{"id":3100,"date":"2019-09-30T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=3100"},"modified":"2019-09-30T09:00:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T13:00:39","slug":"city-of-lakeland-hosts-community-forum-to-discuss-possible-broadband-utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/09\/30\/city-of-lakeland-hosts-community-forum-to-discuss-possible-broadband-utility\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Lakeland Hosts Community Forum to Discuss Possible Broadband Utility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Lakeland Commission is exploring the community\u2019s\ninterest in a City-operated broadband utility.  A public forum will take\nplace at the RP Funding Center on Tuesday, October 1st at 6 PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

 Broadband Community Forum Agenda | October 1, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n 6:00 PM\n <\/td>\n Open\n House with Information Stations\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 6:30 PM\n <\/td>\n Presentation\n on Assumptions & Risks\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 6:45 PM\n <\/td>\n Public\n Comment\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 7:45 PM\n <\/td>\n Closing\n Comments\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n 8:00 PM\n <\/td>\n Adjourn\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Background<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Lakeland currently owns and operates over 330\nmiles of existing fiber-optics that spans the entire Lakeland Electric service\nterritory.  Originally the fiber was installed to create efficiencies so\nthose working in the field could communicate with office operations. Over the\nyears, the usage of this large fiber-optic network has expanded to provide\nhigh-speed internet connectivity to the Polk County School District, local\nlibraries, public safety entities and Lakeland Electric for substation\nmonitoring. The City also leases fiber to local businesses like Lakeland\nRegional Health and other large users that require ultra-high-speed internet.\nThis public-owned asset is used primarily for City operations but with the\ngrowing demand for increasingly higher internet speeds, there is a desire to\nleverage the existing 330-mile fiber backbone and develop a business plan to\noffer residential broadband services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Business Plan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magellan Advisors provided a Broadband Business Plan that\nincludes a possible pricing structure developed through industry standards,\nprojected infrastructure costs and customer research specifically catered to\nthe Lakeland market.  There are substantial costs involved with connecting\ncustomers to this existing fiber network. An estimated $97.5M is required to\npay for infrastructure that is needed to connect the last mile and bring fiber\nto customers within the Lakeland city limits. There are major competitors in\nthe market that offer internet and bundled services.   The Broadband\nBusiness Plan projects a 10-year time period before the new business would\ndeliver a profit based on the factors of costs, pricing and buildout.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Public Input<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City Commission believes it is vital that the community\nis part of the decision-making process and they look forward to community input\non the subject. A survey tool has been developed so users can study the\nassumptions and risks involved with developing a City owned and operated\nbroadband utility. This easy to use tool allows citizens to share their opinion\nand valuable feedback. Go to our Citizen Perspectives: Broadband Utility<\/a> page\nto learn more or use this link to go\ndirectly to the survey<\/a>. This tool is another powerful way to engage the\npublic in the decision-making process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Broadband Community Forum taking place at the RP Funding\nCenter on October 1st at 6 PM is another way to incorporate public opinion\nas the City Commission explores the possibility of offering broadband services\nto the Lakeland community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lakeland Commission is exploring the community\u2019s interest in a City-operated broadband utility.  A public forum will take place at the RP Funding Center on Tuesday, October 1st at 6 PM.  Broadband… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}