Here are a selection of questions from the general public that have been answered by our experts here in the community. If you want to ask a question yourself, please use the form below!
I have heard that there is a fiber-optic loop in place. Where is it?
The fiber extends from as far south as Pike Road to as far north as Hwy 66, generally up Main Street and down Hover, but with spurs that go as far east as into the Northeast neighborhoods off of Pace Street and as far west as the pump station near Lyons at 66 and 36. It also goes down Airport road.
What are the options for getting it to my home?
By way of example, there is fiber-to-the-curb in Rainbow Ridge Estates. The developer paid to have it put there. If a homeowner wants fiber-to-the-home, they pay about $950.00 to have the fiber run to the house and the electronics installed. In future, much of this cost might be borne by the private businesses with which the city partners - it certainly won't come out of the taxpayer's pocket! HOA's might be able to partner together to reduce homeowner costs as well. What would most likely happen is that service would be sold to businesses first, then the citizens who could afford the build-out, and the revenue from those two would fund the building to the less affluent neighborhoods.
The real point is that a private business stands to make good money providing this service, and just like Comcast and Qwest have done with copper, a private business will see the benefit of enrolling you as a subscriber in the long-term.
What bandwidth to the home is envisioned?
I verified this on Friday. The network would easily support 1gbps to the home. It is likely the the service plans would start lower than that. I'm not sure that most homes could even figure out what to do with 500mbps. (I would!) By contrast, Comcast provides "up to" 15mbps and CenturyLink provides "up to" 7mbps.
Would Longmont Power & Communications be involved in this?
LPC staff would do the implementation of all fiber and equipment in the city owned right-of-ways, most likely, though in 1997 they did it in concert with the carrier that was working with them in the original build out. I could see it going either way. In any case, there would be a number of local jobs created, not just for the build but for the on-going operations as well
Comments or questions are welcome.
