It looks like the city of Palo Alto, CA is giving up on its 15-year pursuit of a fiber-to-the-customer broadband architecture, and is opting to investigate wireless broadband instead. So reports Gennady Sheyner of Palo Alto Weekly, who covered the decision made by the Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Commission.
Sheyner reports, "Despite some reservations, the Utilities Advisory Commission voted 4-3 Wednesday night, June 6, to stop analyzing the possibility of expanding the city's existing dark-fiber network to local residents ..." Sheyner added that the city council will have to go along with the commission's decision in order to officially spike "a project that the city has been coveting for more than a decade."
Palo Alto has an existing 41-mile fiber ring that serves 78 commercial customers and has brought in $2.1 million in revenues annually, Sheyner reports. But recent temperature-taking of city residents indicates they would be unwilling to bear the financial burden of last-mile fiber connectivity. "Analysis ... shows that even in a best-case scenario, an average household would have to pay $1,000 upfront for the connection and $75 per month to subscribe to the fiber service," Sheyner reported. Several commissioners frowned upon other options, such as a city-subsidized plan.
Instead, it looks like Palo Alto could go wireless for the last mile. The recommendation that the commission intends to act on directs the utilities department "to pursue a study that would determine what a Palo Alto wireless system would look like," Sheyner reported. "The study would cost between $25,000 and $50,000."
The article details Palo Alto's 15-year history of trying to bring fiber to residences, including its unsuccessful pitch to be selected as a "Google Fiber" city. You can read the article at Palo Alto Online here.
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