HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 6c. Adoption of the Broadband Plan Item 6c
Department: Information Technology
Cost Center: 1101
For Agenda of: 6/20/2023
Placement: Public Hearing
Estimated Time: 45 minutes
FROM: Greg Hermann, Deputy City Manager
Prepared By: Josh Erquiaga, Network Services Supervisor
SUBJECT: ADOPT THE BROADBAND PLAN
RECOMMENDATION
1. Receive and adopt the Broadband Plan; and
2. Authorize staff to apply for any current and future grant opportunities that become
available to support Broadband Plan implementation; and
3. Amend the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Capital Improvement Project List to include a
project titled “Broadband Plan Implementation” (project #2001063) utilizing funds
(SLFRF/ARPA) previously allocated by Council for the broadband study; and
4. Authorize staff to advertise a Request for Proposals for the “Broadband Plan
Implementation” project in a form approved by the City Engineer and City Attorney,
with a scope of design and engineering for implementation of Phase 1 and Phase 1B
of the conceptual network design; and
5. Authorize the City Manager to award the design and engineering contract if within the
project budget.
REPORT-IN-BRIEF
This staff report discusses the final Broadband Plan developed by City staff and their
consultants, Magellan Broadband. In this report, staff will d iscuss additional work
completed following the April 4, 2023, Study Session with the City Council and changes
made to the plan based on the direction given by Council.
The final Broadband Plan aims to improve access and affordability of broadband internet
for residents and businesses in the City. The plan aligns with the City's Major Goals of
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Economic Recovery, Resiliency & Fiscal
Sustainability. This report discusses the findings from stakeholder meetings and a
community survey which highlight issues such as inconsistent broadband speeds and
higher pricing compared to the national average. There is also discussion of changes to
the conceptual network design, including proposed backbone extensions and
construction costs, based on direction received from the City Council . Additionally, the
report discusses various grant funding opportunities, such as the California Advanced
Services Fund (CASF) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which can
support broadband infrastructure projects, digital equity initiatives, and broadband
adoption programs.
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Item 6c
POLICY CONTEXT
In April 2022, the Council formed an ad-hoc committee to explore ways the City could
improve access and affordability of broadband internet for residents and businesses.
Based on the findings of that committee, in June 2022, Council allocated $600K of State
and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to study the issue further and develop a broadband
plan.
The 2021-2023 Major City Goals called out a specific task related to broadband.
Economic Recovery, Resiliency, and Fiscal Sustainability task
o 1.2b-5 - Review and establish policies as required to support broadband to
the home to take advantage of the opportunities to work from home to
support the Climate Action Plan and Quality of life.
The 2023-2025 Major City Goals call out specific tasks related to broadband.
Economic Resiliency, Cultural Vitality & Fiscal Sustainability task
o 1.2j – Represent the interests of the business community during the
implementation of the broadband strategic plan.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion task
o 2.7a - Support the development and implementation of the Broadband
Strategic Plan to ensure access is equitable and pursue funding to fill gaps.
DEFINITIONS
Attachment C offers definitions to ensure a common understanding of the terms being
used in the following discussion.
DISCUSSION
City staff and Magellan Broadband have completed the City 's Broadband Plan for
consideration by Council. Much of the final plan was addressed in the Council Study
Session on April 4, 2023. A summary of the final plan is provided as At tachment A, and
the full plan is provided as Attachment B. This report will discuss the additional work
completed following the Council Study Session and final recommendations.
Public Outreach
City Staff and Magellan completed the remaining focus groups, one with stakeholders
from Education and Social Services organizations and one with stakeholders from the
Transportation and Utilities sectors. Participants of all five focus groups are listed in
Appendix A of Attachment B, the full Broadband Plan. In addition, the full list of
organizations contacted is attached as Attachment D of this report.
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Item 6c
Magellan and the City have also compiled the results of the broadband survey open to all
community members that was published on the City's Broadband Plan website. A total of
283 responses were received. Of the 283 responses, 196 were complete , and 87 were
partially completed. All of the partially completed surveys reached the speed test portion
of the survey.
Completed findings from the stakeholder meetings and the survey results suggest that
while most residents and businesses in the City can obtain broadband service, pricing
and speed vary. Survey responses and embedded speed tests indicate that City residents
and businesses only receive about half the speeds they pay for. Moreover, a price point
of $0.32 per megabit (MB) is higher than the national average, particularly for urban/metro
areas where competitive rates should be in the $0.15-0.25 per megabit range.
Importantly, customers subscribing to plans providing less than 100 Mbps pay, on
average, $1.19 per Mbps, while customers subscribing to higher speed plans pay, on
average, $0.23 per Mbps reinforcing the need for additional services to not only address
access but also affordability.
Conceptual Network Design
City Council feedback following the April 4, 2023 Study Session and additional staff
analysis identified four areas to consider backbone extensions to serve more residential
neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a higher percentage of low-income residents.
These four areas included a section of Los Osos Valley Road, an area at South Higuera
Street and Chumash Drive, a residential area south of Orcutt Road in the southeast of
the City, and the area immediately adjacent and northeast of the airport.
The section of Los Osos Valley Road did have a backbone extension , but that particular
section is largely commercial and has minimal residential homes. Similarly, the area
adjacent to the airport is commercial and does not have residential neighborhoods.
However, the South Higuera/Chumash Drive and Orcutt Road areas have significant
residential neighborhoods. Magellan thus added backbone extensions through these
areas to maximize the number of households that could reasonably access the future
network, resulting in 16,808 feet of new fiber and conduit backbone construction that adds
approximately $1.5 million in construction costs.
An updated map of the conceptual network design can be found on page 62 of Attachment
B. Detailed maps of Phase 1 (page 65), Phase 1B (page 67), and Phase 2 (page 68) are
also available.
Grant Funding Opportunities
Staff and Magellan presented two grants during the Study Session, the California SB 156
– Last Mile Funding and U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development
Administration (EDA) grants. The full plan provides more detail on each of the elements
that feed the SB 156 – Last Mile Funding grants (ARPA and the Last Mile Federal Funding
Account), as well as discussion of new grant opportunities available to the City. New
grants identified include the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) and the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
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California Advanced Services Fund (CASF)
The California Advanced Services Fund was created in 2007 to bridge the "digital divide."
CASF is administered by the CPUC and has been modified progressively over the past
15 years. The latest modification under SB 156 increased CASF funding, modified CASF
programs, and created new CASF subaccounts.
City staff believes that there are funding opportunities within the Broadband Infrastructure
Account under CASF to reach areas of the City currently classified as “unserved” (less
than 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload). Projects funded under CASF must provide
speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, so the City will need to work
with its chosen private partner for these projects. The CPUC recently updated its eligibility
maps to include socio-economic data, which resulted in additional eligible areas within
the City. The updated map is available in the full plan (Attachment B, page 95, Figure 48).
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)
The most recent Federal broadband funding programs arise from the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The IIJA will provide generational funding for broadband
deployment and be available beginning this year and next from the IIJA.
The IIJA contains the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment program (BEAD). The
BEAD program provides grant funding for broadband planning and deployment, ma pping,
digital equity, and adoption projects and activities. A total of $42.45 billion is funded
nationally for this program to be administered by the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) and allocated among the states in block grants. The
allocation to each eligible state will be based on the proportion of unserved locations in
each state, as determined by the Federal Communications Commission 's (FCC)
Broadband DATA maps. The current expectation is that the NTIA will announce s tate
allocations of BEAD funds based on the FCC broadband mapping by June 30, 2023.
City staff are engaged in the BEAD planning process and attended our region’s BEAD
planning workshop on June 1, 2023. Staff will continue to monitor the BEAD process for
final eligibility but believes City broadband projects should be eligible for BEAD funding.
SB 156 Last Mile
The CPUC has provided some updated information on the SB156 Last Mile funding. The
CPUC has updated its eligibility maps to closely align with the Federal Communications
Commission’s broadband grant eligibility maps. The final report provides an updated map
showing eligibility criteria for SB 156 Last Mile Funding (Broadband Plan, page 92, figure
46). Based on these updated criteria, there are areas throughout most of the City that
would qualify for grant funding. The CPUC has also stated that middle-mile infrastructure
(like the proposed backbone ring extension) must serve last -mile fiber for unserved or
underserved locations. An updated map identifies several unserved or underserved
locations within the City within 750’ of the proposed backbone expansion and could be
candidates to include in Phase 1 and Phase 1B build (Broadband Plan, page 93, Figure
47).
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City Staff's primary focus will be the SB 156 – Last Mile Funding grants, as those grants
are expected to become available at the end of June 2023. Staff will continue to monitor
the progress of IIJA grants and apply for those as they become available. The next
opportunity to apply for CASF grants will open in April of 2024, and staff will look to apply
for those as well, depending on the funding needs of the plan at that time.
Financial Analysis
Section 7.1 of Attachment B gives a detailed financial analysis of the costs to start up and
operate a network to give the Council some background on what it would cost the City to
provide retail broadband services. This information is for context only and is not part of
staff and Magellan's proposed course of action for the City. Staff and Magellan still
recommend the public-private partnership model, which would move these costs to an
existing Internet Service Provider to partner with the City.
Section 7.2 of Attachment B shows a 20-Year Pro Forma projection. While the projection
uses conservative assumptions, it shows the potential for significant revenue for a partner
willing to work with the City in a long-term partnership and will be a useful tool for the City
as it negotiates terms with a private partner.
Policy Direction
Based on the direction received from Council at the April 4 th Study Session, staff and
Magellan have completed the plan focused on a public -private partnership (P3) model.
Staff believes that this is the most feasible way to accomplish the City's goals of improved
broadband affordability and access for the community. As part of the Council's direction
at the April 4, 2023 Study Session, City staff worked with Magellan to develop and release
an RFP to solicit a private partner. The RFP was released on June 12th and will close on
July 10th. Staff will return to Council to discuss contract terms after selecting a private
partner.
State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF)/American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
Funding
Council previously authorized the allocation of $600,000 in SLFRF/ARPA to fund the
creation of a Broadband Plan and subsequent implementation of the plan. Staff used a
portion of these funds, $37,500, to engage Magellan in developing an RFP to solicit a
private partner, as well as the evaluation and selection of a partner and negotiation
support for the final contract. Staff anticipates using the remaining funding to complete
the design and engineering work required to make the project shovel-ready and pursue
grant opportunities to fund the construction of the backbone fiber ring. There is sufficient
time for the City to obligate those funds by the statutory deadline of Dec. 21, 2024 and
expend those funds by the statutory deadline of Dec. 31, 2026.
Implementation Next Steps
Upon adoption of the Broadband Plan, staff will begin implementation by taking the
following actions.
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Item 6c
Private Partner Selection
The City’s RFP soliciting a private partner to operate, manage, and sell retail internet
services over the publicly owned fiber optic networ k in exchange for rights to use the
City’s current and future network is expected to open on June 9, and will close 30 days
after. City IT staff will coordinate the selection process and complete the selection of a
partner at the close of the RFP advertisement period. Staff will return to Council for further
direction on negotiating parameters with respect to the selected partner’s proposed terms
for operation, management, and sale of internet before completing the final contract.
Design and Engineering of Phase 1 and Phase 1B
Staff requests that the Council authorize staff to advertise an RFP for the design and
engineering of Phase 1 and Phase 1B of the conceptual network design, using the SLFRF
funds previously set aside by the Council. Staff also requests that Council authorize the
City Manager to award the contract once a qualified response is selected. Engaging a
consultant and starting design and engineering will significantly assist the City in
competing for State and Federal Broadband grants. Based on estimates from Magellan
and contingency for escalating costs, staff is budgeting $500K for this work using
SLFRF/ARPA funding which is limited to select uses which includes broadband planning.
Update City Engineering Standards
City IT Staff is working with Public Works to update City Engineering standards to allow
for new technologies like micro-trenching to allow broadband expansion to proceed more
quickly and at a reduced cost. Public Works plans to bring changes to the City’s
Engineering standards to the Council in the first half of 2024.
Development Review Team
City IT Staff has joined the existing Development Review Team and will help to review
new development projects and look for ways to implement the Broadband Plan through
new development projects. City IT Staff will also work with Community Development Staff
to develop standard Conditions of Approval that can be applied to development projects,
consistent with how the City currently conditions projects from other departments (e.g.
Utilities, Public Works, etc.).
Prepare SB156 Grant Application
Staff is already in the process of preparing the City’s SB156 grant application. Based on
the latest information from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), staff
expects that the application window for the SB156 grant will open on or around June 30,
2023. Staff has also learned that there is a high likelihood that the initial grant window will
remain open for a period of 90 days, and there is no second grant window currently
planned. Due to the tight timeline of this grant application, staff has engaged the City’s
contract grant writer to assist with putting together the application.
Given the dynamic nature of the grants currently available for broadband work and the
tight timelines staff expects to continue to see, staff is requesting that Council provide
authorization to apply for any and all grants that could assist in the implementation of the
Broadband Plan through the 2023-2025 Financial Plan. Staff would return to Council for
approval to accept any awarded grants.
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Item 6c
Previous Council or Advisory Body Action
An ad-hoc committee of the City Council recommended $600,000 in State and Local
Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) be allocated toward a broadband study and subsequent
implementation of recommended actions. Council authorized this allocation on June 7,
2022 (Resolution No. 11333 (2022 Series)). On September 6, 2022, Council authorized
staff to apply for a Local Agency Technology Assistance (LATA) grant to fund the
preparation of the Broadband Plan.
At the Council Study Session on April 4, 2023, Council authorized Staff to develop and
release and RFP for a Public Private Partnership.
Implementation of the Broadband Plan is included as a task in the 2023-25 Financial Plan
Major City Goals as previously discussed.
Public Engagement
This item is on the agenda for the June 20, 2023, City Council meeting and will follow all
the required posting and notification. Public comment on the item can be provided to the
City Council through written correspondence prior to the meeting and through public
testimony at the meeting. Attachment B contains more detail on public engagement
performed by City Staff and Magellan Broadband in the Needs Assessment sections,
beginning on page 33.
CONCURRENCE
Staff have worked throughout the Broadband Plan development process with members
of the Administration and IT Department, Public Works Department, Community
Development Department, and Utilities Department. These departments concu r with the
findings and recommendations of the Broadband Plan.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) does not apply to the recommended
action in this report, because the action does not constitute a "Project" under State CEQA
Guidelines Section 15378.
FISCAL IMPACT
Budgeted: Yes/No Budget Year: 2022-23, 2023-24
Funding Identified: Yes/No
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Item 6c
Fiscal Analysis:
Funding
Sources
Total Budget
Available
Current
Funding
Request
Remaining
Balance
Annual
Ongoing
Cost
Information
Technology
Replacement
Fund (Project
#2001063)
$600,0001 $ $562,650 $
State
Federal
Fees
Other: Grant $100,300 $16,622
Total $700,300 $ $579,272 $
The City was awarded a $100,300 LATA grant from the CPUC to complete a Broadband
Strategic Plan. There is $16,622 remaining in the grant to complete the Strategic Plan.
There is $562,650 remaining of the SLFRF/ARPA funds Council allocated to the
Broadband Plan and Implementation. Staff plans to expend these funds to complete
design and engineering work. Staff will evaluate using those dollars incrementally (e.g.
beginning with Phase 1) so that the City can reserve those dollars for other uses if a more
beneficial use is identified (e.g. local match dollars for additional grant funding). If staff is
able to secure design and engineering services for less than the expected budget, or a
surplus of grant funding is received, Staff will evaluate returning SLFRF/ARPA for other
City uses.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Do not approve the Broadband Plan and discontinue work efforts. This is not
recommended as it would harm the City’s ability to apply for grant funds.
2. Give staff additional direction on changes to the plan. Staff would return to Council
at a later date for adoption. This is not recommended as it would delay the adoption
of the plan and could harm the City’s ability to apply for grant funds.
ATTACHMENTS
A - Broadband Plan Summary
B - Broadband Plan
C - Definitions
D - Focus Group Invitee List
1 This is the balance of SLFRF funding allocated by the Council for Broadband work with Resolution No.
11333 (2022 Series) at the June 7, 2022 Council Meeting.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 1
City of San Luis Obispo, California
Broadband Plan
SUMMARY REPORT
June 11, 2023
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 2
Summary Report
I. O VERVIEW
The transition to a digital world has accelerated, spurred by the shift to online learning,
remote work, e-commerce, the increase in the automation of services, and advances in
technology. The foundation enabling this transformation are fiber optic networks that can
provide the high-speed, low latency connectivity required for advanced applications and
uses. An engaged community with a shared technology vision and data driven mindset will
enable the City of San Luis Obispo to drive innovation, economic benefits, and overall
wellbeing for the City.
Magellan was contracted by the City to undertake a Broadband Plan to help improve access
and affordability to high-speed internet service for community members, businesses, and
efficient delivery of City services. Magellan’s scope of work included:
(1) an asset inventory of both public and private broadband infrastructure;
(2) a market analysis that evaluated the incumbent Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
and their rates, services tiers and speeds;
(3) a needs assessment that analyzed data sets and indicators of broadband need,
including conducting a community survey and stakeholder focus group interviews;
(4) a review of the City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and opportunities for
alignment with broadband expansion through utility and development coordination
and broadband-friendly policies;
(5) developing a conceptual network design that ensured a redundant city-wide
backbone fiber loop and maximized connectivity and reach into residential
neighborhoods and business corridors;
(6) a financial analysis of the initial construction costs, start-up capital to serve retail
subscribers, and ongoing operational expenses and revenue projections;
(7) an evaluation of the different business and service models the City could
consider, including public-private partnerships;
(8) identification of eligible grant funding opportunities and other financing
mechanisms; and
(9) outlining key recommendations that would implement the Broadband Plan.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 3
II. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
A. Asset Inventory
Magellan identified significant public and private infrastructure within San Luis Obispo that
can be leveraged to expand community broadband access – whether as locations in the
public sphere or right-of-way to host distribution equipment, conduit and fiber pathways to
connect facilities and neighborhoods, opportunities to deploy smart city devices and
applications, or integration of public and private networks through innovative partnerships.
Figure 1 - Existing City Facilities & Broadband Assets
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 4
The City owns and manages a 35.5-mile communications network of conduit, fiber, and
some copper cables, largely along major arterials and corridors (Figure 1 ), portions of
which are jointly owned by the City and Cal Poly. This public network is augmented through
a non-exclusive agreement with Digital West/Astound to utilize their privately-owned fiber
network. However, this network does not provide full redundancy through a backbone loop
architecture.
The City’s 2,742 street lights can provide the requisite vertical infrastructure to deploy
wireless communication, particularly in residential neighborhoods. The City’s 10 water
tanks can also be interconnected and could serve as a distribution point.
There are also significant private broadband assets within San Luis Obispo. The City has
two internet service providers that cover 100% of the City – Spectrum and AT&T – that
operate their networks from significant fiber backbones. However, neither has ubiquitous
fiber-to-the-premises availability. Digital West has a substantial private fiber network that
was historically targeted to commercial and business enterprises. However, with their
acquisition by Astound in 2021, they are now undertaking significant expansions into the
residential market. The City has significant metro and long-haul private fiber networks, as
well as five neutral data centers that provide connectivity with the rest of the state. The
City’s has ubiquitous 4G/LTE mobile coverage by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, provisioned
through 119 towers and 280 antennas in the City.
B. Market Analysis
The City historically has been subject to the common telecom duopoly with limited
competition: Charter/Spectrum is the legacy cable provider with near-ubiquitous gigabit
offerings to residential addresses, and AT&T offering Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) service
over their legacy copper (maximum speed of 70 Mbps, which is below the California
minimum standard of 100 Mbps), and limited fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) gigabit services.
Astound (formerly Digital West) provides businesses fiber services, and with the Astound
acquisition is now beginning to move into the residential market providing a third option.
All three ISPs offer gigabit services (if available) at $80 or $90 per month.
T-Mobile and Verizon offer fixed wireless services over their LTE and 5G networks, with
maximum speeds between 180-300 Mbps at monthly rates of $50-60. Peak Wi-Fi offers a
wireless service, but their speeds (50-100 Mbps) and pricing ($70-150) cannot compete with
T-Mobile and Verizon.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 5
Table 1 - Facilities-Based Broadband Providers in San Luis Obispo
ISP Network
Max
Download
Speed
Max
Upload
Speed
Contract
Term
Monthly
Rate
Charter /
Spectrum Cable
200 Mbps 10 Mbps
1 year
$ 40
500 Mbps 10 Mbps $ 70
1 Gbps 25 Mbps $ 90
AT&T
DSL 5 - 70
Mbps
250 - 500
Kbps None $ 45
Fiber
300 Mbps 300 Mbps
None
$ 55
500 Mbps 500 Mbps $ 65
1 Gbps 1 Gbps $ 80
2 Gbps 2 Gbps $ 110
5 Gbps 5 Gbps $ 180
Astound
(Digital West) Fiber
100 Mbps 100 Mbps
2 years
$ 25
500 Mbps 500 Mbps $ 45
940 Mbps 940 Mbps $ 65
1 Gbps 1 Gbps $ 80
T-Mobile Wireless 182 Mbps 35 Mbps None $ 50
Verizon Wireless 50 Mbps 10 Mbps None $ 25
300 Mbps 50 Mbps $ 60
Peak Wi-Fi Wireless
50 Mbps 10 Mbps
None
$ 70
100 Mbps 20 Mbps $ 150
100 Mbps 100 Mbps $ 200
C. Needs Assessment
Databases utilized by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to identify
households in the City that have no (or insufficient) broadband access shows a significant
number of un-served locations1 across the City, with particularly high concentrations in the
southwest along Tank Farm Road and South Higuera Street and the southeast along Orcutt
Road and Tank Farm Road. There are also large swaths of the City that fall under the 50-
75% Most Disadvantaged category in environmental and socio-economic vulnerability
1 The CPUC defines “unserved” as locations where access to broadband services does not exceed 25 Mbps
download and 3 Mbps upload.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 6
indices and low-income areas (below 80% of area median income), and more than 7,100
households qualify for the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) that subsidizes
monthly internet (only 25% of eligible households are currently receiving the benefit).
The community survey received more than 280 partial or full responses, and included an
embedded speed test to determine actual speeds of the survey respondent; nearly 45% of
respondents failed to achieve the California minimum standard throughput (download +
upload) of 125 Mbps. While respondents indicated reliability was the most important
factor, they there was clear dissatisfaction with costs and ambivalence about customer
service.
Figure 2 - Median Speeds & Pricing Based on Survey Results
The median price per megabyte (MB) of data per month was $0.32 – an amount
competitive with other urban areas within California. However, breaking down the price per
MB between subscribers who purchase lower-bandwidth packages (<100 Mbps) and those
customers who purchase higher-end packages (>100 Mbps) illustrates how conventional
telecom duopolies and data packages reinforce the Digital Divide by providing sub-par
speeds and higher pricing for households with lower discretionary income.
Magellan also conducted a series of community stakeholder focus groups to solicit input
and first-hand experiences. Especially for social services and workforce development, more
economical, flexible options are required to deliver services and support disadvantaged
populations. However, downtown businesses, research activities, tech companies, and
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 7
tourism all reported limited connectivity options, low speeds, uneven coverage, and
unreliable services.
While the survey suggests that connectivity is adequate throughout most of the City,
stakeholder inputs indicate that “adequate” is not sufficient. The City needs multiple
providers offering a wide range of technological solutions throughout the City and beyond.
The City itself needs the infrastructure to operate and maintain quality of life but also for
making visitors feel comfortable, safe, and welcomed.
D. CIP Analysis
The City’s CIP Committee reviews projects for alignment with City infrastructure needs that
align with community goals and objectives. Historically, this has not included consideration
of opportunities for new broadband assets and where they might be deployed through
joint trenching or coordination with other CIP projects. Similarly, utility coordination with
the private sector is limited only to notification that a utility line (including broadband) must
be relocated prior to a major City CIP project (e.g., a new bridge that requires moving an
existing private fiber line), and IT has limited review and input.
Entitlement applications for large private projects through Community
Development/Planning undergo a review by various City departments, but have no outside
organizational input (e.g., PG&E, Charter, AT&T, Astound) nor from the City’s Administration
and IT Department. Each of these processes – CIP projects, utility coordination, and private
project development – is an opportunity to deploy public and private broadband
infrastructure at a fraction of the cost through effective joint trench/dig once policies.
Moreover, the City’s Administration and IT Department does not currently have a long-term
funding source from which to cover marginal expenses if a joint trench opportunity were to
arise. The remaining State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) could be used for this
purpose, but is not a long-term solution.
A Broadband Infrastructure Fund, with recurring revenues contributed via street light
licensing fees for privately-placed small cell antennas, other lease of land or towers to
telecom, or dark fiber/conduit occupancy lease revenues could ensure a rolling fund that
could be utilized if/when a joint trenching project outside of the biennial budget process is
identified. The City’s existing revenues from these sources are already part of the General
Fund, so the City should consider allocations toward the Broadband Infrastructure Fund
from new or future leases and licensing fees.
An initial review of the City’s current 5-Year CIP Plan identified more than 50 projects with
potential opportunities to expand broadband (see Appendix B), which should be further
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 8
reviewed for specific applicability for broadband expansion, especially as it relates to the
proposed Conceptual Network Design and the Broadband Plan.
E . Conceptual Network Design
In order to create a redundant backbone loop that prevents service interruptions, connects
all City facilities, buildings, parks and assets, and expands opportunities for greater
community broadband access, the existing City communications network would require
18.4 miles of new backbone fiber and 5 miles of laterals, as well as upgrading 120,000+ feet
of existing City network with new, higher-capacity fiber. The Conceptual Network Design
(Figure 3 ) can be implemented in phases in order to prioritize immediate needs and
provide flexibility relative to grant availability and resource constraints.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 9
Figure 3 - Conceptual Network Design
The upgrades to the existing City network and new construction of all phases of the
Conceptual Design are estimated at $13.5 million, as shown in Table 2.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 10
Table 2 - Estimated Construction Costs of Conceptual Network Design
Length
(feet)
Price per
Foot
Estimated
Cost
Phase 1 – City Backbone Loop & Critical City Sites
Design & Engineering
Design & Engineering (New Construction) 57,739 $ 1.75 $ 101,044
As-Builts (Existing City Network Upgrades) 120,198 $ 0.20 $ 24,040
Fielding Survey -- -- $ 50,000
Public Engineering Stamps -- -- $ 50,000
Phase 1 Design & Engineering Subtotal $ 225,084
Construction
Existing City Network Upgrades 120,198 $ 5.00 $ 600,990
New Backbone Construction 52,348 $ 110.00 $ 5,758,280
New Lateral Construction (City Assets) 5,391 $ 80.00 $ 431,280
Phase 1 Total 177,937 -- $ 7,015,634
Phase 1B – Residential Backbone Extension
Design & Engineering
Design & Engineering (New Construction) 13,801 $ 1.75 $ 24,152
As-Builts (Existing City Network Upgrades) -- $ 0.20 --
Fielding Survey -- -- $ 15,000
Public Engineering Stamps -- -- $ 20,000
Phase 1 Design & Engineering Subtotal $ 59,152
Construction
Existing City Network Upgrades -- $ 5.00 --
New Backbone Construction 13,801 $ 110.00 $ 1,518,110
New Lateral Construction (City Assets) - $ 80.00 --
Phase 1B Total 13,801 $ 1,577,262
Phase 2 – Water Assets & Parks
Design & Engineering
Design & Engineering (New Construction) 48,139 $ 1.75 $ 84,243
As-Builts (Existing City Network Upgrades) -- $ 0.20 --
Fielding Survey -- -- $ 25,000
Public Engineering Stamps -- -- $ 35,000
Phase 2 Design & Engineering Subtotal $ 144,243
Construction
Existing City Network Upgrades -- $ 5.00 --
New Backbone Construction 31,149 $ 110.00 $ 3,426,390
New Lateral Construction (City Assets) 16,990 $ 80.00 $ 1,359,200
Phase 2 Total 48,139 $ 1.75 $ 84,243
TOTAL – ALL PHASES 239,877 $ 13,522,728
Page 952 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 11
Phase 1 would create the looped architecture and connect critical City facilities; Phase 1B
would further extend the backbone into residential areas identified by the City; and Phase
2 would connect the remaining water assets and City parks while further penetrating
residential areas for greater community access. Each of these can be further broken down
into sub-phases, or built incrementally and opportunistically through effective CIP and
utility coordination.
The City could reduce these estimated costs by $3 million if it were to continue and expand
its use of third-party fiber (private and/or County of San Luis Obispo). Costs would be
expected to be further reduced through the design engineering process, utility
coordination, and alignment with other CIP projects through an effective joint trench/dig
once process. See Table 18, Page 71 of the full plan document for estimated costs.
Placing a 750-foot buffer around the backbone network and cross-referencing the
residential address database and the City’s current business license list provides the ability
to quantify those potential subscribers that can be economically connected into the City’s
network. The Conceptual Design would offer greater community access to broadband for
more than 27,000 households, nearly 1,800 businesses, and 99 public and/or affordable
housing sites.
F. Financial Analysis
Operating a public-facing fiber network – whether as a transport-only network or as a retail
fiber-to-the-premises service provider – will necessarily entail significant start-up and
operational costs that can be challenging for organizations without access to investment
capital. In addition to core network equipment costs and customer premises equipment
and service drop construction costs, a serviceable network carries significant administrative
and staffing costs in order to operate effectively. Many municipalities solicit private ISP
partners to assume the liability of start-up and operational costs, in exchange for the ability
to charge retail rates and recoup a return on their investment.
Conservative projections that utilize industry-accepted take rates and pricing tiers suggest
that the City’s Conceptual Network Design that passes 27,000 households and 1,800
businesses would require approximately $13-14 million in start-up capital, but could
generate positive operational revenues by Year 8, and could achieve enough cash flow to
provide an acceptable return to private investment over a 20-year period. This internal rate
of return that private equity might seek in exchange for providing the start-up capital
would be the subject of City-ISP partnership negotiations.
Page 953 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 12
Importantly, these projections exclude the $13.5 million construction costs under the
assumption that the Conceptual Network Design would be constructed through state and
federal broadband grants, City General Fund contributions, or a combination thereof – and
not incur any additional debt or need for additional private investment.
G. Business & Service Models
The various business models involve different levels of investment and control that come
with varying risks and rewards. The City of San Luis Obispo has numerous options – from a
laissez-faire, public policy-only approach all the way across the spectrum to the City owning
and operating a full retail internet business.
Figure 4 - Broadband Business Models Spectrum
Public-private partnerships (P3s) are an emerging business model that provides an
innovative solution to broadband expansion. The key factors that define a public-private
partnership, as opposed to simply a customer-vendor relationship, are that: (a) all parties
contribute, (b) each party’s benefits are shared based on their contributions, and (c) one
partner does not pay another; there are few or limited transactions between partners.
Generally, P3s create a cooperative platform for a local government and one or more
private organizations to plan, fund, build, and maintain a broadband network within the
municipality’s jurisdiction.
The City could consider a public-private partnership model to implement the Broadband
Plan in which the City could publicly solicit and select a private ISP to operate, manage, and
sell retail internet services over publicly-owned fiber in exchange for lease payments,
Page 954 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 13
revenue share, new City network construction, or a combination thereof. Additionally, an
experienced private ISP partner will be required if the City were to apply for SB 156 Last
Mile grant funding, as the City cannot currently demonstrate experience and capacity to
operate and maintain a retail internet service network.
H. Funding Options
There are several grant programs through the state and federal government that could
fund broadband expansion.
However, two grant opportunities stand out that the City should aggressively pursue to
assist with construction costs of building and implementing its expanded fiber network and
Broadband Plan: 1) The Senate Bill 156 Last Mile Federal Funding Account (one-time
county-wide allocation of $22.3 million) and 2) the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF)
Broadband Infrastructure Account (statewide annual allocation of $150 million through
2032).
Figure 5 shows each of these five eligibility indicators within the City of San Luis Obispo,
demonstrating areas throughout most of the City with some level of need and eligibility for
Last Mile grant funding.
Page 955 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 14
Figure 5 - Last Mile Federal Funding Account Eligibility Map 2
SB 156 Last Mile grant funding does allow for the funding and construction of backbone
and middle-mile networks, provided that those are directly supporting last-mile distribution
to eligible locations. The City should identify at least a few concentrations of unserved
locations along the Conceptual Network Design and include fiber-to-the-premises service
drops as part of any SB 156 Last Mile funding application to ensure grant eligibility.
The CPUC is still in process of rolling out the Last Mile grant process: an engineering,
economic, and business case tool is expected to be released in June 2023, with the
application window now anticipated to open in late June 2023.
The CASF Infrastructure Account largely uses the same CPUC map of “Mass Market
Unserved Locations” shown in Figure 5 for grant eligibility.
2 Source: California Public Utilities Commission Last Mile Federal Funding Account,
https://federalfundingaccountmap.vetro.io/map#5.65/37.393/-116.87
Page 956 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 15
D. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
1) Expand the City’s Fiber Backbone Loop to Provide
Greater Access for the Community and Businesses.
The City can complete a backbone loop necessary for a qualified operator to provide
competitive, reliable retail internet services to the community and business at an estimated
cost of $13.5 million. The backbone loop design would also connect remaining City facilities
and assets – including parks, water tanks, and lift stations. Construction costs can be
further reduced to $10.4 million through lease or use of third-party fiber, or broken into
more than two phases, depending on project funding availability.
2) Initiate Design & Engineering for Phase 1, 1B, & 2.
Ensuring the City can submit a competitive SB 156 Last Mile grant application and/or a
CASF Infrastructure Account grant application will necessitate completing the full design
engineering for Phases 1, 1B, & 2. Based on discussions with the City’s Public Works
Department around staffing capacity, the City should plan to begin with Phases 1 and 1B.
This will allow the Cit to use its allocation of SLFRF funds before the statutory deadline for
those funds expires.
Design engineering will include field surveying and verification, identifying additional usable
assets that may not be recorded in City maps, value engineering to reduce the overall cost,
confirming the final routing and design, and compiling a Bill of Materials. This work will
demonstrate to the State and the CPUC that the City is “shovel-ready” to begin
construction.
3) Solicit & Negotiate a Public Private Partnership.
The City is in a favorable position to leverage an expanded, looped backbone network
through a public-private partnership, which could secure: (a) the qualified network
operator needed for grant eligibility, (b) all or part of the required match funding for SB 156
Last Mile grant funds, (c) a partner willing to construct all or a portion of Phases 1, 1B, & 2
in exchange for rights to sell retail internet services utilizing City fiber, or a combination
thereof. The City should publicly solicit ISPs for a partnership through an RFP process,
select a qualified partner, and negotiate a partnership agreement in concert with a SB 156
Last Mile grant application. City IT staff should lead this effort, and consult with applicable
City departments and Council per City purchasing policies.
Page 957 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 16
4) Pursue Competitive Grant Opportunities through SB
156 Last Mile Federal Funding Account and the CASF
Broadband Infrastructure Grants.
The State of California and the CPUC have designated more than $22 million in broadband
construction grant funding for San Luis Obispo County through the SB 156 Last Mile grant
process, and CASF allocates $150 million annually (through 2032) for broadband
infrastructure grants, which both aim to connect unserved and disadvantaged households
with high-speed fiber services. The City is eligible for both of these funding sources and
should pursue these grants to cover the backbone loop design construction costs of $13.5
million and for the marginal costs to connect CPUC-designated unserved households and
other at-need neighborhoods. The City should identify which concentrations of unserved
locations will be included in the initial grant application based on the CPUC maps and the
proximity to the proposed Conceptual Network Design. Other municipalities – and the
County itself – will be competing for these grant funds, which will require the City to
demonstrate commitment, completed planning, and construction readiness in order to
secure a grant award.
5) Coordinate Joint Build for CIP and Utility Projects
Coordinating infrastructure expansion through joint utility work is the most cost-effective
strategy to expand City broadband assets, particularly into under-served areas and new
developments. Effective coordination on all projects that require excavation will ensure
that all utilities—public and private—can economically expand their broadband footprint in
San Luis Obispo. The City can incrementally and opportunistically build its own fiber
network, connect key City facilities, and enable Smart City applications. The full CIP analysis
can be found in the full plan document, starting on page 57.
6) Apply Development Conditions to new Projects to
Expand Public and Private Fiber Assets
The City should implement favorable development conditions through City Council action
and ordinance that requires developers on new projects to place fiber/conduit to ensure
faster, more efficient provision of fiber-optic based next generation broadband services.
Page 958 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Summary Report 17
7) Explore a Broadband Infrastructure Fund to finance
future smart city applications and network
expansion
Many cities create dedicated funds for revenues generated from leases of City assets by
private telecommunications companies. A dedicated fund with ongoing revenues—
separate from the General Fund—prioritizes new City/public technology deployment for
future build opportunities (funding for fiber network expansions through incremental
builds/joint trench coordination or for locating new smart city devices concurrent with
expansion of private wireless connectivity).
Creating a fund helps plan strategically for the years to come when use of public
assets/ROW will increase and could create significant new City revenues. The unscheduled
nature of joint trench/dig once opportunities means cities need a dedicated funding source
outside of the normal budgeting process to take advantage of open trenches.
The City should consider holding revenues generated by the City through lease or other
agreements for use of City broadband infrastructure – including cellular antennas on street
light poles, placement of cabinets or vaults in the ROW, leasing land or towers for cell tower
installation, dark fiber or conduit occupancy leases, or other telecom-related/ROW revenue
generating activities – in a separate account to offset maintenance and expansion costs.
8) Adopt broadband infrastructure and fiber-optic
standards.
The City should adopt standards and industry best practices to ensure City investments are
future proof, adaptable, and support multi-vendor interoperability over the expected 30-50
year life cycle. Broadband infrastructure should include strategically placed access points,
high-count (288+ strand) fiber optic cable, and installation standards for depth, separation
from other utilities, and allowing new installation technologies (e.g., microtrenching) when
appropriate to ensure future builds are simple, cost-effective, flexible, and durable.
Page 959 of 1073
Page 960 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 1
City of San Luis Obispo, California
Broadband Plan
June 11, 2023
Page 961 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................... 5
2. BROADBAND ASSET INVENTORY ........................................................... 7
2.1 Public Infrastructure ....................................................................................... 7
2.2 Private Fiber Assets ...................................................................................... 18
2.3 Mobile Communications ............................................................................... 27
3. MARKET ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 29
3.1 Wireline Services ........................................................................................... 29
3.2 Wireless Broadband Providers ..................................................................... 31
4. NEEDS ASSESSMENT ............................................................................. 33
4.1 Indicators of Need ........................................................................................ 33
4.2 Community Survey ........................................................................................ 37
4.3 Stakeholder Engagement .............................................................................. 48
5. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ANALYSIS .................................... 55
5.1 CIP Committee .............................................................................................. 55
5.2 Project Review ............................................................................................... 56
5.3 Utility & CIP Coordination ............................................................................. 58
6. CONCEPTUAL NETWORK DESIGN ......................................................... 62
6.1 Conceptual Network Routes ......................................................................... 62
6.2 Phased Implementation Plan ........................................................................ 64
6.3 Construction Costs Estimate ......................................................................... 69
6.4 Network Passings Analysis ........................................................................... 71
7. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS ........................................................................... 74
7.1 Start-up Capital & Operational Costs ........................................................... 74
7.2 Operating Revenue & Expense Projections .................................................. 82
8. BUSINESS & SERVICE MODELS .............................................................. 85
8.1 Business Models ........................................................................................... 85
8.2 Governance ................................................................................................... 88
9. FUNDING OPTIONS .............................................................................. 90
9.1 Grant Funding Opportunities ....................................................................... 90
9.2 Alternative Funding Mechanisms ................................................................. 98
10. RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................... 101
APPENDIX A: PARTICIPATING STAKEHOLDERS ......................................... 104
APPENDIX B: CIP PROJECTS WITH BROADBAND OPPORTUNITIES ........... 105
Page 962 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 3
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1 - City Fiber Communications Network ........................................................................ 8
Figure 2 - Traffic Signals & Interconnect Conduit & Cables ................................................... 10
Figure 3 - City Street Light Grid .............................................................................................. 11
Figure 4 - City Assets & Facilities ............................................................................................ 12
Figure 5 - City Parking Assets .................................................................................................. 14
Figure 6 - City Water Assets .................................................................................................... 15
Figure 7 - County Fiber & Conduit Network ........................................................................... 16
Figure 8 - California Golden State Net - Planned Middle-Mile Project ................................... 17
Figure 9 - Hybrid Fiber-Coax Network Architecture ............................................................... 18
Figure 10 - Spectrum HFC Network & Coverage ..................................................................... 19
Figure 11 – Spectrum’s Advertised Fiber-to-the-Premises Coverage Map ............................. 20
Figure 12 - AT&T DSL Internet Services Coverage Map .......................................................... 21
Figure 13 - AT&T’s Advertised Fiber -to-the-Premises Coverage Map .................................... 22
Figure 14 - Astound's Advertised Fiber Coverage Map .......................................................... 23
Figure 15 - Metro Fiber Networks in San Luis Obispo ............................................................ 24
Figure 16 - Long Haul Fiber Networks in San Luis Obispo ..................................................... 25
Figure 17 - Data Centers in San Luis Obispo .......................................................................... 26
Figure 18 - Mobile 4G/LTE Voice & Data Coverage ................................................................. 27
Figure 19 - Towers & Antennas in San Luis Obispo ................................................................ 28
Figure 20 - Fixed Wireless Architecture .................................................................................. 31
Figure 21 - Unserved Locations .............................................................................................. 34
Figure 22 - Households with No Internet Access ................................................................... 35
Figure 23 - California State Vulnerability Indices ................................................................... 36
Figure 24 – Actual Tested Speeds (Mbps) of Throughput (n=190) ......................................... 39
Figure 25 - Aggregate Throughput (n=190) ............................................................................. 39
Figure 26 - Monthly Recurring Cost (MRC) per Mbps (n=137) ................................................ 40
Figure 27 - Responses by Provider (n=207) ............................................................................ 40
Figure 28 - Locations of Responses by Provider (n=207) ....................................................... 41
Figure 29 - Frequency of Performance Issues (n=160) ........................................................... 43
Figure 30 - Median Speeds & Costs based on Survey Results ................................................ 43
Figure 31 - Importance of Internet Service Characteristics (n=232) ...................................... 44
Figure 32 - Satisfaction with Internet Service Characteristics (n=163) .................................. 45
Figure 33 - Willingness to Pay for Broadband Based on Service Level (n=215) ..................... 45
Figure 34 - Frequency of Internet Use by Purpose (n=162) ................................................... 46
Figure 35 – Households Viewing Streaming Video Only (n=164) ........................................... 47
Figure 36 - General Activity With or Without Broadband ....................................................... 47
Figure 37 - City CIP Projects .................................................................................................... 57
Figure 38 - Conceptual Network Design ................................................................................. 62
Figure 39 - Phase 1 – City Backbone Loop & Critical City Sites .............................................. 65
Figure 40 - Phase 1B - Residential Backbone Extension ........................................................ 67
Page 963 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 4
Figure 41 - Phase 2 - Water Assets & Parks ............................................................................ 68
Figure 42 - Serviceable Addresses within 750' Buffer of Conceptual Design ........................ 73
Figure 43 - Transport networks Architecture ......................................................................... 77
Figure 44 - Passive Optical Network (PON) Architecture ....................................................... 80
Figure 45 - Broadband Business Models Differing Levels of Control and Investment .......... 85
Figure 46 - Last Mile Federal Funding Account Eligibility Map ............................................... 92
Figure 47 - CPUC-Designated Unserved Locations within 750’ of City Backbone .................. 93
Figure 48 - CASF Infrastructure Account Eligibility ................................................................. 95
TABLE OF TABLES
Table 1 - City Facility Connectivity .......................................................................................... 13
Table 2 - Charter HFC Pricing & Service Tiers ......................................................................... 29
Table 3 - AT&T Pricing & Service Tiers .................................................................................... 30
Table 4 - Astound Pricing & Service Tiers ............................................................................... 31
Table 5 - T -Mobile Wireless Internet Packages ....................................................................... 32
Table 6 - Verizon Wireless Internet Packages ......................................................................... 32
Table 7 - Peak Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Packages .................................................................... 32
Table 8 - Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Participation ............................................. 36
Table 9 - Survey Responses by Status and Type of Internet Service ..................................... 37
Table 10 – Respondent Households by Educational Achievement ........................................ 38
Table 11 - Respondent Households by Occupation ............................................................... 38
Table 12 - Average Performance and Cost by Provider (n=207) ............................................ 42
Table 13 - Descriptive Statistics for Cost and Performance Data .......................................... 42
Table 14 - New Sites Added to City Backbone ........................................................................ 63
Table 15 - City Facilities & Assets Connected with Redundant Services in Phase 1 .............. 66
Table 16 - City Assets Connected in Phase 2 .......................................................................... 68
Table 17 - Estimated Construction Costs of Conceptual Network Design ............................. 69
Table 18 - Estimated Construction Costs if Utilizing Third Party Fiber .................................. 71
Table 19 - Residential and Businesses Addresses falling within 750-foot Service Buffer ..... 72
Table 20 - Fully-loaded Cost Estimates for Staffing a Broadband Enterprise ........................ 75
Table 21 - One-time Capital Expenses for Transport Network equipment ............................ 79
Table 22 - Phases 1, 1B, & 2: Projected Operational Revenues & Expenses.......................... 83
Table 23 - CPUC-Unserved Locations by Phase ...................................................................... 94
Page 964 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 5
1. Executive Summary
The transition to a digital world has accelerated, spurred by the shift to online learning,
remote work, e-commerce, the increase in the automation of services, and advances in
technology. The foundation enabling this transformation are fiber optic networks that can
provide the high-speed, low latency connectivity required for advanced applications and
uses. An engaged community with a shared technology vision and data driven mindset will
enable the City of San Luis Obispo to drive innovation, economic benefits, and overall
wellbeing for the City.
Magellan was contracted by the City to undertake a Broadband Plan to help improve access
and affordability to high-speed internet service for community members, businesses, and
efficient delivery of City services. Magellan’s scope of work included:
• Asset inventory
• Market analysis
• Needs assessment
• Review of the City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP)
• Conceptual network
• Financial analysis
• Business and service models
• Grant funding opportunities
San Luis Obispo is largely subject to the common telecom duopoly with limited competition
(Charter and AT&T, though Astound is beginning to roll out residential services in limited
areas). Prices for gigabit internet services are between $80 to $90 per month. However,
there is a vast disparity in price between customers that subscribe to lower-bandwidth
packages (<100 Mbps) – who pay $1.19 per Mbps – and those customers who purchase
higher-end packages (>100 Mbps) who pay just $0.23 per Mbps. This disparity reinforces
the Digital Divide by providing sub-par speeds and higher pricing for households with lower
discretionary income.
The City’s existing 35.5-mile communications network provides the foundational
infrastructure from which the City can build, expand, and enhance its broadband presence
in the City to ensure greater community access. This network could be transformed into a
city-wide backbone redundant loop, capable to ensuring uninterrupted services to both
City facilities and the community at large, through a 3-phased approach that would add
23.5 miles of new conduit and fiber and upgrade 120,000 feet of the existing network with
new fiber cables.
Page 965 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 6
The total cost for these City network upgrades and new construction is estimated at $13.5
million; however, this could be lowered to $10.4 million if the City were to continue and
expand its lease of third-party fiber from private companies and the County of San Luis
Obispo.
Network expansion costs could be further reduced through effective coordination of the
City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) project, public and private utility projects, and
implementation of a joint trench or “dig once” ordinance. These broadband-friendly policies
ensure that there is an opportunity to jointly deploy new broadband infrastructure – both
public and private – at a fraction of the cost by coordinating multiple projects that require
excavation within the public right-of-way.
There are also two major broadband grant opportunities forthcoming that the City should
aggressively pursue that could help with a portion or all of the network construction costs:
Senate Bill 156 Last Mile Federal Funding Account (one-time county-wide allocation of $22.3
million)1, and the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF) Broadband Infrastructure
Account (statewide annual allocation of $150 million through 2032).
If the City were to operate its public communications network as an Internet Service
Provider (ISP), there are significant start-up, fixed, and operational costs to consider for
requisite staffing, network transport equipment, maintenance, etc. A financial analysis of
the expanded conceptual network design shows that more than 27,000 households and
1,800 businesses fall within a 750’ buffer of the proposed new fiber backbone. Using
conservative industry-standard take rates and pricing tiers, the 20-year projections suggest
this network could generate positive revenues, even after accounting for start-up capital
required to connect retail subscribers (but excluding the $13.5 network construction costs).
Many cities solicit an experienced, private ISP through a public-private partnership, in which
the ISP operates, manages, and sells retail internet services over publicly-owned fiber in
exchange for lease payments, revenue share, new City network construction, or a
combination thereof. Additionally, an experienced private ISP partner will be required if the
City were to apply for SB 156 Last Mile grant funding, and the partner could also assist the
City in contributing toward the local match requirement.
1 SB 156 Last Mile grant funding application scoring criteria includes up to 10 points for providing a local
match. Based on existing federal infrastructure grant programs, the amount necessary to secure the full 10
points is estimated to be approximately 20% of the project costs.
Page 966 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 7
2. Broadband Asset Inventory
Magellan identified significant infrastructure within San Luis Obispo that can be leveraged
for broadband – whether as locations in the public sphere or right-of-way to host
equipment, conduit and fiber pathways to connect facilities and neighborhoods,
opportunities to deploy smart city devices and applications, or integration of public and
private networks in innovative partnerships.
2.1 PUBLIC I NFRASTRUCTURE
Cities already own and manage significant public infrastructure in order to provide services
to the community. Many municipal assets can benefit from being connected to network
infrastructure. At the same time, municipal assets can be used for community connectivity.
Land, buildings, poles, and towers can support antenna. Conduit and poles can hold fiber-
optic cable as it runs along streets and roads. The public easements or rights-of-way (RoW)
along those roads may be the most valuable assets, along with other public property.
All of this can make widespread access to high-speed connectivity more feasible by
accelerating the deployment of the requisite digital infrastructure and reducing costs.
City Conduit & Fiber Optic Cable
Use of existing conduit and fiber can greatly reduce the cost of fiber deployment. Even if
fiber cables are old or limited in use, they can be replaced in conduit with higher-strand
cables to exponentially increase capacity. The City can use conduit for its own purposes,
and/or may lease it to network service providers to reduce barriers to entry and encourage
competitive broadband services; however, conduit capacity is finite and can quickly be fully
utilized with just a couple of carriers pulling in their own cables. A more preferred option is
to lease fiber strands themselves to carriers (each of which can be 5-10 microns in
diameter), and when combined with wave division multiplexing technology, high-strand
cables (288) can provide virtually unlimited capacity.
In addition to identifying where conduit is located, each segment needs to be assessed for
size (diameter), capacity (the number of cables already installed in a single conduit, and the
number of fiber strands within each cable that are already in use), as well as condition
(physical damage, bend radius, accessibility, etc.). Conduit does not always need be
designated specifically for broadband/fiber networks; existing conduit structures, such as
traffic signal control networks, street lighting, or even abandoned water/sewer lines can be
rehabilitated and utilized to deploy fiber optic cable. The engineering and labor required to
Page 967 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 8
deploy new underground conduit can represent 35-65% of the total cost of deployment, so
utilizing existing assets can create significant cost savings.
Figure 1 - City Fiber Communications Network
The City owns and manages a substantial fiber communications network of 187,154 feet of
conduit and/or fiber optic cable (see Figure 1). The network is delineated between exclusive
City Communications (blue), traffic signal interconnect (purple), and a portion of the
network where the City leases conduit space and/or fiber strands to third parties (green).
There are portions of the network identified as “null” (red) that have fiber/conduit, but it is
not known whether these are shared or City-exclusive.
Page 968 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 9
The Shared Network includes sections where conduit and/or fiber is leased/shard with
Astound (formerly Digital West). A portion of the backbone cable is jointly owned by Cal
Poly and the City, with the City allocated a number of fiber strands through a 2002
agreement that is set to expire in 2052. The specific strand count of this Cal Poly-City cable
fluctuates, as does the City’s strand allocation. The design engineering project will include
field work and surveys would determine specific cable capacities and allocations.
The City’s 35.5 mile network creates several loops throughout the City, which creates a
redundant backbone to support critical City services. The network includes 440
communication boxes, handholes, or vaults placed throughout the network, providing the
ability to expand and grow the network by interconnecting new assets or fiber networks.
Data and information on the size of the conduit, the number of fiber strands, strand use
and capacity, as well as conduit space capacity was, unfortunately, stored on an aged-out
software program that is no longer supported, so details were not available.
An operational fiber network of this size has an estimated valuation of $12-15 million,
providing the City with a substantial asset that can be leveraged and/or monetized through
creative lease agreements or public-private partnerships.
The City augments its publicly-owned network to ensure communications and connectivity
to City facilities, buildings, and assets through an agreement with a private fiber/internet
services provider Astound (formerly Digital West). The City entered a non-exclusive license
agreement with Digital West in 2011, which is now being re-negotiated, in which the City
allowed Digital West to install its own fiber optic cable within the City’s communication
network in exchange for rights to utilize Digital West fiber strands to connect existing City
facilities for city services.
The City is able to connect nine (9) existing City buildings utilizing Digital West/Astound fiber
located within City conduit, and will have the rights to utilize 12 strands of Digital West fiber
wherever it exists in order to provide City services. As the City is under a non-disclosure
agreement with Digital West, the location and details of those private assets cannot be
publicly shared. These fibers licensed by Astound to the City are for governmental use only,
and cannot be used or sub-leased to generate City revenue.
There are three segments of City communications conduit/fiber that are not
interconnected into the rest of the network; two of these (the red portion in the southern
area of the City along Tank Farm Road, and a small segment along Ramona/Benton in the
northern end of the City) may be interconnected through leased fiber from Astound’s
network. However, the third disconnected segment between Blue Rock Drive and the Edna
Saddle Water Tank does not appear to be connected with either City or Astound fiber to the
rest of the network.
Page 969 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 10
City Traffic Signals & Interconnect Network
Traffic signal poles and associated structures are typically located along major
transportation arterials, which similarly correspond with major commercial corridors, and
are interconnected with electrical and/or signal control conduit networks. Many signal
interconnect networks were originally conduit with twisted copper cables, but these
underground conduit networks can be rehabilitated and used to pull in fiber optic cable at
a fraction of the cost of deploying new underground infrastructure. Alignment with road
arterials makes signal control networks ideal assets for cost-effectively deploying new fiber
backbones to critical economic development areas.
Figure 2 - Traffic Signals & Interconnect Conduit & Cables
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 11
Approximately 8,074 feet of the 13.8 mile traffic signal interconnect network has been
integrated into the City’s overall communications network, and may have already been
rehabilitated to some degree in order to house fiber optic cable. The rest of the traffic
control network coincides along the same corridors, but is physically separate from, the
City’s communications network. Only six of the City’s 82 traffic signals are not connected
through either the signal interconnect and/or the City’s communication network.
City Street L ights
Public streetlights offer a significant and valuable asset that can be leveraged for
broadband and smart city deployment in urban areas. The City owns and operates 2,742
street lights throughout the City, which are connected to 872 points of service (POS), owned
by either PG&E or the City.
Figure 3 - City Street Light Grid
The City’s fiber communication network is aligned along major transportation and
commercial corridors. However, the City’s extensive inventory of street lights penetrates
most residential neighborhoods. The typically dense nature and geographic reach of
streetlights offers a significant opportunity, particularly for deployment of 5G small cell
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 12
technology through leasing poles to the major cellular carriers (AT&T, Verizon, & T-Mobile)
that can cost-effectively provide high-speed broadband coverage into neighborhoods that
lack adequate internet speeds. Streetlight poles and conduit can be leased to generate
revenue, or leases can be offered as in-kind contributions for public-private partnerships,
providing cost-effective infrastructure that can be used to deploy new fiber cables in
existing conduit, and/or install smart city devices on poles (smart lighting management,
cameras, traffic management, environmental monitoring, etc.).
City Buildings & Facilities
Opportunities for expansion to support broadband and smart city applications are not
limited to conduit and poles; existing public buildings, parks, and other facilities can be
utilized to build out a public network through deployment of antennas, radios, sensors,
cameras, data servers, community Wi-Fi spots, and interconnection points for redundancy
and disaster recovery.
Figure 4 - City Assets & Facilities
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 13
Often the type of public asset is specific to the area targeted for broadband deployment.
For example, public works maintenance yards typically allow for penetration into industrial
areas; parks typically offer opportunities to reach residential neighborhoods;
administrative buildings often are situated within downtowns or business districts.
The City has 19 City-owned facilities (government buildings, fire stations, parking structures,
and corp yards) as well as 4 communications towers, as shown in Figure 4. However, five
City-owned facilities are currently not redundantly connected to the City’s municipal IT
network. The City’s parks also are not connected to the network at all but could function as
base stations for wireless distribution if they had a fiber backhaul and connection point.
Table 1 - City Facility Connectivity
Fully-Connected Facilities on City Network
KVEC Tower Hwy 1 - Stenner Creek
Santa Rosa Cell Tower 150 Oak Street
Fire Station 1 Tower 2160 Santa Barbara St.
South Hills Tower South Hills Open Space
Data Center in Fire Station 2160 Santa Barbara St.
EOC 2160 Santa Barbara St.
Fire Station 2 126 North Chorro St.
Fire Station 1 2160 Santa Barbara St.
Fire Station 3 1280 Laurel Lane
City Hall 888 Morro Street
Public Works 919 Palm Street
City Corporation Yard 25 Prado Road
City Utility Offices 879 Morro Street
Police Department 1042 Walnut Street
City Bus Yard Prado Road
Parks and Rec 1341 Nipomo St.
Ludwick Comm Center 846 Santa Rosa St.
SLO Senior Center 1445 Santa Rosa St.
Facilities on City Network but which Lack Redundancy
Fire Station 4 1395 Madonna Rd.
Parking Structure 879 Morro Street
Parking Structure 871 Marsh Street
City Parking Offices 1260 Chorro Street
Water Treatment Plant 35 Prado Road
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 14
The City also has five parking lots (in addition to the three parking structures), as well as 49
parking pay stations, all within a 7-block area downtown between Marsh Street and Palm
Street. These parking-related assets could be interconnected, through both fiber cable and
remote/wireless connections, in order to deploy smart parking management applications
within the City’s core.
Figure 5 - City Parking Assets
City Water Assets
Water assets can provide an asset that can be utilized for communications distribution,
such as water tanks that typically have line-of-sight and elevation advantages for locating
wireless antenna or towers. However, there are also benefits to water service operations
that can be realized through interconnecting water assets, such as remote and real-time
monitoring and testing points, remote valve control, and smart water management
through conservation technology and applications.
The City has significant water assets distributed throughout the City, with the water
treatment plant located outside of City limits near Stenner Creek, 10 water tanks
throughout the City (including two outside of City limits), 15 water sampling points, 9
groundwater sampling points, and 66 irrigation control valves (see Figure 6).
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 15
Figure 6 - City Water Assets
The water plant at Stenner Creek is already connected on the City’s fiber communication
backbone, but does not have a redundant path to ensure uninterrupted connectivity. Many
of the irrigation valves do not necessitate connectivity over a fiber cable; however, the 10
water tanks are critical infrastructure that can also serve as a distribution point, and should
be interconnected on the City’s fiber network.
County Fiber & Conduit
The County of San Luis Obispo has several fiber routes, especially within the City limits,
ranging from 12-strand fiber cables all the way up to 216-strand cables. These cables
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 16
connect the County’s sites and assets within the City to the County’s regional network.
There were no details on capacity of the County fiber (used vs. available strands); however,
if there were capacity available, the City could lease strands from the County to provide
redundancy for critical City sites, such as the water plant near Stenner Creek. The City IT
team reported that these discussions with the County are already underway.
Figure 7 - County Fiber & Conduit Network
Golden State Net Middle-Mile Network
The State of California has been very active in designing and implementing broadband
policies to expand broadband availability and digital literacy in the state. Governor
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 17
Newsom made significant findings in Executive Order N-73-20 2 issued on August 14, 2020,
addressing the need for improved broadband services, closely followed by passage of
Senate Bill 156, which addressed broadband through the 2021 budget package.
The state middle-mile network, known as Golden State Net, is well underway, with portions
of the network being planned and designed within the City of San Luis Obispo along
California State Route 1 and U.S. Highway 101.
Figure 8 - California Golden State Net - Planned Middle-Mile Project
The anticipated routing of the Golden State Network in San Luis Obispo will provide a
public-access fiber infrastructure that can provide the City long-haul data transport access
to data centers and internet exchanges in Los Angeles, San Jose, and elsewhere.
Traditionally, these long-haul transport routes would need to be leased from private
organizations. Additionally, the Golden State Network can be utilized to complete local
2 Source: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/08/14/38666/
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 18
network loops to ensure City redundancy without having to construct and install new
routes, creating significant cost savings. The construction of the Golden State Network will
provide both cost savings and enhanced network reliability for the City’s fiber optic
backbone.
2.2 PRIVATE F IBER A SSETS
Magellan analyzed the broadband landscape of the City of San Luis Obispo to determine
the private broadband assets within the City. Emphasis was placed on “facilities-based”
carriers, or those that own their own physical infrastructure including fiber, copper, and
coaxial cables, as well as wireless infrastructure.
Spectrum/Charter
Spectrum is the second largest cable company in the US, with revenues near $50 billion per
year. They have close to 30 million residential subscribers and over 2 million small and
medium business customers nationwide.
Spectrum’s network is based on a Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) architecture, which includes a
fiber backbone but coax cable for last mile distribution.
Figure 9 - Hybrid Fiber-Coax Network Architecture
These HFC broadband networks are designed to send large amounts of data from the
network to the end point such as the home. Smart city applications based on remote
devices sending small amounts of data can leverage the consumer-grade broadband from
Spectrum. However, mission critical applications and those requiring higher bandwidth to
the network (upstream) require an alternative solution.
As the legacy cable company, Spectrum has essentially 100% coverage of the residential
market through their HFC network, as shown in Figure 10.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 19
Figure 10 - Spectrum HFC Network & Coverage 3
While Spectrum’s HFC network is generally capable of delivering gigabit download speeds
to its residential and small business market, these speeds, latencies, upload limitations,
and service level agreements are not sufficient for enterprise-level businesses or
institutional anchors.
However, Spectrum has limited fiber beyond their backbone that drives their HFC network,
with few areas of the City eligible for direct fiber-to-the-premises services, as shown in
Figure 11.
3 Source: https://broadbandnow.com/
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 20
Figure 11 – Spectrum’s Advertised Fiber-to-the-Premises Coverage Map 4
AT&T
AT&T is the incumbent local exchange company (ILEC) or the legacy telephone company in
San Luis Obispo. Historically, the ILEC has nearly 100% coverage and this is true with AT&T
in San Luis Obispo (see Figure 12). However, this coverage is primarily through their legacy
investments in DSL (Digital Subscriber Lines) technologies, which enable data services over
their installed base of copper phone wires. DSL technology is obsolete with no new DSL
plant being installed. The data rates supported by DSL depend on the length of the copper
wire and the type of DSL deployed.
4 Source: https://broadbandnow.com/
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 21
Figure 12 - AT&T DSL Internet Services Coverage Map 5
Maximum “up to” download bandwidth speeds offered by AT&T over DSL technology
typically don’t exceed 50-75 Mbps, and commonly average between 5-10 Mbps. These
speeds do not meet the California minimum standards of 100 Mbps, and cannot meet the
speeds or service levels required by most businesses. DSL data rates above 25 Mbps would
imply that AT&T has deployed some fiber to neighborhood pedestals and cabinets.
AT&T does offer direct fiber-to-the-premises (home or business) in a portion of the City (see
Figure 13), suggesting they have a significant fiber optic network within the City that could
be expanded, and could reduce the cost and time for AT&T to upgrade more areas to
gigabit Fiber-to-the-Premises networks.
5 Source: https://broadbandnow.com/
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 22
Figure 13 - AT&T’s Advertised Fiber-to-the-Premises Coverage Map 6
Astound/Digital West
Astound is a New Jersey-based telecommunications company, and prior to recent
expansion into new markets across California, had served more than 300,000 residential
and commercial customers in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2021, Astound acquired Digital
West, a San Luis Obispo-based data services company.
Digital West has been offering data services within the City for more than 30 years, and
built a substantial fiber network (see Figure 14). Their services were historically targeted
almost exclusively to commercial and business enterprises. However, with their acquisition
by Astound in 2021, they are now undertaking significant expansions into the residential
market, and are building new fiber assets across the City.
6 Source: https://broadbandnow.com/
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 23
Figure 14 - Astound's Advertised Fiber Coverage Map 7
The City entered a non-exclusive license agreement with Digital West in 2011, subsequently
amended in 2016, and which is now being re-negotiated, in which the City allowed Digital
West to install its own fiber optic cable within the City’s communication network in
exchange for a fee and the rights to utilize Digital West fiber strands to connect existing City
facilities for city services.
With the acquisition of Digital West by Astound, the City is currently renegotiating a new
long-term agreement which will provide additional benefits to the City, including City facility
connectivity, dedicated City fiber strands, and joint build provisions for new fiber
installations.
Combining Digital West (Astound’s) significant fiber backbone, which is protected under a
non-disclosure agreement, with the City’s existing communication network is a unique and
advantageous agreement for both sides: Astound is able to expand its fiber footprint within
San Luis Obispo without having to incur significant capital cost for new construction,
7 Source: https://broadbandnow.com/
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 24
thereby gaining the ability to offer more broadband services to residents and businesses,
while the City can enhance its connectivity for public facilities and services.
Metro Fiber
Metro networks, as the name implies, are designed to connect major sites in relatively
dense metropolitan areas to each other and to other service providers, typically via
colocation data centers or exchange facilities.
Smart city applications can leverage existing metro fiber networks to connect data centers
and remote devices. Applications with the need for high bandwidth, such as high-resolution
traffic and public safety cameras, can be served on metro fiber networks. Services are
priced on an individual case basis, based on the service level, number of sites, distance, and
bandwidth required. Some carriers will lease dark fiber strands, but these are generally lit,
or active services. Many companies prefer to sell connectivity as part of a suite of managed
services.
Figure 15 - Metro Fiber Networks in San Luis Obispo 8
8 Source: Fiberlocator.com
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 25
Long Haul Fiber
Long haul, or middle-mile, networks typically extend access to interconnection points in
major cities and are of limited use for local smart city applications. However, more cities
are moving their managed services and IT workloads to public cloud infrastructure, such as
Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Certain IT and smart city applications will require high-
speed access to the remote cloud data centers, and many require low-latency connections
to the cloud to function effectively. Many of these public clouds reside in the same
interconnect facilities in major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, San Jose, and Phoenix.
Figure 16 - Long Haul Fiber Networks in San Luis Obispo 9
There are several long-haul fiber routes through the City, providing good interconnectivity
to regional data and peering centers. The planned construction of the Golden State
Network middle mile routes will add an additional, publicly-accessible long haul route.
9 Source: Fiberlocator.com
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 26
Data Centers
City enterprise software applications and smart city applications of all types ultimately
reside on a server. That server can be in an on-site city data center, in a co-location data
center or “in the cloud” in a distant data center, or a combination of all three. A major trend
in data and software applications is the migration of services to the cloud, which requires
moving data resources closer to “the edge of the internet” or data/interconnect centers.
This allows end users to reduce latency and improve application performance. Thus, data
centers and peering points are increasingly being established further from the major
internet centers to enable better cloud services in areas further from major U.S. cities.
As more and more mission critical applications of enterprises, governments and
consumers migrate to public and private clouds, the latency to and from the internet edges
and centralized public cloud data centers can become a performance bottleneck. To
address this, the edge is migrating from the internet exchanges and massive public cloud
data centers to nearby large cities. We expect this migration to continue and even
accelerate.
Figure 17 - Data Centers in San Luis Obispo 10
10 Source: https://www.datacentermap.com/
Carrier-Neutral Data Center
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 27
Currently, there are five public or neutral data centers in San Luis Obispo; two are Lumen
operated centers, one is Digital West, and 2 are other telecom locations. These are
primarily where communication service providers interconnect their networks.
2.3 M OBILE COMMUNICATIONS
Wireless communications will be a critical component of a City-wide broadband expansion
project, as well as a smart city architecture. Many smart city applications are based on
remote devices that send data to a centralized server for analysis, and typically send data
that can utilize wireless networks. In addition to cellular services, there is wireless-
supporting infrastructure, such as towers, where the city can lease space to deploy
antennas to provision wireless internet access or to connect smart city devices. According
to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), San Luis Obispo is well covered with 4G
mobile offerings from the three major U.S. mobile operators: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
This is shown in Figure 18 where the color purple represents robust coverage with an
overlap of all three carriers.
Figure 18 - Mobile 4G/LTE Voice & Data Coverage 11
11 Source: https://www.fcc.gov/BroadbandData/MobileMaps/mobile-map
AT&T
T-Mobile
Verizon
All 3 Carriers
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 28
The strong mobile coverage is largely provided by more than 119 towers and 280 antennas
within a 3.0-mile radius of the center of San Luis Obispo as shown in Figure 19. This
competitive wireless environment should put San Luis Obispo in the early waves of 5G
upgrades.
Figure 19 - Towers & Antennas in San Luis Obispo 12
12 Source: https://www.antennasearch.com/
Towers
Antennas
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 29
3. Market Analysis
Magellan assessed the pricing, service tiers, and market environment within the City,
considering both wireline (fiber, copper, or coaxial cable) services as well as fixed wireless
providers.
3.1 WIRELINE SERVICES
Charter/Spectrum
Charter’s offerings in the City are based on the DOCSIS 3.1 standard from CableLabs, the
research and development organization of the cable industry. DOCSIS (Data Over Cable
Service Interface Specification) can achieve downstream data speeds of over 1 Gbps. As a
legacy cable company, Charter’s HFC network is shared among multiple subscribers, so the
actual real-time performance will vary based on the number of actual users. Consumer
rates are “best effort,” which is why ISPs often add the disclaimer of “up to” when specifying
speeds (e.g., “up to 100 Mbps”).
Even though the network supports gigabit connections, Charter typically offered a number
of bandwidths at different price points; however, over the last 12-18 months, they have
reduced the number of packages to three.
Table 2 - Charter HFC Pricing & Service Tiers
Download
Speed 13
Upload
Speed
Contract
Term
Monthly
Rate Extras
200 Mbps 10 Mbps 1 year $ 40 No data cap
500 Mbps 10 Mbps 1 year $ 70 No data cap
1 Gbps 25 Mbps 1 year $ 90 No data cap
The upstream rates on HFC networks are currently limited to approximately 35 Mbps due
to legacy use for transmitting television channels from a central location to many end users
(i.e., all “downstream” traffic”). The cable industry has realized the limited upstream has
become a competitive disadvantage against fiber-based competition who offer symmetrical
rates up to multiple gigabits per second. To address this, CableLabs is creating DOCSIS 4.0,
which will support up to 10 Gbps downstream speeds and 6 Gbps upstream speeds.
However, DOCSIS 4.0 will require the cable-based ISPs to make upgrades to the coax
13 All speeds referenced in this section are advertised as “up to” maximum speeds, depending on network
congestion, time of day, location, etc.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 30
portion of their outside cables, and will take longer to roll out over Charters’ entire
footprint. Magellan expects Charter to announce initial deployments in late 2023 or early
2024 in select markets, and widespread deployment nationwide could take 3-5 years.
AT&T
AT&T is the incumbent telephone company via their acquisition of Pacific Bell. They serve
75% of the City with copper-based DSL, but have deployed fiber and offer fiber-to-the-
premises (FTTP) services in 22% of the City utilizing the 10 Gbps XGS-PON standards.
However, the 10 Gbps is shared over 32 locations and thus the actual speeds will depend
on the number of active users.
In the areas of the City where AT&T has fiber, their current offerings are less than
Charter/Spectrum for comparable bitrates. AT&T’s rates are symmetrical with the
upstream data rate matching the downstream rate.
Table 3 - AT&T Pricing & Service Tiers
Download
Speed
Upload
Speed
Monthly
Rate Extras
AT&T Fiber
300 Mbps 300 Mbps $ 55
1 year contract, No
data cap
500 Mbps 500 Mbps $ 65
1 Gbps 1 Gbps $ 80
2 Gbps 2 Gbps $ 110
5 Gbps 5 Gbps $ 180
AT&T DSL 5 to 70
Mbps
250 to 500
Kbps $ 45
1.5 TB data cap;
$10 per 50 GB of
excess
It is unknown when AT&T might overbuild their copper network in the City. With a limited
fiber footprint, there is little competition and choice for residents seeking more than one
gigabit option.
Astound (Digital West)
Astound acquired local ISP Digital West in 2019, who had been serving only
commercial/business customers in San Luis Obispo. Astound is in process of rolling out
residential FTTP services in the City, but has not publicly committed to specific
neighborhoods or areas (nor to an entire city-wide buildout). Where FTTP services are
available, Astound has a competitive fiber pricing model that offers symmetrical services.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 31
Table 4 - Astound Pricing & Service Tiers
Download
Speed
Upload
Speed
Contract
Term
Monthly
Rate
100 Mbps 100 Mbps 2 years $ 25
500 Mbps 500 Mbps 2 years $ 45
940 Mbps 940 Mbps 2 years $ 65
1 Gbps 1 Gbps 2 years $ 80
3.2 WIRELESS BROADBAND PROVIDERS
Fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions have been available for many years. These systems
are based on proprietary equipment and use unlicensed spectrum to transmit radio
frequency (RF) signals from a central antenna to antennas located at each location. These
providers of FWA are referred to as wireless ISPs or WISPs. Although WISPs have served
rural markets for decades, more recently they are beginning to serve dense urban markets,
targeting multi-dwelling units (MDUs) with data speeds that can outperform legacy DSL
services.
Figure 20 - Fixed Wireless Architecture
T-Mobile
T-Mobile provides 5G and 4G LTE fixed wireless services to households across all 50 states
in the US. Its residential plans' main features include contract-free services and unlimited
data access. The typical download speeds it offers are between 33-182 Mbps and may vary
according to location, time of the day, weather, and other factors.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 32
Table 5 - T-Mobile Wireless Internet Packages
Package
Max
Download
Speed
Monthly
Rate
Cost Per
MB
Notes
5G Home Internet 182 Mbps $ 50 $ 0.27 Unlimited data
No annual contract
Verizon
Verizon’s 5G Home internet services are an affordable solution with faster speeds than
satellite and DSL types of connections. Verizon offers unlimited data and contract-free
plans, but speeds may vary based on a location’s distance to its network towers and real-
time network traffic.
Table 6 - Verizon Wireless Internet Packages
Package
Max
Download
Speed
Monthly
Rate
Cost Per
MB
Notes
LTE Home Internet 50 Mbps $ 25 $ 0.50 Unlimited data
No annual contract
5G Home Internet 300 Mbps $ 60 $ 0.20
Unlimited data
10-year price
guarantee
Peak Wi-Fi
The City has a third WISP, Peak Wi-Fi, that offers a wireless connection over a 6 Ghz
frequency. They offer plans starting at $70 per month, and are upgrading equipment and
will soon have 200 and 300 Mbps plans available as higher-tier options. There are no
contracts, no data caps, and all plans require a $99 installation fee.
Table 7 - Peak Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Packages
Package
Max
Download
Speed
Max
Upload
Speed
Monthly
Rate
Cost Per
MB
Standard 50 Mbps 10 Mbps $ 70 $ 1.16
Premium 100 Mbps 20 Mbps $ 150 $ 1.25
Custom 100 Mbps 100 Mbps $ 200 $ 1.00
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 33
4. Needs Assessment
Magellan examined the needs of the City through several lenses to understand the
technological and socioeconomic challenges to high-speed broadband access within San
Luis Obispo for the present and future – both from the community and business
perspective, as well as considering the City’s organizational needs in order to provide
superior public services to its constituents.
Data and maps from the American Community Survey (ACS), U.S. Census, California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC), and other federal databases was used to evaluate residents’
access, adoption, barriers, and resources related to broadband. An online survey was
developed and promoted by the City to gather community perceptions, needs, priorities,
and test actual broadband speeds. Magellan also conducted community stakeholder
meetings and focus groups to acquire first-hand accounts, and met with several key City
departments to consider the impact of broadband on City services delivery.
4.1 INDICATORS OF NEED
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) identifies a location as “unserved” if it
cannot secure fixed (wired) broadband services from any carrier, and qualifies a location as
“under-served” if it cannot access broadband download speeds above 25 Mbps. However,
the State of California and the CPUC uses a higher standard: locations receiving less than
25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, or if the only option for internet access is a legacy
DSL copper connection, are essentially “unserved” – and anything less than 100 Mbps
download and 25 Mbps upload are “under-served.”
The City has many addresses that qualify under California’s minimum standard as
unserved (lacking access to wireline 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream, which
include locations with legacy Digital Subscriber Line and Cable DOCSIS 2.0 or older), as
identified in Figure 21.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 34
Figure 21 - Unserved Locations 14
However, this CPUC map shows unserved addresses based solely on whether any ISP
carrier is physically capable of providing service – it does not take into account individual
household constraints or barriers if/when service is able to be provided.
Many households lack an internet service or connection not due to any technical limitations
of the ISP, but as a result of income or other socio-economic factors (language barriers,
14 Source: CPU SB 156 Last Mile Federal Funding Account Public Map, April 7, 2023: Unserved locations lacking
access to wireline 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream excluding legacy technology (e.g. Digital
Subscriber Line and Cable DOCSIS 2.0 or older)
https://federalfundingaccountmap.vetro.io/map#11.31/38.6185/-121.4896
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 35
digital literacy, etc.). ACS data and maps (Figure 22) identify areas with a high number of
households without any internet access that could be caused by any number of these
factors.
Figure 22 - Households with No Internet Access 15
In late 2021, the federal government launched the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)
that helps households secure affordable broadband by subsidizing up to $30 per month for
an internet subscription. Households with incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty
guidelines are eligible for the subsidy. However, participation in the program requires
households apply through a government website, which is not often readily apparent or
accessible from the carriers’ sales websites, which contributes to a low participation rate.
15 Source: ACS Internet Connectivity Variables 12/12/22
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 36
Table 8 - Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Participation 16
Eligible
Households
Participating
Households
%
Participation
United States 51.6 million 17.1 million 31%
California 5.8 million 1.8 million 33%
San Luis Obispo 7,106 1,792 25%
The City’s rate lags behind the state and national average, and identifies more than 7,100
eligible households within the City that could utilize the program to significantly reduce
their monthly costs for internet services.
The City demonstrates other areas of need related to socio-economic factors – lower
income areas, vulnerability indices, or other disadvantaged indicators (see Figure 23).
Figure 23 - California State Vulnerability Indices 17
16 Source: https://www.educationsuperhighway.org/no-home-left-offline/acp-data/#dashboard
17 Source: Source: CPU SB 156 Last Mile Federal Funding Account Public Map, April 7, 2023:
https://federalfundingaccountmap.vetro.io/map#11.31/38.6185/-121.4896
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 37
4.2 COMMUNITY SURVEY
As part of the planning process, Magellan surveyed community members to determine
what types of internet services community members have, including the service costs,
performance, and providers, and customer satisfaction, willingness to pay, and under-
served status.
As detailed in Table 9, there were a total of 283 unique, usable survey responses, about
two-thirds of which were complete, meaning the respondent went through the entire
survey and clicked “Submit” at the end. Since total responses were less than the 300
generally required for statistical reliability, we can only say the results represent the
experience and sentiments of respondents and may not be representative of the
community as a whole.
Table 9 - Survey Responses by Status and Type of Internet Service
Responses
Internet service
Broadband Low Speed None
All/Total 283 94.0% 4.9% 1.1%
Complete 196 (69.3%) 94.9% 4.1% 1.0%
Partial 87 (30.7%) 92.0% 6.9% 1.1%
One of the key questions asked of respondents was the type of internet service at the
location for which they were completing the survey. Over 90% had broadband, although
the percentage was somewhat lower for partial responses. In total, only three responses
indicated having no internet services, all of which were in the City of San Luis Obispo. There
were ten responses from outside the City, including Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Los Osos,
Nipomo, Pismo Beach, and Santa Maria, all of which reported having broadband except the
one response from Atascadero, which had low speed internet.
Respondent Demographics
We asked about a few basic demographic characteristics to understand how respondents
compared to the overall population. Specifically, respondents seem to be older (median
age of 38 years verses 26 for the population) and in smaller households than the
population (median size of 2 persons compared to 2.4). Generally, respondents were more
educated than the population. Part of this is because the survey was of households rather
than individuals, i.e., the overall population. Therefore, educational achievement would
naturally skew higher. Also, persons with more education tend to be more willing to
complete surveys. Regardless, as shown in Table 10, the survey had low levels of
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 38
participation by persons with lower levels of educational achievement and relatively strong
participation by more educated persons.
Table 10 – Respondent Households by Educational Achievement 18
Educational Achievement Responses
Population 18
Years Older
Less than high school 0.0% 3.5%
High school or equivalent 0.0% 15.0%
Some College or Associate Degree 12.3% 44.1%
Bachelor's degree 38.9% 24.3%
Graduate or professional degree 48.8% 13.1%
We also asked about occupation, for which respondents more closely matched the
population, as shown in Table 11. Respondents were more likely to be in arts, business,
management, or science occupations and service occupations than would be expected
based on population statistics. Respondents were less likely to be in construction,
maintenance, or natural resources occupations or out of the workforce. There were similar
levels of office or sales occupations and production or transportation occupations for the
survey responses and in the population.
Table 11 - Respondent Households by Occupation
Occupation Responses Population
Arts, business, management, or science 40.4% 32.1%
Construction, maintenance, or natural resources 5.6% 14.8%
Office or sales 13.0% 14.5%
Production or transportation 3.1% 3.4%
Service 11.8% 5.2%
Retired or otherwise out of the workforce 19 26.1% 29.9%
Internet Services a nd Providers
More than half of respondents (56%) had internet services that met or exceeded the state’s
standard of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. As shown in Figure 24, about a third
of respondents had service that exceeded federal broadband standards but did not meet
state standards. Effectively 10% had services that did not meet the federal standard. The
18 Unless otherwise noted all statistics come from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community
Survey, 2021 5-Year Estimates, accessed via https://data.census.gov/.
19 The Census Bureau does not identify retired persons. Instead, we use households with Social Security
income as a proxy for retired persons.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 39
geographic distribution of responses, shown in Figure 25, suggests that southern portions
of the City have older infrastructure and technologies. Responses in the center of the City
are more varied and include relatively high speeds, suggesting the issues there are more
about affordability/costs.
Figure 24 – Actual Tested Speeds (Mbps) of Throughput 20 (n=190)
No Internet
Less than 28
Mbps
Greater than 28
Mbps but Less
than 125 Mbps
Greater than
125 Mbps but
Less than 500
Mbps
Greater than
500 Mbps
Figure 25 - Aggregate Throughput (n=190)
20 Throughput is a measure of download + upload speeds.
0%10%20%30%40%
Less than 3
3 to less than 11
11 to less than 28
28 to less than 120
120 to less than 300
300 to less than 500
500 to less than 1000
1000 or more
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 40
Figure 26 - Monthly Recurring Cost (MRC) per Mbps (n=137)
Just over a third of respondents paid a nationally competitive rate for internet capacity, less
than $0.30 per month per Mbps. See Figure 26. A slightly larger portion paid less than $1.00
per Mbps per month. Under 10% were paying uncompetitive costs of more than $3.00.
Generally, the higher monthly costs per Mbps are associated with slower services,
particularly twisted pair copper wire based digital subscriber line.
Figure 27 - Responses by Provider (n=207)
The dominant provider among respondents was clearly Charter Communications, under
the Spectrum brand name. As seen in Figure 27, over three quarters of respondents
indicated they have internet services from Spectrum, far exceeding the closest next most
0%10%20%30%40%
Less than $0.30
$0.30 to less than $1.00
$1.00 to less than $2.00
$2.00 to less than $3.00
$3.00 to less than $4.00
$4.00 to less than $5.00
$5.00 to less than $6.00
$6.00 to less than $7.00
More than $7.00
75.8%
14.5%
4.8%
2.4%1.4%1.0%
Charter/Spectrum
AT&T
Other
TMobile
Astound/Digital West
Peak Wi-Fi
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 41
common provider, AT&T, which was used by just less than 15% of respondents. Other
providers, including those selecting no specific provider, had less than 5% of responses.
Astound
AT&T
Charter
NA
Other
Peak Wi-Fi
T-Mobile
Figure 28 - Locations of Responses by Provider (n=207)
See Figure 28 for the geographic distribution of responses by provider. Charter services
appear to be particularly prevalent among respondents in the southern portion of the city,
with AT&T subscribers more common in the heart of San Luis Obispo. Astound
respondents were centralized, Peak Wi-Fi were along Southwood Dr, and T-Mobile were
along major thoroughfares. Respondents indicating broadband was not available were
adjacent to State Route 1—one in an apartment complex and the other possibly an
accessory dwelling unit—and on the edge of Laguna Lake, as well as outside the city
boundaries in Osos Valley.
Astound customers had the fastest speeds, followed by AT&T then Charter, as detailed in
Table 12, although the actual, tested speeds were far short of what respondents said were
the nominal, contracted speeds. Astound’s cost per Mbps was also lowest overall,
averaging $0.50, while their cost for service was the highest. “Other” and Peak Wi-Fi were
the least expensive services among survey respondents, followed by AT&T then Charter.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 42
Peak Wi-Fi and T-Mobile (for which costs were not reported) test results showed the
greatest latency or delay. Astound had the lowest latency, followed by AT&T. Essentially,
respondents who paid less were getting much less than those who paid more.
Table 12 - Average Performance and Cost by Provider (n=207)21
Provider Throughput Latency MRC MRC/Mbps
Charter 204.3 20.49 $80.11 $0.75
AT&T 442.2 16.83 $71.91 $2.30
Other 179.0 20.44 $45.00 $1.01
T-Mobile 170.8 35.50 NA NA
Astound 1,084.9 13.00 $384.67 $0.50
Peak Wi-Fi 128.8 37.50 $60.00 $3.88
All 245.6 20.4 $83.35 $1.01
Descriptive statistical analysis of responses, presented in Table 13, shows that costs and
performance varied greatly among respondents. While a few respondents paid very little
for broadband, most responses were over $80 per month. The mean (average) responses
being higher than the median (midpoint) and mode shows that most respondents paid less
than average for lower than average speeds. The one respondent that paid substantially
above average was an organization with a static IP address, which indicates it had a service
level agreement with its provider. It is also one of the four respondents that had over 1
Gbps aggregate throughput.
Table 13 - Descriptive Statistics for Cost and Performance Data 22
Statistic MRC Download Upload MRC/Mbps
Responses 146 190 190 137
Max $999.00 932.8 875.9 $10.46
Mean $83.35 197.5 48.1 $1.01
Median $80.00 123.2 10.8 $0.42
Mode $80.00 N/A 10.6 N/A
Min $25.00 3.8 0.09 $0.05
Figure 29 provides a sense of internet service reliability in San Luis Obispo. Nearly a quarter
of respondents indicated have hour-long outages at least once a month, while just over a
tenth said they never had such outages. Day-long outages were experienced at least once a
month by less than 4% of respondents. Over 70% said they never experienced day-long
21 Throughput statistics are megabits per second (Mbps), latency is milliseconds (MS), and MRC is “monthly
recurring costs.”
22 Download and upload speeds are in Mbps.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 43
outages. Reduced speeds were reported to occur at least once a week by nearly 43%. Just
under 96% experienced brief outages.
Figure 29 - Frequency of Performance Issues (n=160)
The data suggests that City residents and businesses are receiving less than half the
download speeds that they pay for, and that that there are disparities between the price
per megabyte paid by consumers depending on what plan they purchase (see Figure 30).
Figure 30 - Median Speeds & Costs based on Survey Results
Subscribers who purchase lower-bandwidth packages with advertised speeds at or below
100 Mbps pay five times more per MB than those customers who purchase higher-end
packages of 300-500 Mbps or 1+ Gbps tiers.
0%20%40%60%80%100%
Slows Down
Out Briefly
Out an Hour
Out 2 Hours
Out Several Hours
Out for Day
Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Yearly Never
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 44
This disparity in the rate per MB between minimum-speed and higher-tier broadband
packages further exacerbates the Digital Divide by not only providing sub-par speeds to
households with lower discretionary income, but then charging them more for those
services.
Consumer Sentiment a nd Willingness t o Pay
Internet service was rated as critical overall by 60% of respondents. Only 1.3% felt it was
not important or had no opinion. See Figure 31. Reliability was the most important service
characteristic for respondents. None indicated it was unimportant or had no opinion and
over half said it was critical. Speed was somewhat less important, with over half rating it as
“very important.” As shown in Figure 32, respondents were generally satisfied with internet
overall, reliability, and speed.
Figure 31 - Importance of Internet Service Characteristics (n=232)
Price and support did not seem to be key factors. A larger percentage of respondents were
ambivalent about support than rated it as “critical.” But these were also the greatest
sources of dissatisfaction among respondents. Effectively three-quarters of respondents
were less than satisfied with the price of their broadband service. Support had the largest
percentage of respondents—over a third—that were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied or
unsure.
0%20%40%60%80%100%
Overall
Speed
Price
Reliability
Support
Critical Very important Somewhat important
Not important No opinion/Don't care
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 45
Figure 32 - Satisfaction with Internet Service Characteristics (n=163)
The value of customer and technical support was greatest among respondents for lower
speed broadband, as shown in Figure 33. Overall, respondents were willing to pay an
average of $0.38 per month per Mbps.
Figure 33 - Willingness to Pay 23 for Broadband Based on Service Level (n=215)
23 Note that the vertical y-axis of this chart is a logarithmic scale with larger numbers occupying less space
than smaller ones.
0%20%40%60%80%100%
Overall
Speed
Price
Reliability
Support
Very satisfied Somewhat satisfied
Neither/Not sure Somewhat dissatisfied
$150.00 $150.00 $166.90
$985.00
$499.00
$1.00
$7.50 $5.00
$10.00 $15.00
$34.90 $47.65 $60.57 $78.07 $62.03
$9.58
$16.58 $22.89 $29.48 $36.47
$1
$10
$100
$1,000
25/3 Mbps 100/20 Mbps 300/50 Mbps 1,000/200
Mbps
1/1 Gbps
Average Willingness to Pay with Excellent Service
Average Willingness to Pay with Terrible Service
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 46
Regardless of an anomalously high cost for asymmetrical gigabit service, on average
respondents were willing to pay between $55 and $60 per month for broadband.
Responses indicated clearest willingness to pay more for 100/20 Mbps service: while the
average MRC indicated by respondents was $47.65, the median was $50. While
respondents rated support as relatively less important than other factors, the average
difference between their stated willingness to pay for excellent and terrible customer
service and technical support was $34 per month.
Broadband Uses
The most frequent uses of broadband by respondents were, not surprisingly,
communication with family and friends and entertainment, followed by general interests.
See Figure 34. Buying and special interests were common uses, albeit less frequent than
communication and entertainment. Online buying, gaming, and learning seem to be
relatively low until one remembers respondents were generally older and more highly
educated than the population. Online selling was somewhat common but relatively
infrequently used. Well over half of respondents never use the internet for home-based
business.
Figure 34 - Frequency of Internet Use by Purpose (n=162)
- 50 100 150
Buying
Selling
Learning
Gaming
General interest
Home business
Special interest
Remote work
Entertainment
Communication
At least once a day At least once a week A few times a month
Less than once a month None or Never
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 47
Figure 35 provides deeper insight into respondents’ use of the internet for entertainment.
Generally, they have “cut the cord.” Over 60% of respondents said their households do not
view any traditional broadcast television. Less than 20% get the majority of their video
entertainment from traditional television. Only 3% do not consume any online video
content or streaming services.
Figure 35 – Households Viewing Streaming Video Only (n=164)
More general demand drivers, comparing broadband and non-broadband respondents,
are shown in Figure 34.
Figure 36 - General Activity With or Without Broadband
Note that respondents without broadband tended to work remotely relatively more often
than those with broadband but not on a daily basis. Households without broadband were
more likely to occasionally consult a healthcare provider and do studying or training than
3.0%6.1%
7.3%
4.9%
18.3%60.4%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%20%40%60%80%100%
With Broadband
Without Broadband
With Broadband
Without Broadband
With Broadband
Without Broadband
With Broadband
Without Broadband
Study orTrainHealthConsultHomeBusinessRemoteWorkDaily Weekly Monthly Every Few Months About Once a Year
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 48
households with broadband. Over three-quarters of respondents worked from home at
least once a week. Half of the households without broadband were operating a home-
based business every day.
4.3 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Business and Industry
The City of San Luis Obispo is booming with businesses, many of which are small
downtown businesses that want the most economical and reliable provider. Most of these
businesses have few options, spotty coverage, and slow connections. PG&E has outages,
which has created a lot of problems for small city businesses. Tourism is an important
sector for the City that has a lot of meetings, conferences, and hotel stays. Solid Wi-Fi
connections are imperative for everyone participating in business and leisure travel. Most
businesses that provide services to visitors have voiced concern about broadband for
operations and customers.
The SLO Chamber wants a fiber highway through downtown for business development and
productivity as well as tourism. A lot of new business is attracted to the downtown area.
The city wants to ensure these businesses move in and stay. The tech industry is the main
type of business moving into the downtown area. These companies require a huge amount
of bandwidth. There should be plans to increase connectivity options to the north and
around the city so that new businesses can expand and move into these areas.
The Cal Poly campus has great connectivity overall, but sometimes has trouble with
projects that are outside of the campus core, even a 1/2 mile away. They do not have a lot
of bandwidth for their tech park project, which interferes with their work. Many of the
campus faculty live and teach from all over the county. Not a day goes by without calls
dropping and frequent slowdowns, interfering with learning and projects. The Cal Poly
Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship is running an operation downtown that sees
interference from a lack of bandwidth, and a large number of users in their spaces. In many
cases, staff have left the offices at midday to work from home due to poor connection and
an inability to conduct business.
All participants emphasized that business is directly related to housing, as the work-from-
home culture is not going away anytime soon. Employees of all industries need good home
internet connections for work as well as personal purposes. Homes will command higher
prices if they have broadband access.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 49
Community-B ased Non-Profit O rganizations
Participants in this focus group emphasized how their work relies on robust, widely
available internet access due to quantity of data used in the office and need for fieldwork
to reach clients. The SLO Noor Foundation, Child Development Resource Center, Housing
Authority of SLO, and Lumina Alliance all voiced concerns about a lack of bandwidth as they
expand their operations and deploy mobile services. SLO Noor offers medical advice via
online meetings as well as in-person visits. Clinicians must be able to easily access their
patients’ records in the course of these consultations. Therefore, any interruption is
unacceptable as it interferes with providing critical services. They are concerned about their
connection’s capacity and reliability to properly care for clients. The Child Development
Research Center has experienced internet slow downs and outages due to heavy use of
their system. The Housing Authority of SLO voiced similar concerns with the growing
numbers of homeless persons and senior citizens getting connected.
Organizations that provide housing and shelter facilities for sexual assault survivors,
homeless persons, and the elderly, are over capacity and seeing increasing demand. These
stakeholders plan to expand to serve more patients, which will require even more
bandwidth, better connections between offices, and access at more locations. CASA,
located on Madonna Road and Higuera, uses Digital West as their provider and has
broadband throughout their complex. However, the majority of those they serve live
outside of the city. At the Community Action Partnership of SLO, child services consume a
large amount of bandwidth due to the number of online conversations and online
meetings. All participants expressed concern that their clients are not very tech-savvy and
that, even with the proper tools, they would not be able to successfully navigate the
internet to get the resources they need.
The focus group participants agreed that lack of connectivity options and service provider
competition is a problem. Spectrum seems to dominate the region, leaving very few
choices. Many families and patients/clients are low-income and cannot afford the available
services. Many of the focus group participants are rolling out new mobile services that are
going to require a solid connection to serve those in need. There is quite a bit of concern
with being able to connect with patients properly and access the information they need to
support them. With rising housing prices, much of SLO’s working population lives outside of
the City, and have transitioned to, or remain in, a work-from-home situation. This is causing
concern about their ability to perform their jobs from home without economical, fast
broadband.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 50
Education and Social Services
Education and Social Services are vital components of any successful and forward-thinking
city. The City of San Luis Obispo is no exception according to representatives of these
services that Magellan spoke with during an enlightening focus group meeting. The
representation ranged from the SLO County Public Health Department to Information
Technology for the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, with the consensus being that
the city aims to serve its citizens by serving the whole county. Participants note disparities
across the city and county that have caused a divide, resulting in a range of well-connected
and disadvantaged, or unconnected areas.
The SLO County Public Health Department views speed as the imperative to crisis
response. Connectivity issues are unacceptable when it comes to serving the people,
especially when it relates to public health and safety. Telehealth is a focal point for the
City’s future, which cannot be achieved without providing the public with a reliable and fast
internet connection. Participants noted concerns such as some health facilities lacking up-
to-date technology and infrastructure, and a large number of staff working remotely with
unreliable connections. Another important note is that a number of the community
members served by these organizations still visit public spaces to utilize free Wi-Fi for work,
homework, and personal use.
In addition to these concerns, participants noted the need to push the public to health
websites for online interfacing and health services, which will require reliable connections
for all customers. The County Public Health Department is concerned for the
disadvantaged and unconnected, living in mobile home communities, areas of higher
poverty levels, and some more rural Spanish-speaking, and Indigenous areas. Most of the
public in these areas lack both the tools and the knowledge to stay connected. The County
plans for more in-person interactions with clients and hopes for a solution to spotty service
while working in the field.
The San Luis Coastal Unified School District reports having a solid private network already
established from Del Mar Elementary to Los Ranchos. The County and School District
partner to operate infrastructure and interconnect sites. The schools are currently
connected at 10 Gbps but the network lacks redundancy and the infrastructure, which is
over 20 years old, will need to be replaced in the not too distant future. During the
pandemic, the District distributed about 900 hotspots and identified many dead spots in
areas of low-income housing. These low-income areas seem to come from primarily mobile
park dead zones. The district aims to provide equal opportunity and services to those who
are lacking and notes that the rising cost of living in the city is causing strain on the digital,
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 51
social, and economic divide. The school district is proud of its services thus far and yearns
to provide equal opportunity to all students and their families within the region.
Real Estate and Land Use
The real estate and land use focus group provided better understanding of the connectivity
climate in the SLO area as it relates to housing development patterns. The overall
consensus among participants was that a strategic plan would be very helpful as greater
connectivity results in more business, more prospective buyers, and a growing population.
All attendees agreed that SLO is becoming an expensive city with increasing demand for
housing development projects and has been deemed the 2nd least affordable city in the
country for a few years in a row. The many residents that can work from home are moving
further outside of the City to escape escalating prices, which is driving demand for
broadband to the outskirts of the City.
A strong internet connection increases the sales prices of real estate and draws buyers. Tim
Williams with Astound shared that their services are traditionally commercial, but they are
now expanding into residential services in SLO County. Real estate stakeholders note that
real estate pricing and attractiveness can be enhanced simply by providing developing
areas with a solid internet connection. If the broadband development process does not
begin to connect developing communities soon, then property values could be affected due
to a sub-standard connection.
The focus group participants all thought connectivity in and around the city was better than
outside it, creating a digital divide in the county. Attendees noted areas of extreme need in
Dalido and San Luis Ranch, where there are a lot of development plans, but internet
services are currently very limited. While this is nominally about residential development it
is also about business development due to the number of people in the area working from
home. Their homes are now their offices, which increases the demand for better
connectivity. Competitive options for internet services in the residential areas make them
more attractive to prospective buyers.
The land around the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport has seen quite a bit of
development and recent business relocations. Proximity to the coast along with convenient
travel attracts prospective buyers, particularly businesses with oil money, to the area.
Participants expressed desire to keep current business and attract new ones based on the
city’s reputation for technology and the presence of California Polytechnic State University
(“Cal Poly”).
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 52
Transportation and Utilities
Representatives of Peak Wi-Fi (“Peak”), City of San Luis Obispo Public Works Department,
and the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) participated in a transportation
and utilities focus meeting. All participants voiced an interest in improving connectivity and
infrastructure for the area. The SLOCOG representative noted that there are many
countywide efforts and plans to increase broadband access. SLOCOG views collaboration
and a holistic approach including city projects as keys to success, increased efficiency, and
digital equity as a focal point.
Peak Wi-Fi is providing transport for major carriers and wireless broadband to the
community, capable of providing gigabit per second or faster connections. The ISP’s goals
include better understanding community needs, working more closely with the City, and
closing gaps. Peak identified increased supporting infrastructure as one of their current
objectives, hoping to get more antennas out. Peak has established infrastructure on
streetlight poles, and water tanks spread all over but wants to expand. Peak noted that
cameras for public safety and traffic management, which are installed on traffic signal
poles, could be connected via their network with some customization. Focal areas for the
company over the next 5 years or so include the Los Osos corridor and portions of the
north county.
The Traffic Engineering Division of the City’s Public Works department has interconnected
most of its traffic signals. One of their goals is to deploy fiber to all traffic signals and
incorporate fiber into their current infrastructure, which is largely twisted-pair copper wire.
They are specifically focused on communication links with low reliability traffic signal
interconnections in major arterial corridors. The Division is open to sharing infrastructure
with other departments and for other purposes, but they have had issues with
unauthorized work by third-party vendors on some traffic signal poles resulting in damage
to City wiring. They also have video feeds set up on traffic poles, but believe that their
current speeds are not fast enough to leverage this infrastructure or deploy various other
tracking tools. Their focal points include key communication channels with low reliability as
well as major arterial corridors. Many of the cameras need to be updated.
Participants agreed that the city should invest in new technologies and products for
ongoing data collection like cameras and high-speed communications. The future of
electric vehicles is still unclear, but participants were very interested in how this technology
will affect the region as a whole. Participants also agreed that broadband will provide
flexibility for people now working in remote positions. Participants noted the relatively
large presence of software engineers and similar professionals and saw improved
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 53
infrastructure and communications as means to attract more such professionals as well as
get local businesses to stay and grow in the area.
Conclusions & Implications
A broad range of stakeholders provided inputs to the City’s Broadband Plan. Survey results
show that many households do not have broadband that meets state standards,
particularly in the southern neighborhoods. Whether this is due to high costs or limited
availability is unclear, but results suggest the City’s southern neighborhoods have less
capacity than the areas around downtown. Charter is the dominant provider with the most
economical services, but the average monthly costs are over $80 per household just for
internet. Given that respondents were generally more educated and older than the overall
population, and slower services tend to be cheaper but less economical, it is likely that
lower income families are effectively under-served with broadband.
While respondents indicated reliability was the most important factor, and they were
generally satisfied with it (a) many reported experiencing regular outages and (b) there was
clear dissatisfaction with costs and ambivalence about customer service. Respondents
were willing to pay substantially more than the competitive rates for broadband, which are
generally below $80 and/or $0.30 per Mbps per month. Generally, respondents were
willing to pay a bit higher rate per Mbps but wanted lower monthly recurring costs—
approximately $0.40 and $60, which is equivalent to 150 Mbps throughput.
Again, it should be emphasized that this is among households that are likely to have
relatively high disposable income and relatively low connectivity requirements. Current
consumer behavior suggests they are willing to pay over $80 a month for broadband
and/or nearly $1.00 per month per Mbps, recognizing that higher speeds are much more
economical. In other words, broadband customers expect steep quantity discounts. At the
same time, much of the utilization appears to be for general purposes. Increased use for
productive purposes, including income-producing (e.g., operating a home-based business
or working remotely) and time-intensive (e.g. telehealth appointments) activities may
increase willingness to pay.
Stakeholder input substantiated some of these key points, especially for social services and
workforce development. More economical, flexible options are required to deliver services
and support disadvantaged populations. But limited connectivity isn’t just impacting lower-
income members of the community. Downtown businesses, research activities, tech
companies, and tourism are all hamstrung by limited connectivity options, low speeds,
uneven coverage, and unreliable services.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 54
While the survey suggests that connectivity is adequate throughout most of the City,
stakeholder inputs indicate that “adequate” is not adequate. The City needs multiple
providers offering a wide range of technological solutions throughout the city and beyond.
For example, public health workers need the ability to access their systems in trailer parks
in the southern part of the City but also in the neighborhoods and downtown core. Tech
executives need consistent connectivity from the airport, around downtown, onto Cal Poly
campus, and beyond, for their own purposes and for their team members. Students and
their families have very similar needs for very different but complementary purposes. The
City itself needs the infrastructure to operate and maintain quality of life but also for
making visitors feel comfortable, safe, and welcomed. Generally, San Luis Obispo needs a
foundation for sustainable growth to deal with high cost of living, equally accommodate its
affluent and disadvantaged residents, and provide a platform for technology innovations to
improve operations and support economic development.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 55
5. Capital Improvement Program
Analysis
A Capital Improvement Program (CIP) outlines the planned and ongoing capital projects for
a city that maintain or replace existing infrastructure assets such as streets, sidewalks,
lighting, parks, and water/sewer lines, or construct new infrastructure assets. Long-range
projects may involve significant excavation and improvements that provide the opportunity
to jointly deploy broadband assets at marginal cost, typically through adding
communications conduit to open trenches/excavation, or by planning for wireless/Wi-Fi
capabilities and smart city applications on poles, public buildings, or other public areas.
As a key task in its scope of work, Magellan undertook a detailed review of the City’s CIP,
including all the projects identified in Figure 37, and meeting with the City’s engineers and
CIP Committee to understand current standards, processes, and gaps as it relates to
economic and efficient broadband expansion.
5.1 CIP COMMITTEE
Magellan met with members of the City’s CIP Committee 24 in order to understand current
processes, particularly as it relates to utility coordination, considerations for broadband
deployment, and how the City’s standards and specifications address joint trenching
opportunities and new construction techniques.
If the City undertakes a CIP project that interacts with utilities, the only coordination is a
City notice to the utility owner of a requirement to relocate their facilities as needed to
accommodate the project. Utilities that have no assets within the project area are not
notified and have no opportunity to jointly deploy new infrastructure.
The IT Department is represented on the CIP Committee by Administration Department
staff and submits projects primarily for ongoing maintenance and replacements of IT
assets. Historically, project reviews by the CIP Committee have not included consideration
of opportunities for broadband implement that relies, in part, on “incremental and
opportunistic” network builds. Moreover, the IT Department does not have a funding
source to cover the marginal and incidental costs specific to broadband, and such project
costs would require a budget from the General Fund or other alternative funding source.
24 The City’s CIP Committee includes Public Works, Finance, Utilities, Community Development, Parks &
Recreation, Public Safety, and the Assistant and Deputy City Managers.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 56
In addition to the need for an effective, curated, and managed CIP and utility coordination
program, the City would benefit from updating its codes, standards, and specifications to
discourage “go it alone” projects and incentivize joint builds (e.g., official road moratoriums
coupled with a dig once ordinance), allow for new construction techniques now required by
California state law (e.g., microtrenching), or update outdated standards to allow for
economic joint builds (e.g., separation requirements between wet and dry utilities). These
new policies and standards could be coupled with internal procedures and processes that
allow for fair and simplified cost-sharing arrangements when joint trenching does occur,
ensuring that larger projects with multiple funding sources – including state and federal
grants – retain strict separation to comply with project eligibility requirements.
5.2 PROJECT REVIEW
Magellan undertook a detailed review of all City CIP projects that were either in design or
planning stages (see Figure 37) to evaluate their potential synergies with broadband
expansion.
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Figure 37 - City CIP Projects
All CIP projects should be considered for deploying smart city applications or devices.
However, Magellan evaluated each project for additional broadband opportunities: to
deploy new communications conduit in open trenches (joint trench), connecting new or
existing City assets, expanding community Wi-Fi or wireless distribution points, or to take
advantage of critical bridge, creek, or freeway crossings. More than 50 projects were
identified as possible coordination opportunities, shown in Appendix B.
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No budget information was identified for the CIP projects on the database provided by the
City (larger project budgets typically indicate a bigger scope of work and, thus, more
opportunity for significant broadband expansion). Further evaluation of these projects is
warranted to clearly identify possible synergies and timing for broadband deployment.
Each of the projects listed in Appendix B does provide some opportunity – typically to
jointly install communications conduit at the same time that a trench or other excavation
takes place (also known as “dig once”). The engineering and labor of digging a trench (or,
even more costly, directional boring) accounts for 35-65% of the total cost of deploying
underground conduit; open excavation allows conduit to be placed simultaneously at a
fraction of the normal cost. Even if the planned CIP excavation is minimal – for example,
adding conduit to just a single block or section of road, or providing conduit for a key
bridge, road, or waterway crossing – adding the broadband asset during other planned
construction provides significant cost savings and can, over time, assist in incrementally
building a robust public fiber optic network.
5.3 UTILITY & CIP COORDINATION
Broadband Infrastructure Fund
Many cities create dedicated funds for revenues generated from leases of City assets by
private telecommunications companies. A dedicated fund with ongoing revenues—
separate from the General Fund—prioritizes new City/public technology deployment for
future build opportunities (locating new smart city devices concurrent with expansion of
private wireless connectivity, or funding for fiber network expansions through incremental
builds/joint trench coordination). Creating an fund in the early stages helps plan
strategically for the years to come when use of public assets/ROW will increase, creating
significant new City revenues. Additionally, the unscheduled nature of joint trench/dig once
opportunities means cities need a dedicated funding source outside of the normal
budgeting process to take advantage of open trenches to further the broadband plan.
Cities often will ensure ongoing funding to this fund by dedicating any revenues received
through the license of City assets or lease of City land to private telecom for the placement
of cell towers, antennas, or revenues received as payments for conduit occupancy rights or
dark fiber leases.
Utility Coordination, Joint Trench and “Dig Once”
Both wireline and wireless broadband services, including cellular coverage, require fiber
optic cable. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and SB 156 in California are
making significant investments in fiber optic technology, particularly in constructing new
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open-access middle mile networks and last-mile fiber networks. Transportation and utility
infrastructure are utilizing smart technologies and thus require their own connectivity to
operate, improving traffic and reducing impact on natural resources. Additionally, IIJA
provides more funding for traditional infrastructure programs (i.e., transportation)—not
just specifically for broadband—which will require major excavation along public rights of
way, and thereby open up opportunities for joint trenching and utility coordination.
State and federal policies are being established for coordination of utility work in the public
rights of way to foster efficient and cost-effective placement of fiber whenever the public
rights of way are opened for any project. The Federal Highway Administration implemented
a new rule 25 in 2022 to facilitate installation of broadband infrastructure. To accommodate
broadband in federal highway projects by FHA rule the state department of transportation
is to identify a “broadband utility coordinator” to be responsible for facilitating
infrastructure efforts in the rights of way. This is a substantial change of policy direction at
the federal level, toward allowing the use of federal highway funding to expand broadband
infrastructure and encouraging broadband utility coordination while working on projects
involving work in the rights-of-way.
Similarly, Caltrans has implemented new policies under state legislation pertaining to wired
broadband facilities on state highway rights of way on its website. This includes a new
resource for “Accommodation of Wired Broadband Facilities within Access-Controlled State
Highway Rights-of-way”26 dated March 14, 2022 that addresses state legislation and
considers the new rule from FWHA. The Caltrans website provides contact information for
its Broadband Coordinators, including for San Luis Obispo, which is in District 5.27 Inventory
and mapping of Caltrans-owned wired data communications assets including broadband
conduits is available from the Caltrans district contact.
The Golden State Network is a new public corporation that will build and operate statewide
middle-mile network in Caltrans rights of way. The City should explore these opportunities
with the District 7 representatives on broadband utility coordination and GSN. Deployment
of additional broadband infrastructure for other purposes can be planned in conjunction
with traffic fiber for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the City’s broadband plan.
Implementation of the utility coordination begins with effective coordination at the local
level. City departments should ensure they are coordinating on major projects, especially
25 See, 23 CFR Part 645.307(a), and “Assessment of City Policies and Ordinances”
26 https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/traffic-operations/documents/encroachment-
permits/attachment-a-wired-bb-accommodation-a11y.pdf
27 Caltrans Broadband Coordinators, Caltrans. https://dot.ca.gov/programs/design/wired-broadband/poc
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CIP projects, to include broadband infrastructure where needed by considering at early
stages of the projects how can it be used to expand broadband capacity and availability.
Going forward, all significant City projects and initiatives should include explicit
consideration of broadband implications. Broadband is critical infrastructure and general
plan elements should incorporate actions which support expansion of broadband
infrastructure.
Planning ahead for major CIP projects that involve excavation will allow the City to cost-
effectively install conduit and/or fiber concurrent with other major projects: water main
replacements, street paving, sidewalk, curb and gutter replacements all can be used as
opportunities to add in City conduit at a fraction of its typical cost.
Coordination should be expanded for any excavation work among all the utilities—
electricity, gas, cable, internet, telephone, water, sanitation, and city street work. Providing
sufficient notice ahead of excavation work will encourage more private investment from
the communications industry who can install their own, private conduit at the same time
that trenches or streets are opened up. Coordination can be mandated through a joint
trench or “dig once” ordinance, although enforcement of any such ordinance requires close
coordination and curation by the city.28
The City should actively identify any CIP projects that involve excavation and plan
accordingly to install City-owned conduit and/or fiber cable, and should share those CIP
projects, plans and schedules with other telecommunications providers so they can
similarly avail of the opportunity to cost-effectively expand their networks.
Sharing this planning information among all entities working within the ROW is critical to
the success of utility coordination. The City should curate and share an active planning list
of all major projects occurring in the public rights-of-way – including collecting planned
projects from private utilities and developers – so that telecommunications conduit and/or
cables can be installed during any major excavation.
Effective and successful joint trenching/utility coordination programs are backed by a
strong municipal code that requires cooperation among utilities and the City – and which is
supported by an updated road moratorium list that incentivizes coordination while
discouraging “go it alone” projects. The City should develop an ordinance to implement a
dig once program and update publicly-available road moratorium lists.
28 For an example of an effective dig once ordinance, see the City of South San Francisco:
https://www.ssf.net/departments/public-works/engineering-division/dig-once-policy/-fsiteid-1
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Development Conditions
The Public Works Engineering, Utilities, and Community Development Departments each
review discretionary entitlement applications, but largely only for compliance with City
codes, standards, and specifications – not for opportunities to jointly install or deploy new
City assets during construction. Including IT in entitlement application reviews would afford
the City more opportunities to identify broadband opportunities within private
development projects.
Moreover, inclusion of requirements to place fiber/conduit, concurrent with development,
in developer agreements, through the entitlement process, or as conditions of project
approval would ensure faster, more efficient provision of fiber-optic based next generation
broadband services furthers achievement of the Broadband Plan.
The City could require developers to include broadband infrastructure at the time of
building the development to provide broadband fiber and conduit infrastructure faster, at
the time of development. Similarly, broadband access and internal building wiring can be
required for affordable and public housing, and CDBG and other HUD funds can be applied
to this purpose.
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6. Conceptual Network Design
6.1 CONCEPTUAL NETWORK ROUTES
The conceptual network design to connect all City facilities, buildings, parks, parking
structures, traffic signals, and water assets into a City-wide ring network would require
approximately 18.4 miles of new backbone fiber and 5 miles of laterals for service drops, in
addition to upgrading 120,000 feet of the existing City network with splice points,
handholes, cabinets and supporting infrastructure (Figure 38).
Figure 38 - Conceptual Network Design
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A city-wide backbone ring network means that the broadband signal can come from two
separate directions; if a backbone cable gets cut, the signal can be routed through an
alternate path to continue to provide end line service. Creating a backbone loop is critical
for not only uninterrupted City services, but also if the City (or its private partner) were to
utilize this backbone to provide competitive retail internet services to the community and
businesses. Retail internet services must be able to ensure loop redundancy to eliminate or
minimize service outages.
The existing City-owned/controlled fiber network in Figure 38 is depicted in blue and varies
from 96 to 288 strand cable29, as well as some conduit with legacy copper cables that
would need to be replaced with fiber. Proposed new backbone construction is depicted in
red and would be comprised of two 2” conduits deployed underground at 36 inches below
the surface, filled with a 288-count fiber-optic cable, capable of meeting future demand.
New laterals and service drops are a single 2” conduit with a 24-count fiber cable. In
addition to the 20.4 miles of new construction, the conceptual design includes 22.8 miles of
required upgrades, additional fiber, and splicing of the existing City communications
network to ensure redundant loops architecture and flexibility for future growth.
Table 14 - New Sites Added to City Backbone
City Assets Connected to City Backbone
in Conceptual Design
Traffic Signals (3)
City Parks (30)
City Water Tanks (10)
Lift & Pump Stations (3)
Lift stations and water tanks are currently connected via different technologies, primarily
through wireless radio equipment. However, wireless connections are not as reliable as
fixed fiber, and are subject to weather, maintenance, and other events that can interrupt
connectivity. Moreover, building fiber paths to these assets extends the City’s backbone
into new neighborhoods that could be leveraged through a public private partnership to
provide more community members and businesses with improved internet options and
services.
29 Some of the data was retained on an aging software system that is no longer compatible with City systems
and could not be accessed. It’s anticipated that as the project moves into design engineering and undergoes
field surveys, more information will come to light – including additional fiber cables with different strand
counts, and/or some fiber connections to existing assets that are not currently showing up in records or
maps.
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Some City sites are currently connected via third party fiber (e.g., private ISPs, County of
SLO, etc.), which means the City must rely on external parties to ensure continued service
to critical City facilities. The conceptual network design includes construction of new routes
to replace these leased lines, which would enable the City to connect all facilities solely
through City-owned, City-controlled fiber. However, the City could retain these third-party
fiber paths and reduce the total construction costs (see Table 18).
There are 82 traffic signals in the City; 76 of these are already connected through the City’s
signal interconnect network. Three more are proposed to be connected in the Conceptual
Design generated in this project. However, there are three remaining traffic signals that are
too remote to justify the cost for constructing a lateral fiber path; the City should consider
interconnecting these signals using wireless or radio technology in the interim.
6.2 PHASED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
The Conceptual Network Design can be implemented in a phased approach in order to
prioritize the loop architecture necessary for greater community and business access,
ensure critical site connectivity, provide flexibility relative to grant availability, budgets, and
resource constraints, and to maximize the network reach into new markets to attract a
private partner. The phases outlined below can be further broken down into sub-phases or
built incrementally and opportunistically through effective CIP and utility coordination.
The main reason some areas within a community remain underserved 30 is typically
because private companies, in the context of a corporate financial plan, weigh the project’s
capital costs against the market and timeline for a return on their investment; capital
investment can’t be justified in areas that are costly to build and that don’t have adequate
anticipated revenues. Often, these underserved areas coincide with neighborhoods and/or
census tracts with other socioeconomic challenges, which further exacerbates the Digital
Divide and quality of life.
However, public investment or access to public infrastructure can offset the private capital
required, and encourages market entry. The phased approach will incrementally provide
more cables into more neighborhoods – initially to connect City assets – but which can then
be leased to private Internet Service Providers (ISPs), thereby reducing the private
investment required for new entrants, encouraging more market competition, and
enhancing retail data services for residents and businesses.
30 “Underserved” is defined by the State of California Public Utilities Commission as services offerings below
the minimum of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream.
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Phase 1 – City Backbone Loop & Critical City Sites
Phase 1( Figure 39) would modify the City communications backbone into a redundant loop
to ensure uninterrupted services to City facilities and/or other locations receiving data
services, such as potential future residential and business subscribers.
Figure 39 - Phase 1 – City Backbone Loop & Critical City Sites
The phase includes 52,348 feet of new conduit & fiber backbone construction and 5,391
feet of new conduit and fiber laterals. The phase also includes upgrades to 22.8 miles of
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 66
the existing City Communications network, including new splice points and pull boxes, and
architecting the existing and new networks into a single, redundant loop.
Phase 1 would directly connect the following critical City facilities and assets with
redundant services, ensuring uninterrupted City service delivery:
Table 15 - City Facilities & Assets Connected with Redundant Services in Phase 1
City Asset Location
Fire Station 4 1395 Madonna Road
Parking Structure 879 Morro Street
Water Treatment Plant 35 Prado Road
Traffic Signals (3)31 Various Locations
Phase 1(b) – Residential Backbone Extension
City staff and City Council feedback following the April 4, 2023 Broadband Update identified
four areas in which to consider backbone extensions in order to penetrate more residential
neighborhoods. These four areas included a section of Los Osos Valley Road, an area at
South Higuera Street and Chumash Drive, a residential area south of Orcutt Road in the
southeast of the City, and the area immediately adjacent and northeast of the airport.
The section of Los Osos Valley Road did have a backbone extension; but that particular
section is largely commercial and has minimal residential homes. Similarly, the area
adjacent to the airport is commercial and does not have residential neighborhoods.
However, the South Higuera/Chumash Drive area and the Orcutt Road areas both have
significant residential neighborhoods. Magellan thus added backbone extensions through
these areas to maximize the number of households that could reasonably access the City’s
future network, resulting in 13,801 feet of new fiber and conduit backbone construction
(Figure 40).
31 There are three remaining traffic signals that are too remote to justify the cost for constructing a lateral
fiber path; the City could interconnect these signals using wireless or radio technology.
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Figure 40 - Phase 1B - Residential Backbone Extension
Phase 2 – Water Assets & Parks
Phase 2 adds 31,149 feet of new conduit and fiber backbone and 16,990 feet of new
laterals that connects City water tanks, lift stations, and City parks (Figure 41) These
connections allow the City to not only connect these sites into its backbone network, but
also to expand community and business access and leverage these locations for smart city
devices and wireless distribution infrastructure.
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Figure 41 - Phase 2 - Water Assets & Parks
Water tanks (typically at a higher elevation with better line-of-sight) and parks
(geographically dispersed throughout residential neighborhoods) can enhance community
connectivity by passing more residences and businesses that could subscribe to services, or
through Wi-Fi or other wireless internet access points.
Table 16 - City Assets Connected in Phase 2
New Assets Connected
City Parks (30)
City Water Tanks (10)
Lifts & Pump Stations (23)
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6.3 CONSTRUCTION COSTS ESTIMATE
Because the City already has a significant fiber backbone established, there is relatively less
new infrastructure to construct as compared to other jurisdictions without existing assets.
The estimated capital construction cost of the Conceptual Network Design is $13,522,728,
which includes design and engineering for the entire build, required upgrades to 120,198
feet of existing City conduit and fiber cables, as well 119,679 feet of new construction (see
Table 17).32 Once a competitive bid is selected and the contract completed, construction
should be able to be completed within an 8-10 month period.
Table 17 - Estimated Construction Costs of Conceptual Network Design
Length
(feet)
Price per
Foot
Estimated
Cost
Phase 1 – City Backbone Loop & Critical City Sites
Design & Engineering
Design & Engineering (New Construction) 57,739 $ 1.75 $ 101,044
As-Builts (Existing City Network Upgrades) 120,198 $ 0.20 $ 24,040
Fielding Survey -- -- $ 50,000
Public Engineering Stamps -- -- $ 50,000
Phase 1 Design & Engineering Subtotal $ 225,084
Construction
Existing City Network Upgrades 120,198 $ 5.00 $ 600,990
New Backbone Construction 52,348 $ 110.00 $ 5,758,280
New Lateral Construction (City Assets) 5,391 $ 80.00 $ 431,280
Phase 1 Total 177,937 -- $ 7,015,634
Phase 1B – Residential Backbone Extension
Design & Engineering
Design & Engineering (New Construction) 13,801 $ 1.75 $ 24,152
As-Builts (Existing City Network Upgrades) -- $ 0.20 --
Fielding Survey -- -- $ 15,000
Public Engineering Stamps -- -- $ 20,000
Phase 1 Design & Engineering Subtotal $ 59,152
32 Construction costs are based on Magellan’s analysis of comparable cities, recent construction bids,
equipment and material costs, and a regional assessment of the labor and construction market. An inflation
factor has been included to address future cost increases.
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Construction
Existing City Network Upgrades -- $ 5.00 --
New Backbone Construction 13,801 $ 110.00 $ 1,518,110
New Lateral Construction (City Assets) - $ 80.00 --
Phase 1B Total 13,801 $ 1,577,262
Phase 2 – Water Assets & Parks
Design & Engineering
Design & Engineering (New Construction) 48,139 $ 1.75 $ 84,243
As-Builts (Existing City Network Upgrades) -- $ 0.20 --
Fielding Survey -- -- $ 25,000
Public Engineering Stamps -- -- $ 35,000
Phase 2 Design & Engineering Subtotal $ 144,243
Construction
Existing City Network Upgrades -- $ 5.00 --
New Backbone Construction 31,149 $ 110.00 $ 3,426,390
New Lateral Construction (City Assets) 16,990 $ 80.00 $ 1,359,200
Phase 2 Total 48,139 $ 1.75 $ 84,243
TOTAL – ALL PHASES 239,877 $ 13,522,728
The construction estimates in Table 17 are based on the assumption that if the City does
not have maps or data indicating fiber exists, it would need to be constructed. However,
there does appear to be some fiber routes that were installed on an ad-hoc basis over time,
and may not be recorded in the City’s maps, or may simply be retained only as institutional
knowledge by some City departments. The design engineering and field surveying process
would verify and record all existing assets, likely uncovering additional fiber that would
eliminate the need for some of the new construction, thereby lowering the total overall
construction costs. A completed design and engineering process will likely identify some
areas where overhead poles exist and aerial cables can be used instead of undergrounding
new conduit, which can cut deployment costs by as much as 35-45%.
The construction costs can be reduced – significantly for Phase 1 – if the City were to retain
and even expand its use of third-party fiber. There is more than 27,690 feet of available
third-party fiber (County or privately-owned) that could be utilized in in the Conceptual
Network Design that, if utilized, could reduce the total construction costs by $3 million.
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Table 18 - Estimated Construction Costs if Utilizing Third Party Fiber
Third Party Fiber Option
New
Construction/Upgrade
Length (feet)
Third Party Fiber
Length (feet)
Revised
Estimated
Cost
Phase 1 153,407 24,530 $ 4,274,405
Phase 1B 13,048 753 $ 1,493,114
Phase 2 45,732 2,407 $ 5,473,217
TOTAL 212,187 27,690 $ 10,421,050
However, some third-party fiber leased by the City may explicitly be for City services use –
and lease agreements may prohibit providing any internet services to the community or
business.
Construction costs can be even further reduced through effective utility coordination,
implementing a dig once/joint trench program, and aligning broadband expansion projects
with other major CIP projects, particularly those with excavation in the City right-of-way.
The labor required for excavation can account for 40-60% of total construction costs. When
work is coordinated between utilities and public agencies, all parties can expand their fiber
footprint at a fraction of the cost by taking advantage of synergies with other projects.
6.4 NETWORK PASSINGS ANALYSIS
Should the City elect to solicit one or more private ISP partners, it is important to consider
the potential subscriber reach of any City network – both residential and business - as an
aggregation of possible customers will attract qualified private partners and ultimately
determine the fair market value the City should anticipate for the use of its public network.
Placing a 750-foot buffer around the backbone network and cross-referencing the
residential address database and the City’s current business license list provides the ability
to quantify those potential subscribers that can be economically connected into the City’s
network (typically addresses falling within 750 feet is a reasonable distance that can be
bridged by a private ISP through last mile service drops).
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Table 19 - Residential and Businesses Addresses falling within 750-foot Service Buffer
Residential Units Businesses
Phase 1 21,679 1,750
Phase 1B 2,660 0
Phase 2 3,180 45
TOTAL 27,519 1,795
Additionally, 99 of the City’s public, affordable, and/or deed-restricted housing sites are
located within 750’ of the backbone network. Connecting affordable housing sites to a City
network – while ensuring affordable rates for high-speed broadband for residents – could
help address disadvantaged communities, close the Digital Divide, and benefit from state
and federal grant opportunities through the CPUC, CASF, and the U.S. Department of
Housing & Urban Development (HUD).
Figure 42 identifies those residences, businesses, and affordable/public housing sites that
fall within the 750-foot buffer of the entire City network (existing fiber and proposed new
construction).
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Figure 42 - Serviceable Addresses within 750' Buffer of Conceptual Design
Although more than 29,000 potential subscribers fall within the 750-foot buffer, individual
service drops to connect each address to the City’s backbone will still be required, which
will generate significant need for start-up capital (service drops within a 500-750 buffer are
typically estimated at $2,500 per unit).
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7. Financial Analysis
7.1 START-UP CAPITAL & OPERATIONAL COSTS
Organizational capacity is needed to deploy, manage, and operate a network. Investment
increases with the level of control in businesses models including staff and systems for
these purposes. The following staffing, capital, and operational costs and resources will be
needed to provide varying levels of internet provision for the community or businesses,
which demonstrate the investment needed to transition a city network into a retail internet
provider network. However, with the right public-private partnership, many of these capital,
staffing, and operational costs could be assumed by a private partner, relieving the City of
significant ongoing liabilities. However, the potential cost and scope of these costs should
be considered when negotiating and evaluating a partnership arrangement.
Staffing and Systems Options
At the minimal level of an infrastructure-only business model, the City of San Luis Obispo
will need at least one network technician and part of a GIS specialist position. It would
probably be best to combine these roles in a Network Infrastructure Manager position
responsible for executing and tracking adds, changes, or moves.
Other departments, particularly Public Works, will see marginal increases in workload as
they accommodate network assets in other projects and programs. The capacity to
promote the network as a useful asset for business will be needed to generate revenue.
This function could be part of Economic Development’s work and may be shared by staff
responsible for tracking revenue from cell site leases. It would be advisable to invest in
specialized fiber management software, which may require additional staff capacity.
Any business model beyond leasing a limited amount of dark fiber will require dedicated
staff. If the City were to build-out a robust fiber network and undertook delivery of a high
level of retail services, it would need a Broadband Director with strong understanding of
facilities leasing and maintenance to be responsible for overall organizational performance,
focused on finances and governance. If the City is actively promoting use of the network, it
will also need a Marketing Manager for identifying and managing lessees. The Marketing
Manager may also work with wholesale customers to promote their internet services to the
community.
At this level, the City will have a “Broadband Department” comprised of a Director,
Infrastructure Manager, and Marketing Manager. The Broadband Department will need a
fiber management system (FMS) and should have a maintenance fund to cover repair costs
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 75
(approximately $75,000 for one-time software costs with annual fees of 15%). Major
maintenance or repair tasks—anything requiring excavation—may be contracted out or
may be handled by Public Works. If the Broadband Department offers any service that
involves a service level agreement, it will need external contractors on stand-by and a
dedicated full-time Network Engineer.
Table 20 - Fully-loaded Cost Estimates for Staffing a Broadband Enterprise
Position Annual Cost
Broadband Director $178,200
Accounting Manager $126,360
OSP/Engineering Supervisor $157,140
Sales & Marketing Manager $129,600
Headend/Network Engineer $113,400
Customer Support Manager $105,300
Technical/NOC Support Manager $129,600
Business/Enterprise Account Manager $72,900
Network/NOC Technician (Data Center/Inside) $97,718
Technical Service Rep Level 1 $50,544
Technical Service Rep Level 2 $60,653
Field Services Technician (in-house) $77,501
Field Locates Technician (in-house) $72,446
A retail broadband enterprise has substantial overhead and operating costs, as well as a
much larger capital investment in infrastructure and equipment. Payroll can account for
90% or more of ongoing costs for a broadband enterprise. For reference purposes, Table
20 lists estimated annual costs to fully staff a broadband enterprise. Equipment licenses,
maintenance, refresh, and upgrades create recurring costs. Limiting operations to a
backbone network greatly reduces both up-front and on-going costs while providing critical
functionality and setting the stage for private investment.
Network Infrastructure Options
There are various types of network infrastructure. Generally, local broadband networks are
composed of core (backbone), distribution (last mile), and access infrastructure,
terminating at subscribers’ premises where it connects to private infrastructure, including
routers and equipment that connect end-user devices. Local broadband networks typically
utilize a ring design, which increases flexibility and resilience by minimizing risks from an
equipment failure or fiber cut. Local broadband networks interconnect with long-haul and
middle-mile networks to secure data paths to the internet.
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Backbone routes follow major thoroughfares, as well as some secondary streets where
appropriate to complete a ring. Spurs may be used to extend into remote areas where it is
not practical to complete a ring. Last-mile infrastructure reaches into homes, offices,
vehicles, and literally the palm of your hand. The City of San Luis Obispo is not going to
become a retail broadband service provider, so is unlikely to deploy last mile distribution
and access infrastructure.
Therefore, we focus on backbone infrastructure, which could be leased to third party
Internet Service Providers who would then design and construct the last mile connections
in order to serve subscribers. We analyze the preliminary route design in order to assess
the potential geographic reach, municipal facilities, subscribers, and customers within a
reasonable buffer (~750’) that could be connected via last mile infrastructure by an ISP.
We also review options for access infrastructure because (a) it defines prospective
providers’ capital investment and connectivity requirements, (b) it is required for achieving
some of the City’s goals, mission, and vision, and (c) the City may decide to deploy it for
specific projects or purposes.
Equipment and Services
Backbone fiber can be managed as a physical asset by assigning specific strands to specific
users, commonly on a lease basis. Strands in various cables must be physically spliced
together or optically interconnected, including via splitters, to form complete paths so that
any light shone (transmitted) down the fiber is seen (received) at the other ends. This
approach has relatively low cost because it doesn’t require purchasing or operating
equipment, but it can also be very inefficient.
For example, if two strands in a 10-mile-long backbone (20 strand-miles total) are used to
connect two sites that are a mile apart (2 strand-miles), the other 18 strand-miles become
stranded and can only be used on each side of the interconnected sites. This approach also
misses the benefit of redundant paths: If the fiber is cut between the two sites, the
connection is lost because the information can’t flow in other directions.
There are two general classes or types of services that can be provided over modern
network infrastructure: access or transport. Access services are relatively inexpensive, “best
effort” that do not include any solid performance guarantees, which are typically
considered retail broadband. Transport services are dedicated services that typically come
with guaranteed bandwidth and uptime commitments, which are referred to as service
level agreements (SLAs). Transport services are variously referred to as “backhaul,” “bulk
IP,” “carrier-class,” “enterprise,” “long-haul,” “managed,” “metro,” or “middle-mile” services,
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depending on the context. Generally, they are used by large organizations, including
internet service providers.
Access and transport services are complementary but involve different components and
costs. As San Luis Obispo is most likely to offer transport as part of any future public sector
connectivity business, we describe transport services infrastructure first, followed by
information about co-location, a related service. We include a reasonably comprehensive
consideration of access service infrastructure, as San Luis Obispo may seek private
partners to offer those services using a portion of the City’s network.
Transport Services
Transport services involve relatively few stable, but high-performance connections. Users
are major businesses and institutions, including network service providers. The service is
moving information from one point to another, rather than leasing an asset, so the value
comes from ensuring the information keeps moving. This requires equipment that lights
the fiber, maintains connections, and transmits data as diagrammed in Figure 43. Some
form of interconnection with other networks or services, which requires additional
equipment, is commonly a part of transport service.
Figure 43 - Transport networks Architecture
Networks typically have a core network composed of a few centralized sites—called central
offices, data centers, or headends depending on type of ISP—interconnected by fiber in a
ring architecture. Core sites contain critical equipment to connect the local network to the
global network. They must be secure, with reliable power and backups, and preferably
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centrally located. At least one site, but ideally two, must connect to high-capacity dedicated
internet services, ideally via different providers with fiber following separate routes, for
backhaul.
Transport customers typically have substantial network operations of their own that
incorporate services where needed, which requires next generation technologies—
specifically software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN) and sophisticated management
systems. Customers may require dual-homed connections, which connect to the core site
via two diverse routes, and redundant connections to cloud services, tier 1 ISPs, and other
service providers.
Transport service providers often co-locate in other companies’ data centers to reduce
costs. Access service providers generally prefer to own their core network sites, where they
can access infrastructure called “pedestals” or “points of presence” (POP). This is changing
somewhat with the emergence of wholesale open access infrastructure. Interconnection
sites between different providers ranges from massive data centers to relatively small
structures.
The network equipment required to deliver broadband services to customers is comprised
of several functional groups and multiple components. All business models require core
equipment, which is very similar to what the City of San Luis Obispo has in place already for
its wide-area network. This must be supplemented with various types of access equipment
and infrastructure.
Core Equipment
The core equipment aggregates traffic from all access equipment, connecting customers
and routing their data to and from the IP edge equipment or other end-point destinations.
Standard network protocols provide link redundancy and dynamic traffic re-routing in the
event of an equipment failure or fiber cut. Core equipment can easily support thousands of
customers and hundreds of gigabits of traffic throughput at deployment and will
accommodate future system growth through the addition of service modules, optical
interfaces, and/or software licenses.
Internet Protocol Edge (IP Edge) Equipment
Separate from the core switches, the network must maintain an “internet perimeter.” The
internet perimeter will include internet routers and internet firewalls to be used to manage
routing throughout the network. Firewalls will be utilized to protect critical back-office
systems, including provisioning, network management, data storage, and other
information. The two core switches will be interconnected to two internet routers providing
redundancy for internet services in the event of a single interface or equipment failure. As
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mentioned above, backhaul circuits should be acquired from at least two providers using
diverse paths, one of which should be a Tier 1 provider.
Estimated Costs
The estimated one-time capital costs for equipment and services to establish a transport
network for the City of San Luis Obispo’s 63 sites, based on vendor-provided pricing, would
be about $550K as summarized in Table 21. The core network in this scenario would
consist of the City’s data center as the “central office” and a secondary, backup site, which
we assume would be an existing City facility. We assume that each site would have a single
router combining edge/core functionality, an aggregation switch, cloud service/firewall
appliance for security, Internet Protocol services, and management software for server,
network elements, and back-office functions.
Table 21 - One-time Capital Expenses for Transport Network equipment
Item Unit Cost Quantity Total
Core/Edge Routing $80,000 2 $160,000
Switching $7,500 2 $15,000
Software $15,000 2 $30,000
Security $50,000 2 $100,000
Management $30,000 2 $60,000
IP Services $5,000 2 $10,000
Spares $15,000 1 $15,000 $390,000
CPE $1,200 63 $75,600 $465,600
Pro Services $78,000 1 $78,000
Total Capital Cost $543,600
Utilizing this approach, all the City’s sites would get 1 Gbps connections, scalable to 10
Gbps. Each site requires customer premise equipment (CPE) that terminates the transport
network and provides an interface to the site’s local area network (LAN). We assume there
is existing LAN equipment capable of 1 Gbps connections. Sites without connections or
legacy equipment would involve additional site-specific costs. Annual maintenance and
other recurring equipment costs are estimated at $47,000.
The central office would house core and edge equipment for ISPs serving customers within
the area. Other carriers could be co-located in these sites so circuits and traffic could be
connected and routed to the rest of the world. Equipment and facilities requirements are
reasonably modest—primarily separate, secure cages for providers and major network
users to place equipment, along with environmental controls and clean, reliable power. We
assume the central office would be the City’s data center. Otherwise, costs to build out a
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data center, not including property acquisition or construction costs, could be an additional
$500,000.
Access Services
The major difference between a local transport network and a fiber access network is the
addition of access and distribution infrastructure, including hubs and multi-site terminals,
illustrated in Figure 44. The core network delivers much the same functionality to
broadband distribution hubs—also called points-of-presence (POP)—as to transport service
customer sites. The dedicated connections function as feeder lines, which are also typically
deployed in rings, between the core sites and distribution hubs. The core and feeder
networks and hubs comprise the “transport” network. Access requires additional
equipment that supports connections to many customers.
Figure 44 - Passive Optical Network (PON) Architecture
Feeder fiber connects optical line terminators (OLT) in the core sites to passive splitters
called fiber distribution hubs (FDHs), typically in outdoor cabinet enclosures placed
strategically throughout the service area. Splitters may also be located within the access
POP itself. In areas where aerial fiber deployment may be used, FDHs may be placed
aerially or transitioned from the aerial pole to a ground mounted FDH. As this plan is
limited to assessing major corridors as fiber routes, we assume coverage is limited to
customer premises within 500 feet of the backbone. This requires only a single FDH.
The distribution network branches out from the FDHs. Multiple access lines drop off the
distribution lines—hence the term “fiber drops”—via drop terminals into customer
premises. Major sites can be directly and diversely connected to the core sites via “laterals,”
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basically putting them on the feeder network. The backbone fiber may be used for a
distribution, feeder network, and/or laterals, as well as core network. The particular use of
specific fiber strands is a matter of how they are spliced together and where they
terminate. Indeed, a single fiber cable can accommodate multiple physically separate
networks for purposes such as SCADA or traffic signal interconnection.
Hubs may be powered cabinets, prefabricated shelters, or existing structures with
sufficient space for equipment racks and other components. Fiber in the routes analyzed
above could connect retail service providers’ POPs anywhere in the City of San Luis Obispo
with backhaul via diverse routes to multiple upstream service providers for maximum fault
protection. In practice, a distribution infrastructure can and should be built in a phased
manner in response to consumer demand and/or in conjunction with other capital
projects.
Feeder and Distribution Fiber
Feeder infrastructure that extends from the POPs to neighborhoods and business districts
typically requires only a few fibers, at most a single 24-strand buffer tube. The backbone
typically consists of 288-strand fiber therefore at least a hundred strands would be
available for use as distribution. The estimated costs are based on feeder fibers are sized
based on the demand forecast and sizing of each enclosure to ensure that each service
area is well equipped for broadband services. These details are addressed in engineering
design to get optimal coverage for the least practical costs.
Each OLT serves 512 subscribers at a 1:32 split. The number of POPs and OLTs per POP
depends on the number subscribers. The cost includes OLT and backhaul hardware
necessary to connect each POP to the core routers. In an actual design/implementation,
each OLT would not need backhaul hardware, two line cards, 16 optical interfaces, etc.
Distribution fiber extends from the splitters in the FDHs to network access points (NAPs), or
drop terminals, which connect individual fibers entering customers’ premises. NAPs may be
attached to aerial strand, located in ground level pedestals or placed in underground vaults
or hand holes located near the sidewalk or curb in residential neighborhoods or business
districts. NAPs are costed as an integral component of the distribution infrastructure
estimates. Fiber distribution to NAPs will be sized based on the service area density to
provide service to between 8-12 premises per NAP.
Fiber Service Drops
Fiber drops connect from each NAP to the customer premise equipment that delivers
broadband service. At the customer premise, the drop cable terminates in a protective
“clamshell” enclosure attached to a home or building for storage of slack and connection to
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the home equipment. Drop fiber may be installed aerially or underground, typically for a
flat fee. Providers may charge additional drop costs for special circumstances such as
burying fiber through difficult landscapes or under driveways. The estimated average cost
of a fiber drop at the time of this study, including all of these components and labor and
recognizing that drops can vary greatly in complexity and distance, is $2,500.
Optical Network Terminal
An Optical Network Unit (ONU), sometimes called an Optical Network Terminal (ONT),
serves as the demarcation point between the retail ISP’s fiber network and the router or
firewall connecting to the customer’s local area network (LAN). There are two general
methods for installing ONTs. The first method involves mounting an outdoor rated ONT on
an exterior wall of the structure and extending service wiring inside the premise. The
second method involves extending the fiber into the premise and installing an indoor-rated
ONU inside. In either case, the ONT is typically installed somewhere near the fiber entrance
and an AC power source. The ONT terminates the fiber-based PON signals and provides
customer access to their services through traditional copper interfaces. XGS-PON ONT’s
supporting greater than 1 Gbps data service may also support optical small form-factor
pluggable (SFP) interfaces for connection to enterprise-class LAN equipment.
7.2 OPERATING REVENUE & EXPENSE
PROJECTIONS
Whether the City elects to operate a retail data network itself or enters a public-public
partnership with a private ISP to operate on its behalf, the proposed network will
necessarily need to demonstrate financial viability and, by extension, consider rough
revenues and expenses if operated as a retail subscriber network. The model below works
from the premise that the City completes construction for both Phase 1, 1B, and 2, the
City’s new expanded 58-mile backbone network does not carry any debt or associated debt
service (i.e., constructed using grant funds), and thus could potentially provide retail
internet services to residents and businesses falling within a 750-foot buffer of the
backbone.
Given the number of dependencies and uncertainties that come with projecting expenses
and revenues based on a conceptual routing (as opposed to a fully engineered & designed
network), the best approach may be to provide a conservative estimate of expenses and
revenues. The model uses the following assumptions:
• Excludes the estimated $13,522,728 construction costs because it is assumed to be
constructed using state and federal infrastructure grant funds
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• $50 per month Residential subscription rate for 1 Gbps symmetrical service
• $150 per month Business subscription rate for 1 Gbps symmetrical service
• 30% take rate over the first three years of units within the 750’ buffer of the sub-
rings
o The 750’ buffer touches a total of 27,119 residences and 1,795 businesses. The
30% take rate in 3 years equates to 8,136 residential subscribers and 539
business subscribers by Year 3, and assumes no subscriber growth thereafter.
• Estimated construction cost per service drop of $2,500 to be incurred by the network
provider/owner (not grant funds)
• Minimal cost recovery for service drops through a one-time installation fee:
o $250 for business installation
o $50 for residential installation
• 2% annual inflation for recurring expenses
• Other potential revenues from dark fiber leases/IRUs, macro-micro cell site leases,
data transport circuits, etc., are excluded from this projection.
Table 22 - Phases 1, 1B, & 2: Projected Operational Revenues & Expenses
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 10 Year 20
REVENUES
Retail Subscribers 1,950,240 3,900,480 5,850,720 5,850,720 5,850,720
Installation Fees 180,470 180,470 180,470 -- --
TOTAL ANNUAL
REVENUES 2,130,710 4,080,950 6,031,190 5,850,720 5,850,720
EXPENSES
Direct Costs of Services 353,000 616,701 667,826 622,006 713,512
Administrative Costs 770,349 1,293,617 1,851,568 2,238,804 2,700,440
Reserves 53,268 740,218 788,974 784,462 784,462
TOTAL ANNUAL
EXPENSES 1,176,617 2,650,536 3,308,368 3,645,272 4,198,414
CASH FLOW
Beginning of Year -- (6,789,576) (10,618,382) 5,542,622 32,623,009
ADD: Net Income 332,417 1,495,688 2,836,853 2,314,967 1,761,824
ADD: Depreciation 674,944 674,944 674,944 674,944 674,944
LESS: CAPEX (7,796,938) (5,999,438) (6,028,352) (50,000) (50,000)
END OF YEAR (6,789,576) (10,618,382) (13,134,937) 8,482,532 35,009,777
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Critically, the model also assumes the City constructs the network, and does not rely on
third party fiber. If the City were to continue utilizing third party fiber, it’s likely that those
parties would not allow the City (or a private partner) to generate revenue off those fibers
through retail internet service under the current terms of their agreement with the City.
The model also does not calculate or include any internal rate of return that private equity
might seek in exchange for providing the significant start-up capital required ($2,500 per
address to construct service drops, customer equipment, etc. necessary to begin offering
service to paying subscribers). While the models project a seemingly large revenue stream
by Year 20, that figure will be reduced once a private partner begins to account for their
own investment returns.
The cash flow is anticipated to be negative through Year 7, with a debt requirement of
approximately $13.1 million to sustain operations in Year 3 (the initial capital requirements
are driven from service drops and equipment purchases). This demonstrates the City need
for a private partner to not only bring operational experience, but also private capital in
order to sustain cash flows through the first few years. However, breakeven is hit by Year 8,
with $2.5 million in estimated positive revenues, and could reach as much as $35 million in
Year 20.
This projection is intended only as a tool to assist the City as a starting point in negotiations
with a private partner, and is not a definitive accounting of income, expenses, or
guaranteed market share.
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8. Business & Service Models
To determine which business model for municipal broadband is best, local governments
should understand various factors, such as: community needs, competitive market factors
that define infrastructure options, and organizational and operational capabilities of the
local government itself.
The various business models involve different levels of investment and control that come
with varying risks and rewards. The City of San Luis Obispo has numerous options – from a
lassie-faire, public policy-only approach all the way across the spectrum to a full retail
internet business.
Figure 45 - Broadband Business Models Differing Levels of Control and Investment
8.1 BUSINESS MODELS
Public Policy Only
The municipality utilizes its public policy tools to shape and streamline the private sector’s
efforts to design, construct, and manage broadband infrastructure. Focus areas include
right-of-way access, permitting processes and costs, construction practices and placement
methods, franchise agreements, and utility fee assessments. Examples of broadband
policies and standards include joint trenching and “dig once” policies, utility relocations,
road moratoriums, and funding mechanisms for design, labor, and materials. A public
policy approach is not a model per se; however, it can be combined with other models for
municipalities to take a more active, direct role and maximize impacts.
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Public Services Provider
Municipalities utilize publicly-owned fiber and broadband resources to interconnect
multiple public organizations with fiber or wireless connectivity. These organizations are
generally limited to the community anchors within their jurisdiction, including local
governments, school districts, higher educational organizations, public safety organizations,
utilities, and healthcare providers. Santa Monica, California and Scott County, Minnesota
utilize the Public Services Provider model.
Infrastructure Provider
Municipalities provide conduit and dark fiber services to local organizations businesses,
and even ISPs and broadband providers. These organizations use public fiber to connect to
one another and to data centers to reach the Internet, cloud services, and other content
networks. Dark fiber 33 is the core product of most infrastructure providers and is generally
utilized by larger businesses and institutions in order to reduce their telecommunication
expenses and achieve higher bandwidth speeds. Huntsville, Alabama and Lincoln,
Nebraska are two municipalities that utilize the Infrastructure Provider model.
Open-Access Provider
Municipalities that own substantial fiber-optic networks in their communities will equip the
network with the electronics necessary to establish a transport circuit to interconnect ISPs
with the local network. The concept of open access enables competition among ISPs across
a network that is owned by the local government. The municipality remains neutral and
non-discriminatory, and is open equally to any providers that seek to deliver services over
the network. Typically, this model works best in large cities with substantial demand – both
residential and commercial. Utopia in Utah and Ammon, Idaho are two examples of an
Open Access Provider model.
Municipal Retail Provider
Municipalities construct significant fiber networks, including service drops to individual
businesses and residences, and offer competitively priced Internet by providing services
directly – i.e., the municipality is providing broadband as a utility. In order to compete with
the incumbent providers, municipalities will offer triple-play services consisting of phone,
television, and Internet, along with providing the required customer service center, billing
33 “Dark Fiber” is simply the fiber optic pathway – the user (or lessee) must provide their own equipment and
connections on either end of the fiber to function and transmit data. “Lit Fiber” is the full suite of data
services, where the subscriber just needs to “plug in” in order to access the internet; the owner of Lit Fiber
provides the end line equipment and connectivity to the world wide web.
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services, technical, installation, and field maintenance crews, and supporting administrative
staff to operate an ISP. Chattanooga, Tennessee and Sandy, Oregon are two cities that
utilize the full broadband utility model.
Public-Private Partnerships
Public-private partnerships (P3s) are an emerging business model that provides an
innovative solution to an ongoing municipal broadband issue: how does a local
government invest in municipal broadband without operating a broadband network?
The key factors that define a public-private partnership, as opposed to simply a customer-
vendor relationship, is that: (a) all parties contribute, (b) each parties’ benefits are shared
based on their contributions, and (c) one partner does not pay another; there are few or
limited transactions between partners.
Generally, P3s create a cooperative platform for a local government and one or more
private organizations to plan, fund, build, and maintain a broadband network within the
municipality’s jurisdiction. To make a P3 successful, each organization should align on
negotiable agreements, which can include:
• Who has rights to access the network – is it exclusive or non-exclusive?
• What are the public and private partners’ goals and how are they incentivized?
• What roles and responsibilities does each partner have?
• What assets are financed through the public?
• What revenue model is used to recoup investment?
• What requirements must the private partner meet, in terms of service availability,
speed, price, build locations, and performance schedules?
• How will the partners determine future buildouts and who pays for them?
• What happens if the private assets are sold or acquired?
The essence of such a partnership is that for-profit and for-people entities collaborate to
achieve complementary, if not common, objectives. The bottom line for private entities is
profit, while it is quality of place for public agencies. In concept, private entities can flexibly
mobilize resources where there is money to be made and public agencies can redistribute
resources to ensure no one is left out. A P3 can help realize both these outcomes: public
involvement reduces risk to private investment, and private involvement enables faster and
more extensive execution. Generally, partnerships decrease risks while enabling larger or
new forms of rewards.
Magellan recommends San Luis Obispo consider a public-private partnership model to
implement the Broadband Plan in which the City could publicly solicit and select a private
ISP to operate, manage, and sell retail internet services over publicly-owned fiber in
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exchange for lease payments, revenue share, new City network construction, or a
combination thereof. This P3 approach is particularly suitable to the City given capital
resource constraints, existing conduit- and fiber-sharing arrangements that could multiply
subscriber reach, and the relatively limited amount of new construction required as
identified in the Conceptual Network Design.
Additionally, an experienced private ISP partner will be required if the City were to apply for
SB 156 Last Mile grant funding, as the City cannot currently demonstrate experience and
capacity to operate and maintain a retail internet service network. Leveraging a public-
private partnership could also help secure the local match funds required for both the SB
156 Last Mile and EDA grants.
Initial revenue and expenses projections suggest that expanding the City backbone by
constructing the Conceptual Design would achieve positive cash flows and generate a
return on investment, which will be attractive to a qualified private partner. Completing
Phases 1 and 2 would pass more than 24,000 residences and nearly 1,800 businesses,
providing them with greater access to internet services. The final plan report will contain a
detailed financial analysis that will assist the City in soliciting and negotiating any potential
future public-private partnership.
8.2 GOVERNANCE
Implementing a City-wide broadband project – even through a public-private partnership -
will require a governance and operational structure to ensure it meets the needs of City
while effectively leveraging and managing public resources. The governance structure is
designed to oversee the network and to ensure its long-term evolution and financial
sustainability.
Within the context of a public-private partnership with an ISP to operate and manage the
day-to-day operations of the network, there is an important distinction between
governance and operations: governance is future-focused, and deals with transformational
issues to ensure relevance, whereas operations address daily transactional issues to
ensure continuity of defined services.
As owner of the public infrastructure, the City – through its elected leaders and appointed
administrators – should be tasked with exercising the executive decision making and
implementation. However, the City leaders and administrators would benefit from the
input of key stakeholders, organized around the common goal of expanding broadband in
the community, and formally tasked with advising the City on the strategic growth of the
network.
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Broadband Advisory Board
A City-appointed Broadband Advisory Board can act as primary liaison within the
community, provide oversight and evaluation of the project, and present informed
recommendations to City leaders and administrators for consideration. Specifically, the
Advisory Board should include the following:
1. Strategic Leadership. The governing board must understand the vision and goals
of this broadband initiative, and act to ensure the benefit of all businesses, citizens,
and institutions within the City.
2. Well-defined Processes. Processes for making recommendations should be
equitable, transparent, and designed for quality, simplicity, agility, and speed.
3. Collaborative Decision-making. The board should set priorities, and to make
objective recommendations that are driven by the business needs of the
organization and constrained by the availability of resources, reached through
consensus, based on documented and communicated decision criteria, and flexible
yet related to overall goals.
4. Sustained performance and learning. Education is an important aspect of
governance. The board should create and participate in opportunities to learn about
emerging technologies and should serve as a sounding board for new ideas and
initiatives that may capitalize on the network.
Advisory Board members can be nominated for appointments, or added ad-hoc by the City,
to serve the strategic interests of the organization. A formal charter will need to be
developed to address and define the scope and purview of the board.
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9. Funding Options
9.1 GRANT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The state and federal broadband policy environment strongly supports expansion of local
public broadband infrastructure in California and the US. State and national policy is
squarely focused on eliminating the “digital divide” by funding a coordinated, shared
approach to deploy broadband infrastructure for broadband access available to all citizens
and communities. The State of California, recognizing the importance of internet access,
leveraged federal funds for broadband development in Senate Bill 156 by using federal
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. The State of California is also expanding
broadband infrastructure funding under the existing California Advanced Services Fund
and is planning to distribute sub-grants for broadband infrastructure under the NTIA’s
Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.
ARPA
The major elements of the SB 156 broadband budget are:
1. $3.25 billion in funding (all from ARPA) for construction of a state-owned open-
access middle mile network designed to provide connectivity for rural and urban
areas to achieve the greatest reductions in the number of households unserved by
broadband service under state and federal standards.
2. $2 billion in funding ($1.072 billion from ARPA) for “last mile” projects, funded
through the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account program, divided between
rural and urban counties.
3. $750 million (general funds) to assist local governments and non-profit organizations
in financing broadband projects.
Other major provisions of SB 156 include:
1. Establishment of the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy at the Department of
Technology, with duties including oversight of the acquisition and management of
the statewide open-access middle-mile network.
2. Requirement for CPUC to identify and prioritize statewide open-access middle-mile
locations according to specified priorities, including:
a. Locations where there is no known open-access affordable middle-mile
networking, that would enable last mile connections.
b. Areas unserved or unserved by open-access middle-mile networks where such
networking can be built expeditiously.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 91
c. Locations that would enable last mile connections to unserved residences and
community anchor institutions and tribal lands.
3. Requirement for CPUC to prioritize state highway rights-of-way for open-access
middle mile network construction.
4. Stipulates that the open-access middle-mile network is for a public purpose and can
be leased for less than fair market value.
5. Exempts certain broadband projects from CEQA requirements.
6. Removes limitations on local governments receiving grant funding.
Last Mile Federal Funding Account
The 2021 California Budget Package included $2 billion in funding (partially from federal
ARPA funds) created by Senate Bill 156 for the construction of last mile fiber networks to
serve un- and under-served households ($1 billion for rural areas and $1 billion for urban
areas)34. The funding was allocated by county, with San Luis Obispo County receiving $22.3
million in order to reach and serve 10,575 un/under-served households already identified.
Competitive applications for funding must demonstrate clear readiness to build and
operate a fiber network as evidenced by:
• The applicant (city, county, tribal organization, etc.) will receive up to 20 of 100 total
points in the evaluation based on experience and capacity in operating and
maintaining a retail internet service network or have an experienced private ISP
partner, and
• Local match funding is required in order to be awarded maximum points, estimated
at up to 20% of the total project cost, which could be provided partially or in full by a
private partner.
However, updated maps were released by the CPUC in early April 2023 that incorporate
five key eligibility indicators:
1) Mass Market Unserved Locations - locations lacking access to wireline 25 Mbps
downstream and 3 Mbps upstream, excluding locations with only legacy technology
(e.g. Digital Subscriber Line and Cable DOCSIS 2.0 or older)
2) CalEnviroScreen 4.0 Index – disadvantaged communities burdened by multiple
sources of pollution and with population characteristics that make them more
sensitive to pollution.
34 California Public Utilities Commission Last Mile Federal Funding Account,
https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/internet-and-phone/broadband-implementation-for-
california/last-mile-federal-funding-account
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 92
3) Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index – the relative socioeconomic standing of a
community based on five indicators: poverty, unemployment, educational
attainment, linguistic isolation, and percent of income spent on housing.
4) Disadvantaged communities (DACs) – CalEPA’s index based on census tracts
receiving high overall and cumulative CalEnvirosScreen scores and areas under the
control of federally recognized Tribes.
5) Low-Income Areas - areas where aggregated household incomes are less than 80
percent of area or state median income.
Figure 46 shows each of these five eligibility indicators within the City of San Luis Obispo,
demonstrating areas throughout most of the City with some level of need and eligibility for
Last Mile grant funding. (Note: No areas of the City fell under the DAC category).
Figure 46 - Last Mile Federal Funding Account Eligibility Map 35
35 Source: California Public Utilities Commission Last Mile Federal Funding Account,
https://federalfundingaccountmap.vetro.io/map#5.65/37.393/-116.87
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 93
Looking specifically at CPUC-designated unserved locations within 750’ of the proposed
Conceptual Design backbone identifies grant-eligible areas that could reasonably be
connected and served via a future City network (see Figure 47) SB 156 Last Mile grant
funding does allow for the funding and construction of backbone and middle-mile
networks, provided that those are directly supporting last-mile distribution to eligible
locations. The City should identify at least 2-3 concentrations of unserved locations along
the Conceptual Network Design and include fiber-to-the-premises service drops as part of
any SB 156 Last Mile funding application to ensure grant eligibility.
Figure 47 - CPUC-Designated Unserved Locations within 750’ of City Backb one
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 94
The buffer analysis in Figure 47 identifies a significant number of unserved locations
within a reasonable distance from the City’s proposed Conceptual Design that could be
connected to improved broadband through an SB 156 Last Mile grant application.
Table 23 - CPUC-Unserved Locations by Phase
Phase Number of CPUC-
Unserved Locations
Phase 1 – Citywide Loop 161
Phase 1B – Residential Extension 30
Phase 2 – Water & Park Assets 26
The CPUC is still in process of rolling out the Last Mile grant process: an engineering,
economic, and business case tool is expected to be released in May 2023, with the
application window now anticipated to open in June 2023.
California Advanced Services Fund (CASF)
The California Advanced Services Fund was created in 2007 to bridge the “digital divide”.
CASF is administered by the CPUC and has been modified progressively over the past 15
years. The latest modification under SB 156 increased CASF funding, modified CASF
programs, and created new CASF subaccounts.
Broadband Infrastructure Account
The infrastructure account is used to subsidize the cost of middle-mile and last-mile
infrastructure to expand the state’s broadband network. The Commission gives
preference to programs and projects in communities with demonstrated low broadband
access and in communities facing socioeconomic barriers to broadband access. SB 156
modified infrastructure account requirements to define “unserved area” as those without
internet access service of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, and to require
CASF funded projects to provide speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps
upload.
The CPUC has further modified Broadband Infrastructure Account provisions to recognize
new federal funding from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program under
the IIJA (below). More recently the CPUC postponed the deadline for infrastructure grant
applications to June 1, 2023. The postponement was due to delays in updating the
California Interactive Broadband Map which identifies unserved locations eligible for grant
funding. Part of the delay was from adding socioeconomic data as an additional layer. The
updated new map (Figure 48) indicates there are unserved locations in San Luis Obispo for
which the City could apply for funding from the Broadband infrastructure Account.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 95
Figure 48 - CASF Infrastructure Account Eligibility 36
Public Housing Account
SB 156 expanded eligibility for grants and loans to include publicly supported housing
developments, and other housing developments or mobile-home parks with low-income
residents, and to make funding available to low-income communities to finance projects to
connect broadband networks that offer free broadband service that meets or exceeds state
standards, if the low-income community does not have access to any broadband service
provider that offers free broadband service that meets or exceeds state standards. This
will support up to 100 percent of the costs to install inside wiring and broadband network
equipment in eligible public housing.37
36 Source: https://broadbandmap.ca.gov/
37https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/internet-and-phone/california-advanced-services-fund/casf-
adoption-account
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 96
Broadband Adoption Account
Local governments and other eligible organizations with programs to increase publicly
available or after school broadband access and digital inclusion, such as digital literacy
training programs are eligible to apply for grants. Digital inclusion projects may include
digital literacy training programs and public education to communities with limited
broadband adoption, including low-income communities, senior citizen communities, and
communities facing socioeconomic barriers to broadband adoption. Publicly available or
after-school broadband access projects may include free broadband access in community
training rooms or other public spaces, such as local government centers, senior citizen
centers, schools, public libraries, nonprofit organizations, and community-based
organizations.38
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The most recent Federal broadband funding programs arise from the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The IIJA will provide generational funding for broadband
deployment and be available beginning this year and next from the IIJA.
The IIJA contains the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment program (BEAD). The
BEAD program provides grant funding for broadband planning and deployment, mapping,
digital equity, and adoption projects and activities. A total of $42.45 billion is funded
nationally for this program to be administered by the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) and allocated among the states in block grants. The
allocation to each eligible state will be based on the proportion of unserved locations in
each state, as determined by the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Broadband
DATA maps. The current expectation is that the NTIA will announce state allocations of
BEAD funds based on the FCC broadband mapping by June 30, 2023.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is administering the sub-grants in the
state and has an open rulemaking proceeding 39 to determine the rules for CPUC sub-grants
under federal rules administered by the NTIA. Per the IIJA, a state may award BEAD fund
sub-grants competitively for eligible uses to include:
38 https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/internet-and-phone/california-advanced-services-fund/casf-
adoption-account
39 Order Instituting Rulemaking Proceeding to Consider Rules to Implement the Broadband Equity, Access,
and Deployment Program; Rulemaking 23-02-016; before the California Public Utilities Commission, filed
February 23, 2023.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 97
• Projects deploying or upgrading broadband facilities in unserved or underserved
areas;
• Projects deploying or upgrading broadband facilities to connect an eligible
community anchor institution;
• data collection, broadband mapping, and planning (beyond the planning fund
allocation);
• installing internet and Wi-Fi or providing reduced cost broadband in multifamily
residential buildings with priority to those with unserved households or where the
percentage of households at or below 150% of the poverty line exceeds the national
average;
• broadband adoption programs including provision of devices;
• training and workforce development; and,
• other uses including Digital Equity programs.
Federal requirements regarding state broadband infrastructure grants include:
• Funds will be disbursed based on a competitive grant process administered by each
state under rules promulgated by the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA). The CPUC
• Funding will be based on updated FCC mapping of broadband availability.
• Priorities and specific allowed uses of funds:
o First, infrastructure for areas without 25/3 Mbps service.
o Then infrastructure for areas without 100/20 Mbps service. Then eligible
community anchor institutions.
o Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs): Installing internet and Wi-Fi infrastructure or
providing reduced-cost broadband within a multi-family residential building,
prioritizing those with a substantial share of qualified low-income households.
o Programs for broadband adoption including provision of affordable internet-
capable devices.
o Broadband data collection, broadband mapping and planning.
• Project requirements for funding:
o Speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps with low latency. Higher speeds will receive
priority.
o 25% match required from non-federal sources, such as in-kind contributions,
unspent COVID relief funds or provider investment.
o Projects prioritized based on higher speed, greater scalability, faster buildout and
service coverage for high poverty areas.
o Projects must be completed within four years.
o Projects must offer at least one low-cost broadband option (rates are not
regulated, but determined by state, approved by NTIA).
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 98
o Additional requirements included regarding service quality, reliability, cyber rules,
prohibition on using gear manufactured in China, required technical and
operational capacity for the subgrantees.
Broadband Mapping
Distribution of federal BEAD funding is determined by the proportion of business and
residence locations in each state that are unserved by broadband. Unserved locations are
identified by the FCC Broadband map “broadband data fabric”, constructed using data
collected from various sources. The FCC has published a series of draft maps open to
challenge since September 2022. The latest challenge window closed on March 15, 2023
and the CPUC submitted its challenge – identifying locations it believes are unserved in
addition to those depicted on the FCC map – prior to that. NTIA expects to announce its
BEAD allocations, relying on FCC broadband mapping, to each state by June 30, 2023.
Economic Development Administration (EDA) Grants
The EDA periodically offers grant assistance for cities seeking to develop or redevelop key
commercial areas or corridors, and publicly owned fiber optic networks are an eligible
expense for these funds. EDA grants typically tie eligibility and competitive scoring criteria
to specific job creation or retention, making key development sites or zones prime
candidates for EDA funding where high-speed broadband could help attract or retain key
employers. EDA’s Notice of Funding Opportunity was released March 15, 2023 and there is
no submission deadline – applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis.
Proposed projects must be consistent with the region’s current Comprehensive Economic
Development Strategy. EDA has funded projects for expansion or enhancement of public
facilities with higher quality fiber optic cables and telecommunications infrastructure and
broadband infrastructure deployment. Applications are relatively complex and time-
consuming to submit and process, and a local match is required, ranging from 20-40%.
The City should consider future EDA grants as a possibility, particularly where it aligns with
its key economic development areas and major development projects.
9.2 ALTERNATIVE FUNDING MECHANISMS
Special Taxing Districts
Special taxing districts have been used throughout the State of California to fund
infrastructure investment including broadband. Most common special taxing districts are
fire protection, health care and water districts. Other types of special districts include
sanitation, life support/EMS, transportation, libraries, and others. Community Service
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 99
Districts are one type of Special District, which is “independent” in nature. In contrast, the
County Service Area is “dependent” since it is governed and administered by the County.
Community Service Districts (CSD)
More than 300 communities formed community service districts between 1955 and 2005,
under the previous laws.40 The underlying theory of these CSDs was to support consistent
and adequate service levels across large and diverse geographical areas within counties.
The CSD statute was amended in 2005 to remedy its structure which had become
convoluted over time and to convert it to modern statutory construction. In 2008, Senate
Bill 1191 added provisions to allow a community services district to construct, own,
improve, maintain and operate broadband facilities and provide broadband services “if a
private person or entity is unable or unwilling to deploy broadband services.”41 The CSD is
obliged to transfer ownership and operation (or lease the operation) of the broadband
facilities when that entity is “ready, willing and able to take over the facility” or operation.
The transfer or lease is to be at “fair market value.”42
A CSD must be approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) prior to
undertaking the activity. Residents initiate the formation of a CSD through petition or
resolution at the county level. A CSD can issue bonds or form an improvement district to
support bond issuance. Property owners will pay taxes or special assessments for services
including infrastructure development within the district. The CSD may be governed by an
independent board of directors.
County Service Areas (CSAs)
A CSA is a form of special district that is governed by the county Board of Supervisors,
administered by county staff and is designed to deliver more county services to a specific
geographic area where constituents are willing to pay for them. Residents (by petition) or
county supervisors (by resolution) initiate the formation of a CSA. Once proposed, the
formation of the CSA is subject to public notice and hearing. If more than 50% protest,
voter approval at a special election may be required.
The basic premise of a CSA is to fund consistent and adequate levels of service across large
and diverse geographical areas or in small communities in unincorporated areas that the
County would not otherwise be able to fund through traditional sources (property tax, sales
40 Cal. Gov. Code § 61001(a)(4).
41 Cal. Gov. Code § 61100.
42 Id.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 100
tax, fuel tax, etc.). This funding is created by a direct assessment, paid by property owner
for a particular service. The most common type of service and associated assessment is for
road and drainage maintenance in new subdivisions, but there are others ranging from
lighting to fire protection. One benefit of CSAs is that they allow a county to segregate
costs and benefits of providing additional services.
Community Facilities Districts
The Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 allows establishment of Community
Facilities Districts (CFD) to support financing of public improvements and services by a
county, city, special district or joint powers authority43 – the CFD must have a sponsoring
local government agency. Formation of a CSD requires a two-thirds majority vote of
residents living within the proposed boundaries. Upon formation, a special tax lien is
placed on each property in the CFD, which is covered by a Special Tax paid each year. Also,
municipal bonds can be sold to fund initial investments.
A CFD can be used to finance “maintenance and operation of any real property or other
tangible property with an estimated useful life of five or more years that is owned by the
local agency or by another local agency pursuant to an agreement entered into under
Section 53316.2”.44
43 Joint Powers Authorities are legally created entities that allow two or more public agencies to jointly
exercise common powers. Forming such entities may not only provide a creative approach to the provision of
public services, but also permits public agencies with the means to provide services more efficiently and in a
cost-effective manner. https://www.bbknowledge.com/general/the-ins-and-outs-of-joint-powers-authorities-
in-california/
44 Cal. Gov. Code § 53313(g), emphasis added.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 101
10. Recommendations
1) Expand the City’s Fiber Backbone Loop to Provide
Greater Access for the Community and Businesses.
The City can complete a backbone loop necessary for a qualified operator to provide
competitive, reliable retail internet services to the community and business at an estimated
cost of $13.5 million. The backbone loop design would also connect remaining City facilities
and assets – including parks, water tanks, and lift stations. Construction costs can be
further reduced to $10.4 million through lease or use of third-party fiber, or broken into
more than two phases, depending on project funding availability.
2) Initiate Design & Engineering for Phase 1, 1B, & 2.
Ensuring the City can submit a competitive SB 156 Last Mile grant application and/or a
CASF Infrastructure Account grant application will necessitate completing the full design
engineering for Phases 1, 1B, & 2. Based on discussions with the City’s Public Works
Department around staffing capacity, the City should plan to begin with Phases 1 and 1B.
This will allow the Cit to use its allocation of SLFRF funds before the statutory deadline for
those funds expires.
Design engineering will include field surveying and verification, identifying additional usable
assets that may not be recorded in City maps, value engineering to reduce the overall cost,
confirming the final routing and design, and compiling a Bill of Materials. This work will
demonstrate to the State and the CPUC that the City is “shovel-ready” to begin
construction.
3) Solicit & Negotiate a Public Private Partnership.
The City is in a favorable position to leverage an expanded, looped backbone network
through a public-private partnership, which could secure: (a) the qualified network
operator needed for grant eligibility, (b) all or part of the required match funding for SB 156
Last Mile grant funds, (c) a partner willing to construct all or a portion of Phases 1, 1B, & 2
in exchange for rights to sell retail internet services utilizing City fiber, or a combination
thereof. The City should publicly solicit ISPs for a partnership through an RFP process,
select a qualified partner, and negotiate a partnership agreement in concert with a SB 156
Last Mile grant application. City IT staff should lead this effort, and consult with applicable
City departments and Council per City purchasing policies.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 102
4) Pursue Competitive Grant Opportunities through SB
156 Last Mile Federal Funding Account and the CASF
Broadband Infrastructure Grants.
The State of California and the CPUC have designated more than $22 million in broadband
construction grant funding for San Luis Obispo County through the SB 156 Last Mile grant
process, and CASF allocates $150 million annually (through 2032) for broadband
infrastructure grants, which both aim to connect unserved and disadvantaged households
with high-speed fiber services. The City is eligible for both of these funding sources and
should pursue these grants to cover the backbone loop design construction costs of $13.5
million and for the marginal costs to connect CPUC-designated unserved households and
other at-need neighborhoods. The City should identify which concentrations of unserved
locations will be included in the initial grant application based on the CPUC maps and the
proximity to the proposed Conceptual Network Design. Other municipalities – and the
County itself – will be competing for these grant funds, which will require the City to
demonstrate commitment, completed planning, and construction readiness in order to
secure a grant award.
5) Coordinate Joint Build for CIP and Utility Projects
Coordinating infrastructure expansion through joint utility work is the most cost-effective
strategy to expand City broadband assets, particularly into under-served areas and new
developments. Effective coordination on all projects that require excavation will ensure
that all utilities—public and private—can economically expand their broadband footprint in
San Luis Obispo. The City can incrementally and opportunistically build its own fiber
network, connect key City facilities, and enable Smart City applications. The full CIP analysis
can be found in the full plan document, starting on page 57.
6) Apply Development Conditions to new Projects to
Expand Public and Private Fiber Assets
The City should implement favorable development conditions through City Council action
and ordinance that requires developers on new projects to place fiber/conduit to ensure
faster, more efficient provision of fiber-optic based next generation broadband services.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 103
7) Explore a Broadband Infrastructure Fund to finance
future smart city applications and network
expansion
Many cities create dedicated funds for revenues generated from leases of City assets by
private telecommunications companies. A dedicated fund with ongoing revenues—
separate from the General Fund—prioritizes new City/public technology deployment for
future build opportunities (funding for fiber network expansions through incremental
builds/joint trench coordination or for locating new smart city devices concurrent with
expansion of private wireless connectivity).
Creating a fund helps plan strategically for the years to come when use of public
assets/ROW will increase and could create significant new City revenues. The unscheduled
nature of joint trench/dig once opportunities means cities need a dedicated funding source
outside of the normal budgeting process to take advantage of open trenches.
The City should consider holding revenues generated by the City through lease or other
agreements for use of City broadband infrastructure – including cellular antennas on street
light poles, placement of cabinets or vaults in the ROW, leasing land or towers for cell tower
installation, dark fiber or conduit occupancy leases, or other telecom-related/ROW revenue
generating activities – in a separate account to offset maintenance and expansion costs.
8) Adopt broadband infrastructure and fiber-optic
standards.
The City should adopt standards and industry best practices to ensure City investments are
future proof, adaptable, and support multi-vendor interoperability over the expected 30-50
year life cycle. Broadband infrastructure should include strategically placed access points,
high-count (288+ strand) fiber optic cable, and installation standards for depth, separation
from other utilities, and allowing new installation technologies (e.g., microtrenching) when
appropriate to ensure future builds are simple, cost-effective, flexible, and durable.
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 104
Appendix A : Participating
Stakeholders
Ancient Peaks
Astound Broadband
Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast
Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Cal Poly Division of Research and ED
City of SLO Community Development Department
City of SLO Economic Development
City of SLO IT
City of SLO Network Services
City of SLO Public Works
Community Action Partnership of SLO
County of SLO Behavioral Health
Downtown SLO CEO
Housing Authority of SLO
Lumina Alliance
Oasis Associates
Peak WiFi
People’s Self-Help Housing
REACH
San Luis Coastal Unified School District
SGT Dee CEO
SLO CASA
SLO Chamber
SLO Child Development Resource Center
SLO Council of Governments
SLO County Health Agency
SLO County Public Health
SLO Noor Foundation
SLO Tourism
Trust Automation
VHV Real Estate
Page 1064 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 105
Appendix B : CIP Projects with
Broadband Opportunities
Project
No. Project Title Description Status Broadband
Opportunities
1000506 Bus Shelter
Replacements Replace bus shelters, end of life Planning Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
100083 New Buckley Lift
Station
Avila Ranch development, SW of
Airport Specific Area Planning Connect City
Assets
91369
Fiero, Clarion Gravity
Sewer, Airport Lift
WW Station
Replace Airport Lift Station Planning Connect City
Assets
1000082 Silver City Lift Station Replacement Planning Connect City
Assets
1000079 Foothill Lift Station Replacement Planning Connect City
Assets
1000543
Stenner Canyon
Water line
replacements
Replace the water pipes to
Stenner Canyon Planning
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000545
California Ave -
Stafford to Mill Water
line replacements
Replace a critical transmission
main crossing Highway 101. Design
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000547
Chorro - Highland to
Meinecke Water Line
Replacements
Replace the water pipes on
Chorro from Highland to
Meinecke
Planning
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000544
Highland - Oakridge
to Cuesta Water Line
Replacement
Replace the water pipes on
Highland from Oakridge to
Cuesta
Planning
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000546
Highland at UPRR
and Cal Poly
Waterline
Replacement
Replace the water pipe crossing
Highland at UPRR Planning
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000545
California Ave
Stafford to Mill Water
Line replacement
Replace a critical transmission
main crossing Highway 101. Design
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
Page 1065 of 1073
City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 106
1000539-
02
Islay, Henry, Sierra
Way
Wastewater pipe replacements
at Islay, Henry, and Sierra Way. Planning Joint Trench
1000539-
06
Morro, Mill, Santa
Rosa
Wastewater pipe replacements
at Morro, Mill, and Santa Rosa. Planning Joint Trench
1000539
San Jose, Ramona,
Monte Vista,
California
Wastewater pipe replacements
at San Jose, Ramona, Monte
Vista, and California.
Planning Joint Trench
1000539
Taft, Hathaway,
Phillips, Buena Vista,
Loomis
Wastewater pipe replacements
at Taft, Hathaway, Phillips, Buena
Vista, and Loomis.
Planning Joint Trench
1000093 Serrano, Bressi, Dana
Pipe replacement
Wastewater pipe replacements
at Serrano, Bressi, and Dana Planning Joint Trench
1000037 South St. Median
Landscaping
Irrigation system to support
future landscape plantings in the
medians on South Street.
Design
Connect City
Assets; Joint
Trench
90346 Pavement areas 2024 - Pavement Areas 8 & 9
Local and Collector Streets Planning Joint Trench
91610 Higuera St. Widening,
Bridge St. to Elks
Widen the segment of South
Higuera Street between Bridge
Street and Elks Lane and
improve on-street bikeways.
Design Joint Trench
91610 Higuera St. Widening,
Fontana to Chumash
Widen the segment of South
Higuera Street between Bridge
Street and Elks Lane and
improve on-street bikeways.
Design Joint Trench
91613 Prado Road
Interchange
Connect Prado Road and Dalidio
as an overpass over 101 with on
and off ramps
Planning
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000052
Buchon-Santa Rosa
Intersection
improvements
Reduction of flooding issues
updating the curb ramps and
providing a high visibility
crosswalk.
Design Joint Trench
91503 California and Taft
Roundabout
Installation of a roundabout at
the intersection of California &
Taft
Design
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
91293
Railroad Crossing
Upgrade California
and Foothill
Railroad crossing Planning
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 107
91252 /
91203
Prado Road Bridge &
Road widening
Widen the bridge across San Luis
Obispo Creek and the
intersection at Prado and South
Higuera.
Design
Joint Trench;
Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000029 Chorro Bridge
Replacement Replace Chorro Bridge Planning Bridge/freeway
crossing
1000031-
08
Laguna Lake Golf
Course Replacement of irrigation system Design
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
1000057A Laguna Lake
Improvements
Development of Parks with
recreation amenities at Laguna
Lake.
Planning
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
1000512 Downtown zig zag
lighting
Upgrade the downtown
overhead "zig-zag" lighting Design Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
1000535
EV Infrastructure
Upgrades behind the
meter
Construct electric vehicle
infrastructure for electric transit
buses.
Design Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
1000155 Downtown Renewal
Installation and removal of
parklets and sidewalk dining
areas, activation of Mission
Plaza, and temporary street
modifications
Design
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
90435-2 Cultural Arts District
Parking Structure
Install a new parking structure at
the Palm/Nipomo intersection Design
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
100530 SH Line and Pump &
Bioassay Test
Expand the distribution system
for recycled water for irrigation Planning Connect City
Assets
1000053 Bus Wash
Replacement
Water Conservation focused
replacement Design Connect City
Assets
1000502 RRST Preliminary
Engineering
Continue the Railroad Safety
Trail (Tiburon to Orcutt). Planning Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
1000057 Orcutt Area/Righetti
Ranch Parks
Development of Parks with
recreation amenities at Trail
Junction.
Design
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
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City of San Luis Obispo Broadband Plan 108
1000513 Parks & Rec EV
charging station
Electric vehicle charging stations
at the Parks and Recreation
Department
Planning Connect City
Assets
1000528
Recycled Water
Broad St. Tank Farm
to Aerovista
Install critical infrastructure
needed to serve the East Airport
Annexation
Design Connect City
Assets
91368 Reservoir 2
Replacement Replacement of Reservoir #2 Planning Connect City
Assets
99653
Treatment Major
Facilities
Maintenance
Replace failing components of
the Water Treatment Plant. Planning Connect City
Assets
1000541
Water Treatment
Plant, power storage
units
New power storage units for use
during PG&E power outages. Planning Connect City
Assets
1000550
WWRF and
Wastewater
Collection Shop
Re-purpose existing building
areas Planning
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
1000542 WTP Cityworks
Integration
Replace failing components of
the Water Treatment Plant. Planning Connect City
Assets
990 Palm City Hall
Remodel
Remodel City Hall downstairs
office space Planning
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
91365 Public Safety Center Improve the Police Department
Facility site. Design
Connect City
Assets;
Wireless/Wi-Fi
connectivity
Page 1068 of 1073
ATTACHMENT C - DEFINITIONS
Definitions are offered below to ensure a common understanding of the terms being
used in the report.
A. "Broadband" commonly refers to high-speed Internet access that is always on and
faster than traditional dial-up access. The Federal Communications Commission
currently classifies high-speed Internet access as anything that meets or exceeds
25 Megabits (Mbps) downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. The California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC) is working on updating that definition to 100 Mbps
downstream and 100 Mbps upstream (for reference, 100 Mbps allows for
approximately 4-6 people to run 7-10 devices for school, work, and other uses at
an appropriate speed for those uses). The City will adopt the CPUC definition of
broadband for the purposes of our plan, as grant funding will be tied to meeting
that definition.
B. "Third-party fiber" is fiber-optic cable infrastructure owned by an entity other than
the City.
C. A "backbone ring" commonly refers to a fiber-optic network built in a ring shape,
so a disruption at any part of the network does not disrupt the entire network.
D. "Dark fiber" is a fiber-optic cable that is currently unused.
E. A "service drop" or "lateral" connects the backbone ring to an individual service
location.
F. "Retail broadband" means any broadband service provided to the public at a
charge.
G. An "Internet Service Provider (ISP)" is an entity that provides Internet service to
end-user customers. Some common examples in the City are Charter, AT&T,
and Astound Broadband.
H. "Conduit" is an empty pipe, generally buried underground, through which fiber-
optic cables can be run.
I. "Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) architecture" is a telecommunications industry term
for a broadband network that combines optical fiber and coaxial cable. It has
been commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early
1990s.
J. "DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification)" is an international
telecommunications standard that permits the addition of high-bandwidth data
transfer to an existing cable television (CATV) system. Many cable television
Page 1069 of 1073
operators use it to provide cable Internet access over their existing hybrid fiber-
coaxial (HFC) infrastructure.
K. "XGS-PON" is an updated standard for Passive Optical Networks (PON) that can
support higher-speed 10 Gbps symmetrical data transfer and is part of the family
of standards known as Gigabit-capable PON, or G-PON.
L. "Fixed wireless access (FWA)" is a 5G or 4G LTE wireless technology that
enables fixed broadband access using radio frequencies instead of cables.
M. "Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP)" is an Internet service provider with a
network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace
Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking or proprietary equipment designed to operate
over open 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9, 5, 24, and 60 GHz bands or licensed
frequencies in the UHF band (including the MMDS frequency band), LMDS, and
other bands from 6 GHz to 80 GHz.
N. "Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)" is a United States government-
sponsored program that aims to provide wireless Internet for low-income
households.
O. "Software-Defined Wide-Area Networks (SD-WAN)" is a wide-area network that
uses software-defined network technology, such as communicating over the
Internet using encrypted overlay tunnels destined for internal organization
locations.
P. "Optical Line Terminators (OLT)" are devices that serve as the service provider
endpoint of a passive optical network.
Q. "Fiber Distribution Hubs (FDHs)" are enclosures that connect fiber optic cables
and passive optical splitters in the outside plant segment of the network.
R. "Network Access Point (NAP)" is a major point where internet service providers
(ISPs) can connect with one another in peering arrangements.
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Focus Group Invitee Lists
City staff has worked to identify appropriate stakeholders for these focused meetings based on input
from numerous City departments, including the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, to ensure
outreach to underserved and underrepresented groups.
Real Estate and Land Use
City of San Luis Obispo MIG
Stone Park Capital Hodge Company
MFI Design People's Self-Help Housing
Stalwork Construction MW Architects
In Balance Green Consulting Hubbard Development Consulting
Wallace Group NKT Commercial
Oasis Associates Covelop Collaborative Development
Richardson Properties Rademaker Design
J.W. Design & Construction Kovesdi Consulting
Madonna Properties Dettmer Architecture
CRSA Architecture Rossi Enterprises
Ambient Communities Above Grade Engineering
RRM Design Southpaw Sign Company
CCB Montage Development
Garcia Architechture and Design Peck Planning
AuzCo Developments Paragon Architects
Transitions Mental Health Association Astound Broadband
Ten Over Studio Trust Automation
Cannon Corporation Vivian Hanover Ventures
Copeland Properties Jamestown
The Law Office of Marshall E. Ochylski Peak WiFi
Quaglino Enterprises Pacific Coast Broadband Consortium
Housing Authority San Luis Obispo
Page 1071 of 1073
Community and Non-Profit Organizations
AAPI SLO COunty Literacy for Life Organization
Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented
Student Success
Long Term Care Ombudsman Services of San
Luis Obispo County
Diversity Coalition SLO County Lumina Alliance
GALA Pride and Diversity Center Meals That Connect
Independent Living Resource Center, INC One Cool Earth
Jewish Community Center Federation Peace Academy of the Science and Arts
Latino Outreach Council People's Self-Help Housing Corporation
Promotoras Restorative Partners
RACE Matters SLO San Luis Obispo Children's Museum
Undocu Support San Luis Obispo Climate Coalition
United Way of San Luis Obispo County
San Luis Obispo Committee for Education on
Alcoholism, dba "MiddleHouse"
Cal Poly Student Diversity and Belonging San Luis Obispo Legal Assistance Foundation
5Cities Homeless Coalition Senior Volunteer Services
Access Support Network Shower the People
Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Luis Obispo
County SLO International Film Festival
CAPSLO - Child Care Resource Connection
(CCRC) SLO Noor Foundation
City Farm SLO SLO Partners
Community Action Partnership of San Luis
Obispo County, Inc SLO Rep. Theater
Community Counseling Center (CCC) of San Luis
Obispo Smart Share Housing Solutions, Inc
Court Appointed Special Advocates of San Luis
Obispo County, Inc
The San Luis Obispo Child Development
Resource Center
Cuesta College Foundation Tolosa Children's Dental Center
Festival Mozaic Transitions Mental Health Association
Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County The Link Family Resource Center
Hospice of San Luis Obispo County Center for Family Strengthening (CFS)
Jack's Helping Hand, Inc Housing Authority San Luis Obispo (HASLO)
Page 1072 of 1073
Business and Industry
SLO Chamber of Commerce
RACE Matters SLO
Tourism BID
Promotional Coordination Committee
REACH
Downtown SLO Business Association
SLO Economic Development Dept.
SOFTEC
Trust Automation
Cal Poly CIE
Cal Poly Business Park
Transportation and Health
SLO Utilities Dept
PG&E
Charter/Spectrum
AT&T
Astound/Digital West
SLO Public Works
SLO Engineering
SLO Transportation Team
County Public Works
SLO Transit
RTA - Regional Transit Authority
SLO COG
Peak WiFi
Education and Social Services
Cal Poly
Cuesta College
San Luis Coastal Unified School District
SLO County Social Services
SLO County Public Health
SLO County Behavioral Health
CenCal Health
Page 1073 of 1073
City Council Meeting –June 20, 2023
1.Receive and adopt the Broadband Plan;and,
2.Authorize staff to apply for any current and future grant opportunities that
become available to support Broadband Plan implementation;and,
3.Amend the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Capital Improvement Project List to
include a project titled “Broadband Plan Implementation”(project #2001063)
utilizing funds (ARPA)previously allocated by Council for the broadband
study;and,
4.Authorize staff to advertise an RFP for the “Broadband Plan Implementation”
project in a form approved by the City Engineer and City Attorney,with a
scope of design and engineering for implementation of Phase 1 and Phase
1B of the conceptual network design;and,
5.Authorize the City Manager to award the design and engineering contract if
within the project budget.
1.Broadband Survey
2.Conceptual Network Design
3.Estimated Construction Costs
4.Grant Funding Opportunities
5.Unserved Locations
6.Broadband Policies & Processes
7.Regional Alignment
8.Implementation Next Steps
283 responses
BROADBAND SURVEY
1.18.4 miles of new fiber backbone
2.5 miles of new fiber laterals
3.Creates redundant loop for uninterrupted
services
4.New City backbone would pass:
a.27,000+ households
b.1,800 businesses
5.Transitions away from 3rd party fiber
6.Connects new City sites:
a.3 traffic signals
b.30 Parks
c.10 Water tanks
d.13 Lift stations
CONCEPTUAL NETWORK DESIGN
ESTIMATED CONSTRUCTION COSTS
TOTAL –
Phases 1, 1B & 2 239,877 feet $ 13,522,728
06/20/23 City of San Luis Obispo –Broadband Plan -6
California Advanced Services Fund (CASF)
•$150 M annually
•Broadband Infrastructure Account
•Public Housing Account
•Broadband Adoption Account
•Wireless eligible
Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD)
•Infrastructure for un-or under-served
•Broadband planning
•Multi-family wireless
•Adoption, digital equity, workforce development
GRANT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
California SB 156 Last Mile
1.Construction of last mile fiber
a.Un-and under-served
b.NO wireless
2.$22.3 M earmarked for County
3.Anticipated July 2023 release
U.S. Dept of Commerce EDA
•Eligibility/criteria tied to employment
•20-40% local match required
1.CPUC-identified “unserved” locations will
drive eligibility for 2 key state grants:
a.SB 156 Last mile
b.CASF Infrastructure Fund
2.NOTE: “locations” does not always account
for multi-family
UNSERVED LOCATIONS
•Utility/CIP Coordination
•Development Review
•Templated Conditions of Approval
•Updated City Engineering Standards
•Microtrenching
•Joint trench standards and specifications
•Positioning City to interconnect & align with regional
efforts
•Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast (BCPC)
•REACH –EDC
•Cal Poly
•SLO Council of Governments
•North County Broadband Strategic Plan
•SLO County Broadband Technical Advisory
Committee
1.Receive and adopt the Broadband Plan;and,
2.Authorize staff to apply for any current and future grant opportunities that
become available to support Broadband Plan implementation;and,
3.Amend the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Capital Improvement Project List to
include a project titled “Broadband Plan Implementation”(project #2001063)
utilizing funds (ARPA)previously allocated by Council for the broadband
study;and,
4.Authorize staff to advertise an RFP for the “Broadband Plan Implementation”
project in a form approved by the City Engineer and City Attorney,with a
scope of design and engineering for implementation of Phase 1 and Phase
1B of the conceptual network design;and,
5.Authorize the City Manager to award the design and engineering contract if
within the project budget.
1.Do not approve the Broadband Plan and discontinue work efforts. This is not
recommended as it would harm the City’s ability to apply for grant funds.
2.Give staff additional direction on changes to the plan. Staff would return to
Council at a later date for adoption. This is not recommended as it would
delay the adoption of the plan and could harm the City’s ability to apply for
grant funds.