8. Scandia Internet Focus Group Summary 8-6-19RECEIVED
7 2010
8/3/19 CITY OF SCANDIA
To: Scandia City Council
Re: Internet Expansion, Summary of Findings
Honored Council Members,
The Scandia Internet Focus Group was formed last year in response to public calls for a solution to the lack of
affordable high speed Internet service available to many residents in Scandia.
Since then we have: Surveyed the public; issued a Request for Proposal to solve the problem; analyzed the
responses; and worked with MidCo for the past couple of months to develop a solution that serves the entire
community. At this time the Focus Group has come to the following group recommendation.
We see three paths forward at this time.
1. Defer a decision indefinitely.
Authorize a letter of support for MidCo to apply for a DEED grant this year and continue working with them
to develop a plan to expand their hybrid fiber/coax wired solution to the rest of Scandia.
3. Focus on working with CTC, to develop a plan that will provide FTTH to every property in Scandia.
The Focus Group has determined that option 3, a FTTH solution, has the only real potential for solving the
problem long term and recommends that the City re-engage with CTC, or another provider of FTTH in order to
put together a plan that will provide this much needed infrastructure in order to insure Scandia's future
viability.
Our consensus is that Frontier's response to the RFP presents a poor technological solution. Combined with the
large negative outcry from the community, we rule them out of consideration.
Midco, while a fine company, appears reluctant to expand their wire line serves to everyone in Scandia. Their
Asymmetrical hybrid fiber/coax and fixed wireless solutions would provide a slower and much less future proof
technology than FTTH would. Particularly on the upload speed side, which is a crucial factor for future
technologies and services such as Telemedicine, work from home applications, and other interactive
applications. Those customers who want faster service on the upload side (i.e. Symmetrical service) would need
to pay additional out of pocket cost for installation, roughly $100.00/ft for running fiber to the home from the
nearest node. Additional investment would likely be needed within the next 10-20 years in order to keep up
with consumer demand for increased bandwidth.
CTC's Symmetrical FTTH technology would provide everyone in Scandia with service that will meet consumer
needs for the next 20-30 years. The monthly service cost to consumers is competitive and reasonable, with
higher speeds available to those that need or want it without additional installation costs. The solution
proposed by CTC would provide higher speeds at a lower monthly cost to the consumer than MidCo.
Implementing a FTTH solution would also add another choice of wired service providers to those currently
served by MidCo or Frontier. This could give those customers increased leverage with their current providers,
which should improve service and costs, should they not want to switch to the FTTH solution.
We do not recommend moving forward with any solution that does not provide wired service to the entire
community, since any partial, piecemeal solution will make it more difficult to serve the remainder of the
community, particularly those who currently have no service options at all.
In summary, the Focus Group's recommendation is to pursue a Symmetrical FTTP/H solution that will serve the
entire City, with CTC, or another provider of FTTP/H service, and to decline to work with providers who do not
want to meet that technological standard.
Sincerely,
The Scandia Internet Focus Group