When Internet access is poor in a small town, it is not easy to get the attention of a large company like Comcast to provide access, as it is not always easy for small towns to fund an estimated $5 million fiber project in a fiscally conservative community even when the majority of residents need better connectivity.
One way to help communities with poor internet access is to develop Public-Private Partnerships (P3) between local governments and private companies to invest in next-generation Internet access.
Communities are realizing that if they want better connectivity, they need to take matters into their own hands and local leaders are now wading through the complex process of planning, financing, and deploying internet network infrastructure. Although P3s are becoming more common, local communities are currently dealing with the issue of connectivity in other ways.
For example, Carl Junction in Missouri has local leaders partnering with a local private Internet Service Provider (ISP) to offer high capacity LTE wireless internet access for residents and businesses if enough people pre-subscribe.
The town will purchase the equipment and provide locations for installation. In exchange, their partner will perform all installation and management of the network and the town will share in revenue beyond a 10 percent rate and will also receive free public Wi-Fi.
Westminster Maryland a rural community of 18,000 about 30 miles west of Baltimore using another approach, has launched a gigabit network that is the result of a public private partnership with a company called Ting.
The city finances, owns, and maintains the fiber infrastructure while Ting leases the fiber from the city and provides all the equipment and services. The partnership reduces the financial risk to the city and residents because the burdens and benefits of the network are shared.
Another community Sandy, Oregon with about 10,000 residents developed a community broadband network without any support from taxpayer dollars. Previously, the average internet connection in Sandy was less than 5 mbps but now SandyNet Fiber can deliver speeds up to 200 times faster than average and broadband is available to residents starting at $40 a month. With smart planning, the city manages SandyNet with a staff of five people.
However, in other P3 news, there are still issues to resolve. Princeton Massachusetts had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with partner Matrix Design to deploy a fiber network. Matrix would have retained control of the network for 20 years if the plan had proceeded. The P3 fell apart when the town discovered they would have to relinquish ownership of the infrastructure and jeopardize their grant eligibility.
The P3 between UC2B and iTV3 in the Urbana-Champaign region in Illinois explicitly considers current and future control of the network. In 2014, they entered in to agreement with the Illinois ISP to provide last mile services over the network. As part of their agreement, UC2B will have the option to purchase any equipment and infrastructure deployed by iTV3 if the two agree to part ways in the future.