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On June 6th, 2019, the Farr West City Council voted unanimously to enter into franchise agreement/contract negotiations with Connext, a local ISP, based on the findings of the Farr West Broadband Committee.  To learn what this means, please read this page carefully.

A new fiber network will be installed by Connext BASED ON PUBLIC DEMAND.

Connext proposes to install a new active-fiber network to the premise in areas of the city where there is enough demand for such a service.

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What does this mean?

  • The city has been divided into different areas or "fiberhoods" based on their location and the technical layout of the network design plan.  Most fiberhoods consist of between 250-300 homes in the same general area.

  • Residents may choose to opt in or opt out to receive the new fiber network service.  

  • Residents who choose to opt in must commit to pay an infrastructure cost.  See How Much Will It Cost for more information. 

  • Each resident's initial payment on their infrastructure cost goes toward the cost of building out the new fiber network in their fiberhood.  Once a fiberhood has collectively reached the minimum contribution required for Connext to build out the network, that fiberhood will immediately begin construction.   Each fiberhood has a different minimum contribution amount based on the number of homes and the technical layout of the network in that area.

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What is "active-fiber"?

  • Active fiber is a type of fiber optics technology that gives each home a dedicated connection back to the internet exchange.  This means you aren't sharing your network with other people, and your neighbors do NOT affect your speeds.

  • Both cable (Comcast) and passive-fiber (CenturyLink) use shared bandwidth, which means your neighbors can affect your speeds.

  • Even though active-fiber gives you full speeds from your home to the exchange, speeds may still vary from the exchange (depending on your ISP).  Even so, performance will be MUCH more reliable than other technologies.

2 different provider options will be available from the start with even more options to come in 5 years.

Upon launch, both Connext and a second ISP (TBD) will offer fiber-to-the-premise services on the new network.  Customers may switch providers depending on if their infrastructure cost has been paid off.  

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What does this mean?

  • Because Connext is taking the vast majority of the risk by funding over 80% of this project, residents who want service must commit to paying their infrastructure cost back to Connext before they may switch to another internet service provider.

  • It will take no more than 5 years to pay off the infrastructure cost regardless of how much you contribute up-front.

  • After 5 years, all infrastructure costs will be paid off to Connext and the network will become open-access.  

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What is "open-access"?

  • Open-access means that any service provider may be allowed to offer their internet services by using our new fiber network.  This creates a level playing field and allows companies to compete for our business in a true open market.

  • Open-access encourages innovation and lower prices.  This model has already been proven to work.  In Ammon, (Idaho) the city's open-access fiber network saw prices for a 100Mbps plan initially start at $45/mo.  After 10 months of open competition, prices for the same plan dropped to $10/mo and providers stopped requiring contracts.  Currently, 15Mbps plans are 100% free and 1Gbps plans are now available for just $10/mo. 

  • Residents will be able to change their plans and providers by simply clicking a few buttons on a website (instead of calling one company to cancel, sending equipment back, calling another company to schedule an installation, etc.)

Farr West will have the right to work with Connext to determine the future of the network.

Because the residents of Farr West are contributing to the cost of building the network, we will have partial ownership.  With that partial ownership, we will reserve the right to negotiate with Connext at any time in the future to determine how the network will be managed.

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What does this mean?

  • Farr West has options.  We don't own the whole network, but we would be able to purchase the remainder of the network at any point in the future IF Farr West ever decides it would be prudent to do so.

  • We have the ability to incorporate future technologies much more easily than if we had zero ownership/say in another solution.   

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What kind of future technologies would we want?

  • The sky is the limit.  Because we are building the network using the best technology and with software-defined-networking (SDN) in mind, developers can design any kind of application or hardware that might be beneficial to the city or its residents.   

  • Some examples that are already in use elsewhere:  Free city wi-fi in city parks, air-quality sensors, sewer/storm drain flood sensors, public school shooter-awareness applications, etc.

  • The benefits of using SDN on the network are numerous.   See the FAQs page for details.  

So what is happening?
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