Davis, CA has a Task Force evaluating municipal ownership of Fiber Optic Internet Infrastructure. This would mean our community would invest in the construction of publicly-owned "tubes" to the Internet. Fiber Optic is the single best, most reliable Internet carrier cable. It lasts decades, and the lasers used to send Internet packets down the thin glass tubes are easy, and inexpensive to upgrade, and continuously improved.

As an important part of its process for evaluating community fiber for Davis, the City's Task Force wants to hear your opinion. The Broadband Advisory Task Force has commissioned a phone survey to help it assess interest in a municipal broadband network for Davis.

The survey begins 11/13 and lasts for a few weeks. In addition, DavisGIG has a short form survey at http://www.davisgig.org/survey. We strongly encourage you to prepare and respond to this phone survey as well as the web-based one. Please have your broadband bill and speeds at hand in order to respond to the interviewer.

Make your City more resilient, see to its long term fiscal solvency, and reduce your monthly broadband bills with community fiber.

Unleash the talent.

Municipal broadband disrupts the market dominance of the 2 main carriers. A community-owned open fiber network would unleash Internet R&D activity in Davis as citizens and entrepreneurs use it for superior Internet access, reliability and performance. In addition to super-fast Internet access, a municipal broadband network will bring new opportunities

New businesses and entrepreneurs will be able to use this fiber network, managed and operated by a local non-profit, to develop the next wave of Internet Apps, Tools and Protocols.

Residents and businesses will be able to make high-speed, secure and private Internet connections between home and office, or school and home, home and home, or two branches of an office, through a web based software tool.

Community Ownership and management means smart network growth planning, and an economic development toolbox, delivering highly available roaring fast network capacity and infrastructure for community members, entrepreneurs and businesses. Davis Community Network (DCN), a long time local non profit, is ready to play a key role in managing these infrastructure assets to benefit the community

Secure the Future.

In addition to a huge economic development driver and tool for entrepreneurs, a community network could be open to multiple competitors ending the lock big Telecoms have. More competition will generate lower prices.

Telecom  companies are charging monopoly prices  because they control the delivery of Internet access to your property. Our town can disrupt the current Internet access market in Davis with its own community-owned delivery system, leased to multiple ISP companies, creating  competition. Walk away from the no-win situation and its ever-increasing pricing, which regularly sees Internet bundle bills of $150 and UP for a typical family.

More important, though, is the fact that community ownership means that a new source of monthly recurring revenue will come to the City in the form of lease fees paid by providers to use its municipally-owned fiber network.

This means that community-owned fiber is an opportunity for all our citizens to REDIRECT their monthly telecommunications budget away from Telecom  Giants, and directly back into Davis.

Every kid and senior on the Network.

A community network can make sure that all homes in Davis, regardless of income level or opportunities, have equal access to the single most important infrastructure of the 21st century. Through this network we can ensure that all the students  enrolled in our schools have access to the best Internet Access available anywhere. World Class Internet Facilities for every home and business parcel will address the digital divide and provide education opportunities for students and Telehealth options for seniors.

Build the Smarter City.

Having a community-owned network means having the necessary  asset to build a smart city. Ubiquitous Fiber Optic infrastructure is the single most important asset to have in place for the development of Smart City strategies which are needed NOW to cope with climate change, population, and quality of life issues.

ACTION

A phone survey will be conducted starting 11/13/18  and continuing for a few weeks. Please make sure you are prepared with your broadband bill, any comments, and your service speeds. Please provide the time to take the phone survey and respond to all of its questions. So that you don't hang up right away, the interviewer will lead with "The City of Davis is asking citizens to participate in this survey that looks at high speed Internet in the City."

This flier was produced by Davis GIG and Davis Community Network, and paid for by donations to http://www.davisgig.org by Citizens of Davis over the past 3 years.

Davis Community Network, http://www.dcn.org, is a 501c3 non profit which was started in 1993 to bring Dial Up Internet Access to City of Davis.  It has supported a wide variety of community organizations since then with free Internet resources, and for the last 2 years has been focused on municipal broadband. We encourage anyone interested in joining the organization to contact us by email at [email protected]

DavisGIG, http://www.davisgig.org, was started as a citizen group in 2015 to advocate for better Internet Access for Davis in the form of a city-owned, community-operated Fiber Optic Network that would be leased to ISPs on an open access basis. Since then it has seen success with improved options for broadband from the Telco Giants, but continues to advocate for the community to ensure its digital future by owning and operating its own internet infrastructure.