Fort Collins Connexion

Fort Collins Preps for broadband service launch

While there wasn’t literal broken ground at the Connexion’s groundbreaking event, residents were able to gain further insight into the roll-out and future of Fort Collins’ City broadband.

Mayor Wade Troxell sported a new baseball cap Thursday afternoon, with a simple goal: getting residents attention and, officials hope, spurring excitement about the city's coming broadband internet service.

The city of Fort Collins' municipal broadband enterprise, Fort Collins Connexion, will connect its first customers to high-speed internet this August.

It was one of telecom’s famous David and Goliath stories, and when it was over, the people in Fort Collins, Colorado, were ready to press on to invest in better connectivity for their community. That’s what they’re doing now and community leaders anticipate rolling out service as early as this summer.

After announcing the selection of the Fort Collins Connexion team in early August, the City of Fort Collins is ready to move on to designing the upcoming City-run broadband internet network.

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).