings, anchor institutions, and all 67,695 city residents.
Of the 2,762 votes cast in September of 2022, more than 84 percent voted “yes” on a ballot question asking voters to approve the issuance of $20 million in general obligation bonds to begin network construction.
This $20 million investment is going toward the construction of a 100-mile fiber backbone network.
The backbone will not only help deliver residential and enterprise broadband service, but will help support and monitor the city’s sewer, storm water, traffic, and water systems.
Image
Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart posted a video providing an update to city residents, noting that service would be broadly available this fall, and urging locals to sign up for updates or explore the FAQ over at the city’s new fiber website.
The network is the culmination of local interest that’s been percolating for the better part of two decades. It was 2005 when local Waterloo voters first approved the creation of a municipal broadband utility to examine the option of the city providing a faster, cheaper access alternative.
“We are accountable to our community instead of corporate shareholders so you will receive more responsive service and local control,” the new website states. “Subscribers’ money stays in the community, paving the way for future technological and community enhancements that will strengthen Waterloo’s quality of life and its economic development potential.”
Watch video (below) of Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart updating city residents on the project:
Related Stories
ACP Rally and Next #B4DE Event Spotlight Broadband Affordability
Mark your calendars for the April 30 Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Rally and upcoming Building for Digital Equity Event focused on Pathways to Affordable Connectivity.
Cabot, AR Deploys 10 Gbps Capable City-Owned Fiber Network
Construction on a new city-owned fiber network in Cabot, Arkansas will soon bring affordable broadband access to every city resident and business in the state’s “Strawberry Capital.” The network comes courtesy of a partnership with Connect2First, the broadband subsidiary of local power company First Electric Cooperative Corporation, which continues to build on its significant presence across Arkansas.
Ruston, Louisiana Gives Up, Will Sell City-Owned Fiber Network
Ruston, Louisiana officials say they’re throwing in the towel, and will be selling a city-owned fiber network that has existed for the better part of 15 years. City officials say they finalized the decision at a city council meeting earlier this month, though they’d already sent out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for potential bidders as early as February.
Anti Muni Broadband Budget Amendment Gets Nixed in New York
Advocates for better Internet access are breathing a sigh of relief in New York as the State Assembly nixed a budget bill amendment that would have undermined the state’s municipal broadband grant program.
Joplin, Missouri Strikes Partnership With ALLO Fiber To Beef Up Local Broadband Competition
Joplin, Missouri has announced a new broadband public-private partnership (PPP) with ALLO Fiber that should help boost competition and lower rates across the city of 52,000. The partnership poses a particular challenge to regional cable giant CableOne, which currently enjoys a monopoly over broadband access across a whopping 83 percent of the city.
New Resource Alert: Rising Tide of Municipal Broadband Networks Fact Sheet
As the municipal broadband movement continues to gain momentum, here is a new fact sheet that highlights the dramatic surge in the building of publicly-owned, locally controlled high-speed Internet infrastructure. We also unveil a new map of municipal broadband networks across U.S.