Two new things to note on the city’s updated municipal broadband page:
- You can read the order that puts Question 1 on allowing the city to create a municipal light plant. You will see it soon enough on your city ballot. Make sure to turn over the ballot and vote on the question. Naturally, we think you should vote Yes, which if passed by a majority of voters would allow, but not require, the city to create a municipal light plant. A municipal light plant is a legal entity for an organization chartered by the city that could be used to provide municipal broadband/internet services to residents and businesses.
- The report of the first phase of the study conducted by Design Nine for the city is available for reading. You may recall the survey you received in the mail in the April timeframe. The report was not quite what we expected, as the first phase of the study focused solely on market research, but gets into a number of technical and engineering details. A full summary of the survey results to residents and businesses is toward the bottom of the report, which is 199 pages long. A second phase of the study (a feasibility study to estimate the costs to construct the network) is underway.