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Fiber to the home project
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WeMatter.com > Issues > PaloAlto > Fiber to the Home
Now that the Palo Alto City Council has decided to put the funding of a FTTH project on hold, it is important for the people who think that it is destirable for Palo Alto citizens to have their own Fiber to the Home to explore other ways to fund the project. This page contains information about funcing as well as imfornation on the project and other areas who have such projects.
The city council voted 5-1 Monday night to end a trial providing fiber infrastructure and broadband to 70 homes in one neighborhood in Palo Alto. (while studing) partnering with a private company to provide high-speed Internet access, telephone service and cable television to residents and businesses. ...
Bond Funding #
as if: July 2004
One possible way of funding the project is to form a bond company that will be owned/managed by a few civic minded investors. The following is a first cut proposal for this funding plan and reader as encurraged so contact me, mailto:ftth@wemattter.com, or enter their comments in the Blog comment area
1) to sell (400 * $100,000) 10 year bonds,
- with an interest rate of, say 6%,
2) To have the bond holders control the company as though the bonds were stocks, but as the return is fixed, the holders are presumed to be interested in setting the rates as Cost of Service +6% and running the company to survive and serve the community.
3) To generally provide a "Bit highway" and only go into the end content service if no other vender wishes to "rent" the "highway" at a non exclusive rate.
4) To out-source the maintenance and operation of the service to the City Utilities department as they have shown that they can operate such a service.
Commit to connect #
July 4, 2004
Palo Altans, we have an opportunity to help our City government make a decision which they have been trying for months to make. The City staff, the Utilities Advisory Commission and the City Council are unsure how best to move Fiber To The Home forward for Palo Alto with a sound financial plan. We have been in this situation once before when the Council could not make up its mind whether or not to have a trial of FTTH. It was up to the community then to provide them with support by offering to pay for the trial. Each of us committed to giving the City $1200 to hook up our homes, a figure the City staff produced as an estimate of the per household cost of FTTH. Shortly thereafter, the City Council voted to authorize the FTTH trial. The FTTH trial has been a huge success. We are in a similar situation today.
A group of us in the Community Center neighborhood now propose, therefore, that we once again offer the City $1200 to hook up each of our homes and/or businesses, in each of our neighborhoods throughout the entire community, into a City of Palo Alto Fiber Optics Utility. This time, however, we want to reach an agreement on the requirements necessary for the creation of a successful expansion of the City owned and operated Fiber Optics Utility. Since we are the ones who will be providing the initial step in funding for this City investment and since we will be its customers and as such vital to its success, we propose the following general guidelines for the City Council to consider.
Mayor Bern Beecham and Members of the Palo Alto City Council
250 Hamilton Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Mailto:city_council@city.palo-alto.ca.us
July 4, 2004
The undersigned pledges $1200 to hook up our home and/or business to a City of Palo Alto Information Utility that brings the services and benefits of a fiber optic network to all of Palo Alto.
- Signature:
- Print name
- Address
- Zip
- Phone
Please copy and forward to the city_council@city.palo-alto.ca.us
Information about FTTH can be obtained at www.pa-fiber.net
The Council should immediately appoint a five (5)
member Board of Fiber Optics Utility Commissioners
and set the conditions of their service. Their terms
should be staggered and their service on the Board
limited. The Board should be authorized to make policy,
oversee the design, construction, operations and
business of the entire Fiber Optics Utility. They
should be given authority to administer all Fiber
to the Home and Businesses and its integration with
the City's dark fiber ring as well as integration
with wireless services and coordination with the
present Institutional Network.
Further, we propose that the plan include the intention
to bring the highest quality fiber optic communications
to every home, business and public institution in
Palo Alto and that the most efficient level of two
way communications be developed to make possible
in the near future the opportunity for competitive
access to the Internet, competitive television, and
FTTH radio and telephone communications making it
possible for the community to have the advantage
of lower costs and better service in all sectors
of telecommunications.
For all those in the community who find it difficult
to invest $1200 up front, the same option should
be offered to them as is offered to those who are
in undergrounding utility districts. Money should
be lent to them by the City at nominal interest.
However, no checks should be sent to the City until
the City asks for them.
We also propose that announcement of this proposal
be sent to every Palo Alto Utility customer in the
next mailing and to the local newspapers with the
explicit notice that all information will be shared
with community groups supporting FTTH and that all
household and businesses in the community receiving
those notices are invited to sign a pledge to join
our community commitment to provide the necessary
initial funds to create FTTH in Palo Alto.
The Community Center FTTH neighbors extend a friendly
challenge to all Palo Altans and neighborhoods to
help move FTTH forward as our forebears did with
our locally owned utilities one hundred years ago
of which we today are major beneficiaries with better
services and lower costs than other less forward
looking communities.
Please consider asking two or more of your friends
to join you in pledging $1200 to obtain FTTH for
all of Palo Alto.
/ Marvin and Alison Lee
Links to FTTH information #
City of Palo Alto Utilities, FTTH trial - FTTH trial approved on November 13, 2000, continuation approved on October 14th, 2003. Approximately 70 residential participants in the FTTH trial have been selected based on their previously stated interest in the trial and their location within the Community Center Neighborhood. (FAQ - http://www.cpau.com/fth/cpaftth.html )
PA-COMNET - It is the thrust of PA-Comnet to learn to use the power of this new technology for productive civic engagement, by tapping the creative energies of citizens and community groups in the Palo Alto area. We hope to find and show a way to build a sustainable local infrastructure to support community dialogue, learning, and engagement that will lead to a revitalization of our community. (Maining-list - pa-comnet-subscribe@pa-comnet.org. Comments - marvalis@aol.com )
PA-FiberNet - Palo Alto Fiber Network was created in August 1998, to organize and represent people interested in the Fiber to the Home project in Palo Alto. ( Links - http://www.pafiber.net/misc/links.htm , Mailing-list - pafiber-subscribe@pa-fiber.net , Comments - Hilda@Weisberg.com )Invest in Palo Alto (fiber) - We are Palo Alto people dedicated to the healthy birth of a valuable new city-owned fiber optic network available to every home and business in town. (Contact Us:)
Letter to Palo Alto Citizens to commit to connecting to an FTTH system (July 8, 2004)
Discussion groups/Mailing lists
Municipalities with good or interesting muni FTTH systems:
- Grant County, Washington: (Providers)
- Provo, Utah:
- UTOPIA:
- Tri-Cities (Batavia, Geneva, and St. Charles, Illinois):
- Sweetnet (Rock Springs and Green River, Wyoming):
Other material:
PaloAlto weekly on ftth -- Letters to the Editor
July 9, 2004 article on advice to not fund FTTH
Letter from Comcast -- I enjoyed meeting with you last week after the Palo Alto City Council meeting. A couple of you asked for a copy of the letter I gave to the City Council, ...
John Aragon, Vice President-Government Affairs, Comcast Cable Communications
From: Jeff Hoel <jeff_hoel@yahoo.com>
ORGANIZATIONS:
DOCUMENTS:
- Community Broadband: Separating Fact From Fiction:
- Sweetnet warning about FUD campaigns:
- U.S. Optical Fiber Communities -- 5-19-04:
- A Historic, Economic and Legal Analysis of Municipal Ownershipof the Information Highway:
- The Case For Municipal Broadband Networks: Stronger Than Ever:
- Broadband fact sheet:
- Taking Fiber Home:
OTHER:
- SMART Letters:
- Community Fiber Networks (blog -- inactive recently, unfortunately):
- What's new with broadband
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July 29, 2005 18:46