Hudson, Ohio officials are now accepting bids on a promising new fiber-to-the-home network that should dramatically improve affordable, next-generation broadband access in the city of 23,000.

It’s just the latest effort by a city that has been exploring the option of municipal broadband infrastructure for more than a decade.

Just 15 miles north of Akron, the city has spent the better part of the last three years preparing to forge a new public-private-partnership (PPP) to expand access.

The city already owns and operates its own broadband network (Velocity Broadband, launched in 2015), but it exclusively serves the city’s businesses with gigabit-capable fiber.

The city’s new partnership would leverage that existing business network and core fiber assets to finally bring fiber optic connectivity to the city’s residents.

“The proposed work includes the installation of new fiber optic infrastructure, including approximately 11,750 lineal feet of 1.5-inch underground HDPE fiber conduit via horizontal directional drilling, 7,900 lineal feet of new aerial fiber, the placement of underground fiber vaults and handholes, and the subsequent fiber optic cable installation and testing,” the city’s proposal states.

Baltimore city leaders have issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a partner willing to help the city’s ongoing efforts to expand affordable broadband access to marginalized city residents.

According to the RFP, the city’s latest efforts would help bring affordable, high-speed Internet to over 4,100 new housing units spread across eight different public housing communities.

“The RFP is part of Baltimore's Broadband Access Initiative, a citywide effort aligned with our broader Digital Inclusion Strategy to close the digital divide – starting with communities that have been historically underserved,” Baltimore Communications Manager Rafael McFadden says of the effort.

Data indicates that Baltimore, population 565,000, sees some of the highest rates of digital disconnectivity in the nation. Over 96,000 Baltimore households lack wireline Internet service, and 75,000 city residents lack access to a desktop or laptop computer.

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Baltimore has used American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to create a $5 million Digital Equity Fund grant program, which is driving partnerships with local nonprofits to expand access and improve local digital literacy. The city’s digital equity report, released last March, details the progress the city has made in bridging the digital divide over the last two years.

In addition to numerous other initiatives, the city says it continues to expand its public Wi-Fi network, FreeBmoreWiFi.

Baltimore activists and leaders say the city is making steady progress in efforts to bridge the digital divide in the city of 565,000. The efforts have culminated in several grant-fueled initiatives to deliver fiber and wireless to city apartment complexes, a city middle-mile network, and a looming partnership with regional providers to further expand affordable access.

When we last checked in with Baltimore, the city had just doled out $2 million of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to bring fiber to 12 new city apartment buildings. The deployment is in partnership with Waves, a nonprofit formerly known as Project Waves.

Waves was first launched in 2018 in direct response to the Trump FCC’s repeal of net neutrality and the general failures of federal telecom policy to address digital inequity. Project Waves (profiled by ILSR in 2023) initially used Point-to-Multipoint wireless connectivity to deliver free wireless broadband service to about 300 multi-dwelling unit (MDU) residents.

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Now Baltimore Director of Broadband and Digital Equity Kenya Asli tells Government Technology the city is putting the finishing touches on a Request for Proposal (RFP) to strike a new public-private-partnership with an as-yet-unselected broadband provider. The deal should further expand fiber access to unserved and underserved parts of the city.

“Folks want more options, and so we are bringing in more options,” Asli said.

Frustrated by years of substandard broadband service from regional telecom monopolies, Kendall County, Illinois residents have joined the growing chorus of Americans that are tackling the problem head on by building their own better, faster, more affordable fiber networks.

The Kendall County network, part of a public-private partnership (PPP or P3) with Pivot-Tech, is being funded by a tax-free revenue bond.

Kendall County officials tell ILSR that the full cost of the network, which will include private investment from Pivot-Tech, is expected to ultimately be $67 million, serving more than 13,000 locations county wide.

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The first phase of the network build will consist of a combination of fixed wireless and fiber last and middle middle connectivity, supported by $15 million in state broadband grants made possible by 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) legislation. Construction is slated to begin this fall, and officials say the county will own the finished network.  

“The network is a combination of fiber and fixed wireless, with the goal to serve as many customers by fiber as possible,” Kendall County Administrator Christina Burns told ILSR. “The fixed wireless access count planned in phase one will be approximately 1,900. The remainder will be fiber to the premises.”

County officials are still finalizing the selection of a consumer-facing ISP.

“We have identified an ISP and are working through the details,” Burns said. “We do still plan for the network to be open access, hoping to bring more ISPs on in the future.”

Like so many communities we cover, the county’s foray into community broadband was forged by decades of local frustration with limited local broadband competition, high prices, and patchy service, which was painfully highlighted during COVID lockdowns.

After two years enmeshed in the unglamorous work of coalition-building, speed test data collection, and pushing state leaders to invest in better telecommunication infrastructure across Oakland’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods, digital equity advocates in the East Bay city are finally seeing the fruits of their labor pay off.

The city was recently awarded a $15 million grant from the state’s $2 billion dollar Federal Funding Account, administered by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

The grant will fund the construction of a city-owned, open-access, hybrid middle mile/last mile fiber network – one of a half-dozen grant awards the CPUC approved in the first round of funding, most of which went to support community broadband initiatives.

Courtesy of federal Rescue Plan dollars, the infusion of cash will allow the city to deploy nearly 13 miles of new middle mile 144-count fiber, upgrade almost 12 miles of existing city-owned fiber, and add 9 miles of new last mile fiber connections. As the city’s network is built, it will be connected to the state’s new massive open access middle mile network now under construction.

The FFA grants are part of California’s larger Broadband For All initiative, a $6 billion effort aimed at seeding competition and expanding broadband access across the Golden State.

The Oakland project not only paves the way for the city to connect 14 community anchor institutions (CAIs) and nine public safety buildings, it will also expand high-speed Internet access to thousands of unserved and underserved addresses in West and East Oakland.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania is in the final steps of shutting down the city’s fledgling municipal broadband network as it pivots to a new public private fiber deployment partnership with Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel).

Late last year city officials announced they’d selected Shentel with an eye on ensuring uniform broadband availability to the city of 57,000. The city has been in conversations with various Internet service providers (ISPs) since 2015, when the city struck a deal with Reading-based MAW Communications to build a $1.7 million fiber backbone financed by the city's water fund bond.

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MAW helped the city build and launch LanCity Connect, a city-owned municipal broadband network that began signing up customers in the Spring of 2017. But a legal dispute between MAW and PPL Electric Utilities over MAW’s use of PPL utility poles brought progress on the network to a halt, with only roughly 160 subscribers signed up for service.

In 2021 the city took control of the network from MAW, but there’s been little in the way of progress since.

Back in February, the city emailed the network’s subscribers to inform them the service would be shutting down in April.

"With the Shentel agreement now in place, the city will be discontinuing LanCity Connect," Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace wrote.

"It is no small feat creating a municipal broadband option and this process has certainly been bumpy. We appreciate the opportunity to provide LanCity Connect services and I look forward to expanding municipal broadband citywide."

Los Alamos County New Mexico is getting closer to unveiling its finished plan for a county-wide open access fiber network. The effort, should it be approved by county officials in the next few months, should dramatically improve local competition and broadband access quality for the county’s 19,419 residents.

A 2023 Strategic Leadership Plan adopted by the County Council identified that broadband is an “essential service,” stating that a county-owned community broadband network would be a top priority to improve economic vitality of the county.

So last December, the county issued a project request for proposals (RFP), and is currently examining potential partners as well as build and financing options.

County broadband planners tell ILSR they’re hoping to build a county-wide open access fiber network within a budget of $35 million. That network could theoretically pass 10,014 addresses and if open access, could spur meaningful local competition in a predominately rural county where many either don’t have service, or only have access to Comcast cable.

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Los Alamos County Broadband Manager Jerry Smith told ILSR the county is still working its way through the early preparation stages but the project has not been approved by the Los Alamos County Council yet. While planners are currently in the RFP procurement process, the county isn’t yet in position to share more details publicly.

“We are making progress and are now in the final stages of procurement,” Smith said. “We hope to be able to present to our county council a recommended vendor and negotiated contract within the next few months. If we get an approved and funded project, more specific information can be shared at that point.”

Wilbraham, Massachusetts officials are taking the first steps toward building a city-owned open access fiber network with an eye on boosting local competition and delivering affordable, next-gen broadband access to long-neglected local residents.

Having issued a request for proposal (RFP) earlier this year with the help of EntryPoint Networks, city officials are currently identifying which company they’ll hire to deploy fiber to the city of 14,749.

They say a formal plan to present to voters – as well as a total projected network cost estimate – is expected by October.

“We have no intention of raising taxes or utilizing tax dollars,” Wilbraham Broadband Advisory Committee Chair Tom Newton tells local news outlet The Reminder.

Newton says Wilbraham is hopeful the new network will be primarily financed through an enterprise fund, similar to how the town handles the cost of water and sewer. Depending on take rates, the city is also hopeful the network will be sustainable primarily through subscriber fees. How that all works out in practice remains to be seen.

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Officials are hopeful to keep the total price per household around $60 a month. A project FAQ states the city wants to deliver symmetrical 20 Mbps (megabit per second), 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps, and symmetrical 1 Gbps (gigabit per second) service tiers to residents.

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.

The network was first constructed back in 2010, and consists of over 136 miles of fiber connecting roughly 300 area businesses. The network doesn’t currently service residential customers, though that could change under new ownership.

The city had briefly considered expanding the network in 2018, but scrapped the idea two years later. Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker tells the Lincoln Parish Journal that numerous factors went into the city’s decision, including new broadband construction currently being funded by a historic new wave of federal broadband infrastructure subsidies.

“Six years ago we did a study and thought about getting into the private/home internet service,” Walker said. “We were moving along that track and then four years ago, when the federal government starting putting so much money into broadband across the United States — billions of dollars to the state of Louisiana — that’s when we decided as a staff it was time to exit that business because there were so many other large companies doing that.”

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Like countless communities, Ruston sees little meaningful broadband competition. Cable giant Optimum enjoys a monopoly over broadband access across much of the city, with AT&T DSL and fiber scattered across some neighborhoods. This muted competition has resulted in spotty access, slow speeds, high prices, and substandard customer service.  

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.

Outside of a $5 million city contribution to harden key city infrastructure, the network will be entirely built, funded, owned and operated by ALLO.

The origins of the project extend back to 2019, when the city first began exploring efforts to modernize Joplin infrastructure under a “smart city” initiative. By 2021 the city had hired Finley Engineering and CCG Consulting to conduct a feasibility study exploring the technical and financial details of a city-owned fiber network.

Fed up by expensive and substandard broadband access and buoyed by public support, in 2022 the city issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a partner that would help build such a network. The city received nine responses to the RFP. Last month, the Joplin City Council approved an ordinance by a vote of 8-1 selecting ALLO as the city’s primary partner.

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“ALLO really stood out because they were coming to our market without asking us for any assistance,” Troy Bolander, Joplin’s head of Planning, Development & Neighborhood Services, recently told Fierce Network.