[Davisgig] [Davisgig-announce] Task Force Positive - City Staff Negative - Next Step for Community Broadband Needs your Help

[George Galamba]

"...the staff report that the BATF letter is attached to ..."

\I got the "Ring Design Principle..." document, but don't see the city's
staff report.  Am I missing something?

On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 6:53 PM help--- via Davisgig-announce <
davisgig-announce at list.davisgig.org> wrote:

> Hi Davisites
>
> We need your input at the next City Council meeting on Tuesday 6/4/19.
>
> Last Wed was the final Broadband Advisory Task Force meeting. After
> fulfilling its charge The BATF unanimously approved its final product, a 3
> page letter, which unequivocally states a Fiber Based Community Broadband
> network is feasible, should be further analyzed and pursued by technical
> and financial professionals in coordination with city engineering staff,
> and urges timely action.
>
> This process went on 3 full years and was entering its 4th. It produced
> an excellent Feasibility Study Report, evaluated information, talked to
> vendors, and generated and reviewed the results of a phone survey and
> online poll in its final analysis.
>
> Personally, I’m truly thankful these community leaders took their time to
> evaluate and follow this process of evaluating feasibility to this
> conclusion, and now it is time for DavisGIG to be more active again with
> the Council to help move it onward.
>
> In stark contrast, the staff report that the BATF letter is attached to is
> very negative on cost alone due to the feasibility report we wrote about
> last year.. Not a surprise for a report that states an $800 per house
> marketing cost just to get the customer to join the community fiber
> network.
>
> The staff report draws on the very conservative Feasibility study report
> which describes the costs of building the most expensive type of fiber
> network, all at once, and with a business model of a traditional ISP that
> competes against the Very Large ISPs. It also relies on the phone survey
> about broadband we advised would be lackluster due to the fact that no one
> does phone surveys any more.  It really parrots points put forward by the
> large incumbent carriers, to discourage municipal broadband, and does not
> refer to any of the many economic development, social justice, and pro
> competitive, smart city benefits a municipal fiber investment would make.
> The staff report does not examine any alternative designs, financing
> mechanisms or future needs which make local control of Internet
> infrastructure desirable.
>
> It completely ignores further analysis put forward by a subcommittee of
> the BATF, as reported in a memo approved unanimously at the 3/27 meeting
> that shows that the electronics are substantially cheaper, and a phased
> installation approach allowing for project expansion based on revenues from
> the initial phase. That memo advocates for the construction of the core
> backbone ring and sub rings, that go throughout the entire city, has
> substantial numbers of homes businesses and apartments passed, and serves
> as an anchor ring that will generate immediate revenue and allow the build
> out remaining neighborhoods.
>
> It makes no mention of the network as a valuable asset that the City would
> realize revenue from from citizens, business, and other companies through
> leases. It makes no mention of working with community partners. It ignores
> the fact that city and school buildings would have permanent usable
> Internet connections for a one time cost. City Community and Business
> Engagement staff, wants to end the effort and bring in big fiber provider
> Grande/Wave/RCN, owned by private equity firm TPG Capital to just carry on
> with the status quo, cherry picking neighborhoods and giving away valuable
> city conduit for little return. This will setup another monopoly control
> situation over physical Internet infrastructure and fiber will be the last
> one installed, like Comcast’s control of Coax, and ATT’s control of Copper.
>
> So we need to put some effort into encouraging Council to do the right
> thing here, which is follow the BATF letter and not the staff report.
> Continue the effort of technical and financial analysis for a phased build
> approach to a city-owned, community-operated open access fiber ring or
> more.
>
> This will be presented at the City Council on 6/4/19. Please provide
> public comment via email or in person at the beginning of the meeting. The
> BATF item is at the end of the evening, and I’d hate for you all to be
> stuck at the meeting very late.
>
> In support of that, we have generated a “talking points” type document
> which refers to benefits identified by the Feasibility Study and addresses
> concerns citizens identified in the DavisGIG broadband poll. We hope you
> can use this to educate your neighbors and colleagues as to why this will
> make everyone's quality of life better. As well, attached is a sample
> letter you can use to send indicating your support for community owned
> broadband and DavisGIG. Send it to citycouncilmembers at cityofdavis.org
>
> Thank you for your support
>
> Davis GIG Committee of DCN
>
>
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