The city of Grover Beach, California, recently finalized a 10-year agreement with Digital West, Inc., to bring gigabit speed fiber to local businesses. The coastal town in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County wants to attract tech companies like those making waves in Silicon Valley and the "Silicon Beach" in Los Angeles. 

Terms of Agreement

The agreement specifies that Grover Beach will maintain ownership of the conduit system and lease Digital West conduit access at an annual rate of 5.1 percent of total fiber revenue. Digital West will build, own, and maintain the fiber-optic network, several lines of which will be leased to the city for public administrative use. Upon approval from both parties, the 10-year agreement can be renewed in 5-year increments.

A May 2016 Grover City staff report provided an optimistic forecast from Digital West:

The forecasted revenue amount speculated by Digital West Network, Inc. for the City is estimated to grow from a first year projection of $4,437 to $112,302 in year 10, for a total over the 10 years of $602,285. This amount is much higher than the originally predicted 10 year projection of $32,038 per year represented by Digital West Network, Inc. in 2014. The increase projections are due to the fact that they plan to add the residential market to our options which is projected to fall under the lease agreement. This brings greater benefit to the community, as well as more revenue commission to the City. 

We outlined the network’s projected costs in a story last year.

Fiber Surfin’ USA

The Central Californian coastal city hopes its unique location near a trans-Pacific cable landing station will attract scores of investment and cause the moniker “Silicon Dunes” to stick. Pacific Crossing’s undersea cable is part of a four point fiber ring connecting the Japanese cities of Shima and Ajigaura with Harbour Pointe, Washington, and Grover Beach.

Initial plans call for connecting the city’s 727 businesses. With little more than 13,000 residents and a city area of only...

The South Bay Workforce Investment Board (SBWIB) is now accepting submissions from firms interested in developing a Fiber Optic Master Plan for the organization. Interested organizations need to act quickly, however, as the submission deadline is tomorrow, June 1st, 2016, 5:00 p.m. (PST).

For details on the project budget, the scope of the work, timeline, and other important information, check out the Request for Proposals (RFP) from the SBWIB.

You can also contact Chris Cagle, Regional Affairs Manager, via email at ccagle(at)sbwib.org with questions.

The SBWIB is a non-profit organization working to provide employment and training programs through its four business and career centers. The organization serves the California communities of Carson, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale, Manhattan Beach,  Redondo Beach, Lomita and Torrance.

Two new Requests for Information (RFI) were recently released in Palo Alto, California, and Pikeville, Kentucky. 

Pikeville, Kentucky

Pikeville is open to both public ownership and Gigabit service via privately owned infrastructure. This community of approximately 7,000 residents wants Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) for businesses, community anchor institutions, municipal facilities, and residents. The regional Appalachian Mountain community, with many jobs lost due to the shrinking coal industry, is turning to connectivity as a way to spur economic development.

Pikeville’s RFI describes how service from existing providers is expensive and "sporadic." This RFI calls for a partner that will help the community develop an open access, affordable, financially sustainable network. In drafting the RFI, Pikeville’s officials made sure to note that low-income residents will not be left behind; bringing this asset to disadvantaged residents is a priority.

The city is the county seat of Pike County and home to a number of colleges as well as several large healthcare facilities. City, county, and federal government facilities are also located in Pikeville and need better connectivity. In 2015, the city obtained a $5 million grant for technology-based training and degree programs for residents in the area. A $1 million grant supplied funding for a Broadband Technology Center in Pikeville. Now the city needs fast, affordable, reliable Internet network infrastructure to complement the Center and to move the local workforce toward more information based industries.

Important Dates:

• Letter of Intent Due: May 23, 2016
• Questions Due: May 25, 2016
• Final RFI Submissions Due: June 3, 2016

The city’s website has more information and details.

Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto is a Silicon Valley city of 67,000 residents; daytime workers coming into the community swell the population to approximately 125,000. Incumbents include Comcast and AT&T who have intimated they might be interested in bringing fiber to the city, but have yet to act. Community leaders are exploring all options with this RFI.

The community has a network of ...

The California State Assembly will soon vote on three bills that have significant implications for rural Internet access initiatives in the Golden State. An online Change.org petition is asking you to urge lawmakers to give local communities the authority to determine their own Internet access needs.

On April 20th, 2016, the State Assembly will vote on a bill to provide state funding for community-based efforts aimed at improving broadband access in rural areas. And during the current session this week, California Represenatives will vote on two additional bills, drafted by lobbying groups working for the telecom industry, which seek to give incumbent providers even greater power to control the quality and price of Internet access options that are available in these rural communities.

From the petition:

Bill AB1758 was drafted by rural broadband activists and sponsored by assemblymen Mark Stone, Eduardo Garcia, Marc Levine, and Mike McGuire. It extends state funding and grant programs to local agencies and consortiums to plan and build community based internet solutions in communities throughout the state that have been ignored by big telcom. The bill requires a super majority to move from committee to vote. Committee members need to hear from people around the state to move this bill forward. If it dies in committee, funding will cease, and rural communities around the state will be at the mercy of AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, etc. AB1758 comes to discussion on April 20th, 2016.

The petition describes two other bills up for consideration, AB2130 and AB2395, which will greatly influence the use of California Advanced Services Funds, allowing large corporate cable and telecom incumbents access to those funds. Local communities will have very little opportunities to obtain those same grants under the proposed changes.

One of these bills will allow AT&T to retire copper lines; rural areas are not ready for such an abrupt change. We've covered how AT&T and other big incumbents have...