City Council Agenda and Packet 2018 10 09 SP

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• City residents believe the City has a role in improving broadband but there are mixed feelings as to what should be done. For example, while 38% of respondents believe that the City should use public funds to finance and build a municipal network, an equal number of respondents either think the private sector is meeting the need for broadband or they are not sure what the City should do. The remaining 24% believe that the City should step in if current providers are not able to improve service. Based on all the information and data obtained through the data collection efforts, the network models developed and analyzed, VPS makes three recommendations to the City of Louisville. ➢ VPS does not recommend that Louisville move forward with any of the FTTP network options. The results of the Study show that the City does not have a residential or business high-speed broadband access problem. In addition, with multiple providers already in Louisville, the take rates for a new City network would be lower and the risk and cost of building a network would be too great. ➢ VPS does recommend that Louisville consider building a middle -mile network with a Wi-Fi component that serves the public in the Historic Downtown area and key parks throughout the City. The current middle -mile network in the City has a low strand count and is not a redundant ring — meaning that if something happens on a portion of the network, the entire network is at risk for loss. Building a middle -mile network with a ring would create the redundancy needed to protect the network. The Feasibility Study results showed that there is a need to improve and enhance the City's current middle -mile network that serves City facilities. o As a part of the Study, VPS and City staff met with Boulder County and the City of Boulder, the City of Longmont, the City of Lafayette, and the Town of Superior. Each jurisdiction expressed an interest in exploring ways to partner on the deployment of a middle -mile network that could either share resources and reduce costs through economies of scale and/or result in a regional middle -mile network that could interconnect multiple municipalities. ➢ VPS also recommends that Louisville consider implementing broadband best practices as needed that are discussed in Section 9. The goal with these best practices is to ensure that the City has the proper processes in place to comply with new FCC rulings, federal legislation and is able to create internal and external efficiencies for permitting and other activity that occurs in and around the City Right -Of -Way (ROW) with respect to public and private broadband deployment. 5