Colman Keane launched Chattanooga, Tennessee's vaunted municipal broadband utility. He aims to bring the same success to Fort Collins.

There's plenty of work to do, but for all intents and purposes, the city of Fort Collins has the money it needs to roll out its broadband network. Now the next question: When will you be able to plug into its gigabit fiber optic network? Or do you even know if you want to?

The City Council, acting as the Electric Utility Enterprise Board, approved issuing up to $150 million in bonds to pay for the rollout of municipal broadband in the city, though it plans to issue about $142 million in debt.

For example, the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, voted in early 2018 to build its own broadband network. The city-owned and operated network will not only uphold net neutrality, it will be faster and cheaper than the service provided by Comcast (one of the largest US telcos).

It’s still tough to say how much more affordable municipal broadband networks are than standard cable services–but it is clear that they improve equitable internet access across communities.

A growing roster of municipalities nationwide are building out their own broadband networks, competing with the large telecoms and providing residents choice.

The city of Fort Collins, Colo., will build a system to deliver "high speed next-generation broadband to the entire community," after its City Council enacted a ballot initiative that voters approved in November. The move comes despite resistance from cable and telecom companies.

There’s definitely a buzz about broadband in Fort Collins these days.

Things are happening in the wake of voters' November approval of the creation of a telecommunications utility that would provide high-speed internet services.

The city council in Fort Collins, Colorado, last night voted to move ahead with a municipal fiber broadband network providing gigabit speeds, two months after the cable industry failed to stop the project.