City Memo Includes Broadband Updates

On June 17, 2015 the City of Charlotte issued Council-Manager Memo #44 which included highlights of recent activities on broadband Internet. This month the city highlighted Google Fiber’s official start of construction, and the city’s decision to join Raleigh and the 100 other member cities in the Next Century Cities coalition.

Google Fiber Construction

Staff Resource: Kruti Desai, CDOT, 704-353-1795, kdesai@charlottenc.gov

Google Fiber has begun construction of its new high speed fiberoptic network for Charlotte. Construction is beginning in the Highland Creek area in northeast Charlotte (District 4). Google plans to begin with two crews and increase to fourteen crews by mid-August, peaking at approximately 150 crews. Charlotte Department of Transportation right of way staff permits and inspects all work in the City right of way. Google’s contactor will place residential door hangers prior to construction in neighborhoods, which will include general information and a 24/7 Google Fiber Construction information line (877) 454-6959. Citizens can also sign up for updates at https://fiber.google.com/cities/charlotte/support/.

Next Century Cities Program

Staff Resource: Tom Warshauer, NBS, 704-336-4522, twarshauer@charlottenc.gov

With Charlotte poised as a gigabit city that seeks to bridge the digital divide, being able to readily connect with other communities to share expertise and learn best practices will be invaluable. Next Century Cities (NCC), a national 501(c)3 provides this forum across more than 80 member cities of all sizes. The City of Charlotte is a member city. Below is additional information about NCC.

NCC supports communities and their elected officials as they seek to ensure that all residents have access to fast, affordable, reliable internet. It helps equip cities to meet key challenges and obstacles in developing broadband strategies, and it elevates the importance of broadband adoption nationally. There are over 80 participating communities with which Charlotte can form city-to-city learning opportunities. The non-profit is supported by the New Venture Fund, the Ford Foundation, Knight Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, Google, and other donors. There is no cost to be an NCC member.

Deb Socia, the Executive Director of Next Century Cities, is no stranger to Charlotte. She was one of the panelists at the recent CBJ Global Charlotte conference (read our recap of the event), was a speaker at one of the city’s Digital Inclusion meetings, and spoke at the Best Minds Conference at Queens University in March.

Next Century Cities just released Connecting 21st Century Communities: A Policy Agenda For Broadband Stakeholders (read here). The Charlotte Hearts Gigabit initiative is highlighted as a best practice in the Community section.

There is no doubt that Charlotte is focused on becoming the Crown Jewel of Gigabit Internet cities!

Charlotte Joins Broadband Infrastructure Conference

Charlotte participants in Broadband Infrastructure Videoconference

Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia have been holding a series of peer Rustbelt city meetings to exchange information on community and economic development strategies. The May 15 topic was Broadband and Digital Technology: Infrastructure of the Future. They wanted to expand the conversation to include a Sunbelt city, so Charlotte joined the rustbelt series this month.

Leaders from each city attended a videoconference focusing on broadband and digital access —the so-called “new infrastructure”—as an economic development tool and community builder. The discussion on economic development included financing models, public-private partnerships, and what has/hasn’t worked in each city. Community development discussion included the goals of each city, strategies being used, and how broadband can serve as a community builder.

Bill Callahan, Director of Connect your Community 2.0, summarized a presentation on the broadband divide in Cleveland, and how it is correlated to income levels. Detroit and Cleveland were the two worst-connected cities in the report, each having less than 50% of households with fixed broadband subscriptions. For comparison Charlotte has roughly 80% of households with fixed broadband subscriptions (data from 2013 U.S. Census Bureau).

Charlotte meeting participants included the City of Charlotte, Knight Foundation, Foundation for the Carolinas. CPCC, Charlotte Housing Authority, Queens University, Media Democracy Fund, CMS, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, and Charlotte Hearts Gigabit. Charlotte is the only one of the cities in this conference to be a Google Fiber city, and our conversations have moved past the point of if we were getting broadband infrastructure, to how we will use the infrastructure for maximum benefit.

Charlotte shared our Digital Inclusion efforts and the bi-weekly city steering committee meetings focusing on the initiative (note: Charlotte Hearts Gigabit is on the steering committee). As we’ve heard from Kansas City, a successful Internet economy is 90% sociology and 10% technology. High speed fiber cannot reach its full potential if large segments of society are excluded from its benefits.

We were pleased to be included in the cross-city conference on broadband, and sharing our efforts on digital inclusion. Look for more updates on this important initiative as the months unfold.

Note: After this event was held, Google Fiber and NTEN announced $1M in funding to support Digital Inclusion Fellowship positions in 8 cities. In Charlotte they announced funding for two positions; one position for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and one position for the Urban League of Central Carolinas.

City of Charlotte Works to Close Digital Divide

Charlotte Hearts Gigabit co-founder Candice Langston reported that the City of Charlotte convened a group of representatives to discuss the “digital divide” in Charlotte. Attending organizations included the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library, the Knight Foundation, CMS, UNC Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership and Queens University.

With the impending announcement from Google about the potential roll-out of Google Fiber in Charlotte, and with internet providers such as AT&T and Time Warner currently considering or already offering similar services, the challenge and opportunity to connect more of our citizens to the internet, and leverage the enormous advantage of gigabit connectivity, is emerging. 

The City of Charlotte is actively bringing more people with the knowledge of how to engage and activate our resources are coming to the table with ideas and solutions about how to close this divide.

The City is also taking a contingency to Kansas City to attend the Gigabit City Summit in January to learn more about these opportunities and challenges, and to network with other communities that have gigabit services or are in a similar position to Charlotte and are nearing a decision from Google on Google Fiber. Charlotte Hearts Gigabit co-founds Terry Cox and Alan Fitzpatrick also plan to attend.

City officials expect Google to make an announcement before the end of 2014 on the roll out of Google Fiber. 

Candice is on the City’s cabinet to study the digital divide issue and reported that there will be monthly meetings, the next one will take place on or around Jan 11th. 

Gigabit Internet and the Digital Divide

Many of the Gigabit Fiber projects around the country are being deployed to neighborhoods with a build-to-demand approach. A recent Bernstein Research survey found that adoptions of the new Gigabit Fiber service varies with income, and higher income neighborhoods can show higher adoption rates. This stirs up questions about whether residents of poor or underserved neighborhoods will be left behind.

Yesterday a Wall Street Journal article focused on the issue of digital divide. The lower adoption rate of Gigabit service in lower income neighborhoods doesn't seem to be deterring Google Fiber. Their General Manager for Kansas City said that of the city's 20 lowest-income areas, 19 qualified for Google's fiber service. Some city officials are now requiring the ISPs to offer free service to schools, libraries and community centers as they build out their networks.

The ISPs seem to be stepping up. Google Fiber agreed to offer service in "economically distressed" neighborhoods and offers a slower service that is free for seven years, after a $300 installation fee. In North Carolina, AT&T also agreed to provide free service for seven years for up to 100 community centers, though cities or outside groups will have to pay connection costs.

It is clear that city officials and the ISPs are aware of the digital divide issue, and are making steps to address it. But will it be enough? Local organizations like Connecting for Good in Kansas City are stepping in to help. Connecting for Good is a nonprofit organization that has been bridging the Digital Divide since 2011 with wireless mesh networks, community technology centers, low cost refurbished PCs and free digital life skills classes.

For more information on the topics read the full Wall Street Journal article here: http://online.wsj.com/articles/google-fuels-internet-access-plus-debate-1408731700