Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager
DATE:	August 21, 2014
CC:	Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager
RE:	RFI Fiber Partnership Review Committee Recommendations

Please place the following on a future City Commission agenda:

Receive recommendations from the committee established to review the City’s Request for Information responses regarding possible partnership with the City of Lawrence for private deployment of fiber to the home for Lawrence residents and businesses. 

Background:

In early February, the City issued a Request for Information regarding possible partnership with the City of Lawrence for private deployment of fiber to the home for Lawrence residents and businesses.  The RFI was distributed to current providers of telecommunications services in Lawrence, known telecommunications companies in Kansas, and companies that have equipment housed at the telecommunications “carrier hotel”, 1102 Grand, in Kansas City. 

Responses were due back in mid-March.  There were four proposals received.  The firms responded included:

• ATT
• Free State Broadband (aka Dawn Fiber)
• ISG Technology, Inc./Twin Valley Telephone, Inc.
• Wicked Fiber

The RFI, the fiber map and the four responses received by the City are posted on the City website:  http://www.lawrenceks.org/private-fiber-request-information. 

A committee consisting of various individuals representing businesses, citizens with expertise in technology/fiber and other backgrounds were assembled to review the RFI responses and to make a recommendation to the City Commission regarding those responses.  The committee includes: 

Mike Dever, City Commissioner

James Risner - City of Lawrence (retired) - Fiber Expert 

Will Katz - KU Small Business Development Center

Brian Dennis - KU Small Business Development Center

Mike Silverman - citizen with broadband expertise

Eric Freeze - KU Technology 

Cort Buffington, KANREN

Jeff Perry- KU Technology

Local Businesses

Aron Cromwell - Cromwell Environmental

Mark Sump - Activate (Call Center)

Staff

Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager

Discussion/Recommendations: 

The committee met on two occasions, on April 22 and May 6. 

The group recognized that the RFI responses received did provide the City with good information regarding possible interest in Lawrence for additional technology investment.  Several companies indicated there was a need to utilize the City’s dark fiber. A common thread amongst the responses seemed to be streamlined permitting and facilitation assistance from the City.  The committee believed that the responses indicated that the City would have to take some action or provide some resource to spark activity to the next level and there was consensus amongst the group that access to high speed internet services was an important economic development issue. 

The group did not see their role as providing a recommendation regarding the pursuit of any particular RFI response, but rather recommendations regarding the next steps the City should take to facilitate action toward improved internet services.  The committee submits the following recommendations to the City Commission:

1. Urgency is needed regarding the telecommunications infrastructure issue in Lawrence. It is important for the City to proactively take steps forward regarding technology in order to ensure that Lawrence remains competitive from an economic development perspective.

2. The City should pursue discussions with Google Fiber and ATT.  Specifically, the City Commission should authorize staff to complete the necessary forms expressing interest of the City in having Google Fiber investments and additional ATT investments in Lawrence. These are two large and well-financed companies, capable of deploying a significant presence in Lawrence.  One is an incumbent provider and the other is fairly new to the region and changing the competitive market. 

3. The City should create an established framework for providers to utilize the City’s dark fiber ring to provide service to Lawrence residents and businesses.  The framework would establish a market rate and competitively neutral template for leasing City fiber assets and set forth any of the City’s requirements, such as insurance, etc., for a company to initiate service in Lawrence.  The City’s framework should set forth the policy and process by which companies would approach the City.  This would enable the City to move quickly regarding requests that were received.  Nimbleness in this regard was noted as an important asset for the City to have to facilitate the needs of private companies to move quickly and within upfront parameters.  It is further recommended that the City charge the established fair market value for its fiber assets.  In the event that the City wishes to provide an incentive for access to dark fiber, those considerations should be made in the form of an economic development grant, rather than a waiver or reduction of the established market rates.

4. The majority of the committee members expressed support for the Wicked Fiber proposal soon to be considered by the City Commission.

Next Steps: 

Feedback from the City Commission regarding these recommendations would be of interest.  City staff has begun working on the third recommendation concerning a policy framework for the use of City dark fiber.