 iPaloAlto is comprised of community people dedicated to the healthy birth of a valuable new open fiber to the premise network (FTTP) available to every home, business, school, church, nonprofit, and government building in town. The question: “Why Palo Alto?” will be answered by your study of this site; click around, see for yourself.
City Council support for open FTTP has been coming from Mayor Peter Drekmeier, Councilmembers Yoriko Kishimoto, Larry Klein, Greg Schmid, Pat Burt, John Barton, Sid Espinosa, and Yiaway Yeh.
This project will be called “FiberPaloAlto™” until some other name proves more descriptive.
Breaking News — FiberPaloAlto™
April 13, 2009. Council moving ahead with Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) on multiple fronts, Councilmember Klein four-part motion concurring with some staff recommendations in CMR 143:09, Palo Alto Online and The Daily News report. Palo Alto submits comments for broadband stimulus funds to NTIA; the State of California does the same.
March 14, 2009. Axia withdraws from FTTP negotiations, the Palo Alto Daily and Palo Alto Online report. Alternatives will be explored by Council at its April 13 meeting.
February 25, 2009. Palo Alto hopes for fiber network darken, Palo Alto Online reports. The Council Study Session on FTTP provided an overview of City staff negotiations with consortium member Axia NetMedia. They remain apart on financial terms. A possible tax might fund the project, the Mercury reports.
January 15, 2009. Economic crisis stalls Palo Alto fiber project, Palo Alto Online is headlining. Negotiations are ongoing with consortium members, but the pieces still are not fitting within the tight financial requirements laid down by the City. City Manager Jim Keene reports.
On a parallel track, the City is seeking federal stimulus funds for the high priority FTTP project and is beginning to gather a list of project supporters.
December 18, 2008. The Free Press Action Fund released two white papers suggesting action steps to the Obama administration which could be a road map to funding help for FiberPaloAlto™. The white papers: Down Payment on Our Digital Future; 2009 Media & Tech Priorities
October 24, 2008. Palo Alto fiber-optic project right kind of economic development, the Mercury News says. “Council instructed staff to try to reach an agreement (on Letter of Intent with consortium members), negotiations are still in progress.”
August 18, 2008. Facebook is moving to Stanford Research Park, 1601 California Avenue, early next year. Downtown Palo Alto “is part of the DNA at Facebook.”
August 4, 2008. Council authorized budget to prepare Letter of Intent and final Palo Alto Fiber to the Premise Agreement. See Events.
July 14, 2008. Council fast-tracks fiber on a unanimous vote; staff directed to expedite negotiations with Axia which results in a detailed Letter of Intent for construction and operation of a citywide open-access fiber to the promise network by September 2008. “Council approves ultra-high-speed broadband plan,” the Daily says. Click here for more FTTP press coverage.
July 7. 2008. Citywide fiber plan wins fans with no-cash plan, Palo Alto Online headlined. Axia's willingness to sink at least $30 million into building the necessary infrastructure "makes this a real possibility for Palo Alto," Councilmember Kishimoto is saying. Mayoral advisors Bern Beecham, Andy Poggio, and Bob Harrington led Council FTTP Study Session; their presentation.
July 3, 2008. CMR 304:08 accompanied by the Consortium Overview was publicly released today in preparation for Council meeting discussions on Palo Alto Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) July 7 and 14 (Events tab has details). The big news is that an experienced fiber network management company, Axia NetMedia Corporation, is willing to make the investment necessary to build, own and operate the Palo Alto citywide open fiber network, subject to negotiating acceptable agreements with the City (Proposal section has details). “The City dark fiber network may provide the key that unlocks the Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) treasure chest the community has sought for over a decade,” said Palo Alto resident Bob Harrington, one of three Mayor-appointed citizens advising on the project. The Consortium recommends negotiations begin promptly; staff seeks direction from Council for next steps.
June 25, 2008. There may be light at the end of the fiber, the Palo Alto Weekly editorial is saying. Fiber Internet finally making headway at City Council, a companion story is saying.
May 5, 2008. Former City Councilman Bern Beecham appointed Advisor to the Mayor – Broadband by Mayor Larry Klein, joining two earlier appointees Andy Poggio and Bob Harrington.
March 19, 2008. Hewlett-Packard considered moving world headquarters out of Palo Alto. Its 2,500 employees are staying for now, but Company leadership doesn’t feel Palo Alto has gone out of its way to make it feel welcome. Longer term, overseas threats may outweigh history and tradition going back to its 1938 founding in the HP Garage, as countries pour millions into building up electronic-communications infrastructure, in producing highly educated engineers, and in cultivating corporate executives, an HP official tells the Palo Alto Weekly.
March 11, 2008. DreamWorks’ Katzenberg sees ‘new era’ with 3-D, which will only be available in specially equipped digital theaters and homes with FTTH bandwidth. “It is nothing less than the greatest innovation that has happened for all of us in the movie business since the advent of color 70 years ago,” Katzenberg said.
Consumers getting cozy with fiber to the home, a Corning executive tells EE Times, but not the AT&T U-verse offering featuring fiber to the neighborhood (FTTN) with inferior video. Palo Alto staff (CMR 324:07) is calling for AT&T to abide by the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 by providing equal access and equal video quality to community, government, and educational video channels; so far, AT&T has not responded favorably.
January 17, 2008. The California Broadband Task Force Report makes the same points that iPaloAlto and the community it represents have advocated for the past decade…our state, our region, our city must greatly improve our broadband networks to remain vital and competitive in the twenty-first century.
January 12, 2008. Can the Internet save the planet? InformationWeek asks.The American Consumer Institute answers: Widespread adoption of broadband in the United States alone would cut energy use by the equivalent of 11% of annual oil imports. Overall, the Internet economy could help reduce growth in greenhouse gas output by 67% over the next several years.
December 17, 2007. Staff updates Council on preparation of the Ultra-High-Speed Broadband Plan. During the final phase of preparation, staff anticipates returning to Council to obtain direction on the level and type of contribution the City is willing to make to the project. This should occur during the second quarter of 2008.
November 25, 2007. Globalization is strengthening our Silicon Valley economy, and broadband is at the heart of it, the San Jose Mercury says. Yet, concern is growing as the US slips to 15th in broadband connections: US in the broadband slow lane.
August 29, 2007. “Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it.” The Washington Post reports on growing innovation in Japan, South Korea, and much of Europe because of their tremendous speed and cost-of-service advantages over the United States in Internet communications. While U.S. phone and cable companies, which control about 98% of the country’s broadband market, oppose virtually every proposal that is not a subsidy for them, the U.S. slips further behind in broadband innovation. Palo Alto and Silicon Valley can ill-afford to sit idly by and permit this to happen.
August 7, 2007. PacketFront acquires DynamicCity. PacketFront, one of the consortium members working cooperatively with Palo Alto staff to develop a business plan for the proposed open-access community fiber network, acquired DynamicCity and merged their operations into the US subsidiary of PacketFront, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. DynamicCity has a long-term agreement to manage the UTOPIA network, the largest open community fiber network in America.
July 12, 2007. Google is back. Google has just leased the 212,000 sq ft former Agilent headquarters building at 395 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto. The building is capable of accommodating about 850 employees. Google, which started in a Stanford dorm room and moved to a Menlo Park garage, first opened a Palo Alto office with eight employees on University Avenue in February 1999. The company quickly outgrew that space and, later that summer, moved to their current Mountain View headquarters campus. As of June 30, 2007, Google employed 13,778 worldwide and is now adding more than 500 new employees each month. Ed. Note: In early 2008 Google changed its mind by deciding to concentrate all employees in or near the Googleplex in Mountain View; the 395 Page Mill Road property was made available for sub-lease.
July 12, 2007. Fiber to the Home drives Telework, home businesses. Thirteen percent of employees work an equivalent of 7 days a month from home; others work from home full time, RVA Market Research says.
July 9, 2007. Preparation of an Open-access Ultra-High-Speed Broadband Business Plan was authorized by the Palo Alto City Council, at its meeting tonight. By a 5-1 vote, Councilmembers directed that plan preparation be a cooperative effort among City staff, advisors, and consortium members.
“World class support from Palo Alto’s world class institutions” is needed during this process, staff advisor Bob Harrington said in a memo introducing a summary of the last staff-consortium meeting June 28 prepared by Tim Scott of PacketFront.
June 26, 2007. U.S. Web speeds in the slow lane, California even slower, a San Jose Mercury article says. With the major communications providers to Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area, Comcast and AT&T, both planning to upgrade their closed networks only to hybrid fiber, the Bay Area may be shackled to slow speed for decades.
June 18, 2007. The Next Step. Preparation of a Business Plan for the proposed citywide open-access Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network is likely to be approved by Palo Alto City Council during their regular July 9, 2007 meeting. Thanks to all who sent emails of FTTH support to Council; your ongoing support is critical to best assure a good outcome for Palo Alto.
May 25, 2007. Norway’s largest power utility picks PacketFront for open-access Fiber To The Home (FTTH) network in and around Oslo. This is considered one of the most important contracts of the year in the Norwegian telecom sector. PacketFront is one of the consortium partners in the open-access FTTH proposal to the City of Palo Alto.
May 7, 2007. Silicon Valley is Stuck in the Slow Lane of the Information Highway, a San Jose Mercury editorial says. Disgraceful but true, telecom companies are stifling innovation exactly where innovation is the lifeblood of the economy, Silicon Valley. Customers deserve better; it’s time to work toward a better solution.
April 9, 2007. Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto appointed two members from the public, Bob Harrington and Andy Poggio, to serve as advisors to the Mayor as staff follows up on the Broadband proposal.
March 5, 2007. In response to CMR 156:07, the Palo Alto City Council directed staff to negotiate an agreement for a citywide open municipal fiber network exclusively with the 180 Connect consortium.
February 22, 2007. iPaloAlto is reporting that City staff today released the two broadband proposals, one from DynamicCity and the other from 180 Connect, received by the City of Palo Alto January 9th, together with City Manager’s Report (CMR) 156:07. The broadband topic will be on the Monday, March 5 City Council agenda for discussion.
January 10, 2007. Palo Alto received two broadband proposals by yesterday's 3 PM Broadband RFP deadline.
Background Information: This second major community effort to get an open fiber optic network working for Palo Alto began with a July 27, 2005 Colleagues’ Memo from Councilmembers Kishimoto and Beecham acknowledging the tremendous success of the four-year Community Center FTTH Trial. Responding to an October 24, 2005 CMR 398:05, and later CMR 111:06, the City developed a wish-list and some preferred guidelines with Council discussion of a January 17, 2006 motion. The motion passed 5-1 and formed part of the Broadband Request for Proposal (RFP) issued September 27, 2006.
Based on the wish list, FiberPaloAlto™ would prefer to employ an open fiber optic network strategy, since the economies of scale make an open fiber network and every service offered on it, very competitive – high reliability and security, faster and higher quality services, each at lower prices. A visit to the MSTAR site, a triple play service provider (telephone, video, and data) on both the iProvo and UTOPIA open fiber networks in Utah, will provide a pretty close approximation of the types of offerings FiberPaloAlto™ is expected to provide early in its existence.
FiberPaloAlto™ will unleash innovation, as Mark Heyer’s Community Benefits white paper outlined years ago. Palo Alto citizens are known for their intelligence and creativity. It will keep us competitive with other communities around the globe where open fiber networks are already the norm. It will help us maintain our leadership position in Silicon Valley, the most innovative region on the planet. And we keep more of our money home.
FiberPaloAlto™ is an investment that will be made by private business, yet the City earns an option to purchase the entire network and its ongoing business years from now for $1 by granting “rights to use” specific City dark fiber assets now. What a tremendous community asset both now and in the future. Just as the rest of our community-owned utilities have proven to be excellent investments for over 100 years, FiberPaloAlto™ will be the same. It will enhance libraries public safety, medical care; get traffic off our streets, on to fiber.
Best of all, FiberPaloAlto™ is a community builder; see for yourself by exploring this Västerås, Sweden site, become inspired. Palo Alto will have the opportunity to own FiberPaloAlto™ somewhere down the line. We can strengthen our own community, neighborhood by neighborhood – by taking two easy steps:
1. City Council action steps you may encourage:
- Vote Yes on Fiber to the Premise (FTTP)
- Assume modest risks
- Fiber technology is future-proof
- Customers love it
2. Insist on superior services with more competition which lower prices for:
- Rock solid reliable service from all providers
- Much higher (both up and down) Internet speed than cable or DSL
- Symmetrical Internet, same speed both ways
- Better TV/video quality with more HD choices
- Low-priced telephone with unlimited calling, international specials
- Fast 100-Megabit City intranet
- Telecommuting, telemedicine, videoconferencing and much more
Contact us for more information. Come back often to visit as the FiberPaloAlto™ story unfolds.
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