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76-23
RESOLUTION 76-23 A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE BROADBAND FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PRESENTATION BY GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY GROUP, LLC ON THE STUDY'S FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS WHEREAS, access to a reliable internet connection is limited in many areas of Los Altos Hills and expanding access has become an important issue for the Town to address; and WHEREAS, the broadband industry is complex and the Town partnered with a broadband consultant, Government Technology Group, LLC (GTG), to conduct a Broadband Feasibility Study; and WHEREAS, over the last year GTG has been research broadband in Los Altos Hills to compile their report; and WHEREAS, attached to this resolution is the Final Broadband Feasibility Study with findings recommendations on how the Town can advance the availability of broadband internet to its underserved residents (Exhibit A); and WHEREAS, the City Council has called a Special City Council Study Session meeting on August 23, 2023 to discuss the findings and recommendations of the report at length. NOW THEREFORE, the City Council of the Town of Los Altos Hills hereby receives and accepts GTG's Broadband Feasibility. The above and foregoing Resolution was passed and adopted by the City Council of the Town of Los Altos Hills at a regular meeting held on 17th of August 2023 by the following vote: AYES: Swan, Mok, Schmidt, Tankha, Tyson NOES: None ABSENT: None ABSTAIN: None ATTEST: 0 Zia Deborah L. Padovan, City Clerk B ` Linda G. Swan, Mayor Resolution 76-23 Page I Strategic Broadband Feasibility Study for LOS ALTOS HILLS PAWOM**^�� Y i CALIFORNIA Town of Los Altos Hills 26379 Fremont Rd Town of Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 From GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY GROUP, LLC 2930 Geer Rd Suite 273 Turlock, CA 95382 (209) 678-3077 proiects(a)-GovTechGroup. net Page 1 of 54 Resolution 76-23 Page 2 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 2 Table of Contents ExecutiveSummary ...................... . oases* .....s........seems . moo seems ...........s.....some .....asesaassss@a.a.@sease 5 Introduction..... ...@.@.s.e....a.@.assess a...eggs Samoan .....................s.sss@s...a..e.s@@a.s.ss..e.aaa....s............1..... 6 Methodology...oo.........eo..o..o..s..o..........o.o......o.o..o.•...•o...o...eo.o.oo.................o.o....o..oo..................................... 6 Keyfindings..................o...e...........................o.....................o....................e....................ss...................s..... 8 Asset Assessment ... 8 Town Owned Broadband Infrastructure........................o........................................................• 8 TechnologyTrends •..•os•os.aoe.an@@assess•ssass••• gas assesses message .e............ass@@.s.••..@.a0@.s...am@aamass ass assess ✓ Broadband Market... 13 KeyFindings...........................................................................os0000000.oe........000ese•eo0.ses0e•0...0.......o0o..e0seoo.s• 14 Providersin Los Altos Hills ................................................... •...eo00.0.s.o..e0.cacao.0.oe•e0o0.00s0o.o..ses....eo.ss...• 15 Los Altos Hills Community Fiber(IAHCF)..............................................................................................15 AT&T................................................................................................................................................................16 ComcastXfinity..............................................................................................................................................17 Goalsand Needs sassassess@sgooses asssssess ass ssossssssssssss*@risesosamen sssoosossossossosssssossasss8 seasons ese.s.saa004so 18 ListeningSession ......eoooes......see .oeoe•s...•e6..0.s.600..o0.00.o00s0o.s...ee.os...seo.0o...000e000esoeoo..e0s0o.0s..0••000008000*0o.o0.0sees. 19 BroadbandSurvey............................................aoeeee......eo.•........0o.s.......................es.............................• 20 SurveyResponses..........................................................................................................................................20 InternetServices............................................................................................................................................21 ................................................... Speed test results.................................................................. ......................24 Government Assistance............................................................................. Respondents Comments..............................................................................................................................27 Stateand Federal Data......se0000..........os..oo...s.o..o.e...es.e.o••oos.osoo.00..o.00...0..0000o**moose@e•.sseo*seesoee.o.o..00..o.se28 Policies•.e....e•sass•a.essasoss.ss@@ages assesses sssssssssssssss.s.•s••..sa.esgasses asses mosseems assesses. 32 LACHFCertification.............................oo.........oe............oo•s...os.o...s.o0.os.soca0....jos.o...seoo.sos..o.00eo.6.e0o0.o...oe 33 Gaps...es.ssosesss.sea.•••.•easasasss.s.s.s••oss�ae••ss.•....e.ss.a*ass.sesss*...s@ses@..osass.ssossssesssso..s..sses .amassmasses@was* 34 ConceptualDesign.s......•e..••.osess•s•e.@.•••s.e•so••.sseess.sea..se....e@..eacosec.s.e•as.@e....s..i.o.s.0aa a a a0aa*aaa 35 Tradeoffs....... ..... *00000000000000000000000000000000000000000*0000000800ooess000ssfeloos000000000000sesess0000s000000000s00000000ss000000*00000000000000@37 Phasesesoesoa.... memo ........ o-o••ooe000000o-oo•0.•o... a..00o•ooessoemoo .eseosoes..o.os.o...assesses ... a ........... a ..... 00000600000•..00...00oo0.s.o.000.osos 38 Timing.sass....o..o.000s.••so.6osos.o.e•oee0••oo.e•s.ss••oe•o.•mss••.e.••sos...••.esesososo.o06....eee000s•coos..•...••os0o.o0oso.e000.0...eo0.0os••0000..so• 3 9 HLDFootages and Budget .eo......so.eo.••.•••sseses•..o..••.ee•s•osoeoo•oeesos•0000esseos.sssoeoeo000ooooeoesosoo0000ooeo06.e0000000*4 1 Business Model and Funding .... was mosses 0000s0080s.......................................assess... sees a.....also so 42 CapitalExpenses........o......o.......................................................................o..o......................................46 OperatingExpenses....e........................................................................s..............e..............................46 RevenuePotential...............................................................................................................................46 GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 3 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 3 FinancialViability..s..o.e.oo.e.......ssoeoeseeeee .............................see.....seooss...........eo..e.e..................00eosessooeooeee 4 6 Grants and Other Funding Sources .......................................................................................... 47 PhasedImplementation Plan .............. see ....*s.....s9...e......99......o....s.. sesse..s...........00......e. 49 1.............................................................. Form or designate a broadband advisory board e.800960800000os0s9000000000000moo0o80se00009o0*000600000089808*ooeseseooe••os0e0000000e.e0see066990ooseseroeeeeoeooee000ssessoeooeseeoosseeesoes000eseeooeeeoseossosoe 4 9 2 ■...........................................................•.•...•.0............................ Create policies and workflows 0000000000000000000000000000000000*00000eoseososossoseseosoosesoeoees000egooseseosssoso6660*0600660eossese99ees9s0099o80•*Gooses oeeggsoseesoeoseossesossoesoeoeoossesee 4 ./ 3............................................:............s...e....o:.o............. Create a Technology Enterprise Fund 0000eee0e00ee006e9696906 as e0990ee080e000e0e009660ee4e0.000000800*00966.000000000000000*80.0600080866*obs•eosesso•eeooe0600000088e00e0000000900e000seooessoo000000sos000 5 0 4...........................................:................................... Create a Public Private Partnership (P3) 699*6606009.90466*66600000060seeseGeiseeseos00o00000osgs0.99.000688.soeoe9608.s.0008808.860660*goes se.6660*osesooesoogesesos80ossoes0000ssoeesoosoeo00*os0000ess0000*eo 0 5.:..o..00.....:...00...e..............Increm.entally build town -owned Broadband. Infrastructure 0000000GDes•06660*•Go@soDo••eeo0e0600Goo ••see•*0000000006000aGoo *66960*s00*008009000*.0000000090.000.0690866*80660**ses906s000e00o•*oe88000Goo* 000000000*00008*@a60Sose % 0 6 ■........................................................................................................... Support Digital Inclusion 9.000060*8000000000*0sooes89ooeo0e0s000000o000000ee0sss0000es000*0000800000000000se0.00oeeee0eose000ooee0000000000eeoeossesesseses6e80soos*ss0*6sooesseeoeos0o*sooe699s 5 1 7 ■...................... .•o....o......o..........•.......................■•.............................Donate surplus town assets 0e9040e00900e*099000000090*000890608060eee860606ee6 seg0000eog00000000es0000000000000000g000seeooeg0000gess00000soo 86066006690996 00.00000000001seem000m000seseges 00066 *Ogg / 1 8 ■...................... .................... ...o..•o•a..................••..............o...... ......... Evaluate Wireless Solutions •000*sgo8800098000e9o0.ess0ee9sseeeoss••sosGeseOse•Gessoso9sog09000089••es99oess9ee6s0e0s••••6oe••••••o009s980o0ss9066oaesoeoGeeeose0s••es06s6s••s0es6seoseese0s00soes• 5 2 NextSteps ............... assesses goose sssssssssssss,ssssssssego oe.s.*e.,..o.o..s.assesses seosssssss.sse.s.se.nesse-so seas ...sosmoss 52 GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 4 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 4 Figures Figure1- Methodology............................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2 - Town Owned Assets............................................................................................. 9 Figure3. Responses................................................................................................................ 21 Figure 4. Type of internet service by percentage of responses ................................ 21 Figure 5. Adequacy of internet service by percent of responses ............................. 22 Figure 6. Service provider percentage of market.......................................................... 23 Figure 7. Percentage of respondents using these devices .......................................... 24 Figure8. Responses by speed.............................................................................................. 25 Figure 9. Responses by provider and speed................................................................... 26 Figure 10. FCC Broadband Map of fiber to the premise in Los Altos Hills ........... 30 Figure 11. FCC Broadband Map of fiber to the premise in north Los Altos Hills 31 Figure 12. CPUC Broadband Map of internet access service available in the Los AltosHills area......................................................................................................................... 32 Figure13 - HLD Overview.................................................................................................... 41 Tables Table1- AT&T Pricing............................................................................................................16 Table 2. Comcast offerings (prices vary by location) ................................................... 17 Table3 - Satellite Offerings................................................................................................. 18 Table4 - Survey Age Range................................................................................................. 22 Table 5. Number of responses by speed range.............................................................. 24 Table 6. ACP eligible households in Los Altos Hills ..................................................... 26 Table 7. Internet service providers in the Los Altos Hills area per FCC data ...... 29 Table 8 - Construction Methods......................................................................................... 35 Table 9 - Estimated Timing by Phase............................................................................... 40 Table 10 - Estimated Costing by Phase............................................................................ 42 GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 5 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 5 Broadband is a 21 st century challenge ranked as one of the most important technology investments to make worldwide. It is key for economic development purposes, competitiveness, job creation and the new foundation for more prosperous communities. Although different technologies, the terms broadband and internet can be interchangeable terms that refer to ability to access the "NET" or internet. "High -Speed" Broadband is the term for devices to connect to the internet via wireless, fiber optics, hybrid fiber coax, or DSL technologies. The Federal Communications Commission has defined broadband as internet speeds of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. California has set a higher standard of 100Mbps down ad 20 Mbps up. The internet of things (IoT) is the concept that most devices can be connected to the internet to make life easier, faster, more efficient, and better. From refrigerators to televisions and cloud -based voice services, many devices and technologies will be connected to the internet with the ability to report data and provide information. Outside the home, there are smart city applications such as intelligent traffic control systems, smart irrigation systems, and total building monitoring systems, city-wide wi-fi networks, and much more. Technology advancements are creating an online reality that cannot be ignored, and any city/town that does not embrace this new reality will be left behind. Distance learning, telehealth, and remote working are requirements for residents to be able to function in this new online environment. Until recently, broadband was viewed as a luxury provided by the private sector, with cities and towns held captive by the whims of these companies regarding which geographic areas to build and provide these services. Water, power, and sewer are utilities that are a part of city planning efforts, and broadband must be included as a new utility and treated as such by towns, cities, counties, and states. Broadband communications have become a quality of life issue and is the foundation to improve the sustainability, workability, and livability of a community. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 6 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 6 The Town of Los Altos Hills is no different. Partnering with Government Technology Group LLC (GTG), a broadband feasibility study was performed to discover and outline the needs and then devise a plan to help fill those needs. The Town recognized the need for essential high-speed affordable broadband services for all residents and as a result adopted a Broadband Bill of Rights. The Government Technology Group (GTG) performed the assessment of the broadband needs of the town exploring opportunities for improving and expanding high speed broadband communications for all residents in their jurisdiction. The assessment included a survey of the community, workshops with residents, discussions with the Town's Ad Hoc committee and the Town's technology committee. The outreach performed by GTG clearly showed there is a need to expand fiber to areas of the Town that are underserved. The top reasons as a result of the research include improving the ability to work from home, improving access to the internet for education and providing improved public safety. This feasibility study provides recommendations for the organization and is a roadmap to keep the organization focused on using time and resources efficiently. Introduction Methodology The methodology GTG used for this plan uses proven steps that encompass the vital information needed to provide a plan and steps to accomplish the plan. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 7 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 7 Asset Assessment VISION PHASE Market Assessment Needs Assessment High -Level Design Recommendations 'Next Steps Final Report Figure 1- Methodology Asset Assessment is investigating and analyzing what assets exist in the town that can be leveraged for the expansion of broadband. GTG looks at town owned assets as well as privately owned assets. Market Assessment includes researching the area and discovering what services are available, in what areas they are available, and at what price. Needs Assessment is required to understand what the town needs to support economic development, as well as residential and business needs. High -Level Design provides a road map for the expansion of broadband through construction. Although it is not always recommended that municipalities build a network to serve the community, a high-level design is necessary to understand what it would take to build a network, providing the town the opportunity to incrementally build and take advantage of dig once policies, developer agreements and capital projects. Recommendations comprise the totality of the report, with an outline of the direction that the Town should follow to support the needs of the community. Next Steps apply actions to the recommendations in order to accomplish the tasks required for implementation of the Broadband Plan. Final Report and Presentation GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 8 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 8 Key findings • Community of haves and have-nots • Incumbent providers have limited plans to expand in LAH • Households on the same street do not have access to the same connections - providers serve some homes on a street and will not expand to the underserved residents. • The Town government needs to step in and find solutions for the underserved areas. • Due to the terrain of the community, wireless technologies have difficulties extending into some neighborhoods. • The Town has a local community group, LAHCF, that has installed fiber infrastructure to alleviate some the Town's broadband needs. • The Town lacks a Dig Once policy and developer agreement standards for expanding broadband infrastructure at a reduced cost to the Town. ' s ,-�o e t m.. Assets are everything owned by a town that has value. This includes physical things as well as the non-physical such as space and intellectual property. Asset inventory is one of the first steps in the planning process and is required to find a starting point for infrastructure expansion. For this study GTG focuses on assets that are or can be utilized for broadband. Some assets evaluated include: • Network equipment • Fiber optic cables • in ground conduits • Wireless towers and antennas • Agreements with assets attached • Office space, rack space Town Owned Broadband Infrastructure Infrastructure owned by the town is comprised of property that house three privately owned towers, which are used by cellular providers and 4 strands of fiber in all locations where Los Altos Hills Community Fiber has cable installed. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 9 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 9 • Town Hall (26379 Fremont Road) • Westwind Community Barn (27210 Altamont Road) • Purissima Park baseball fields (27500 Purissima Road) The town assets include property that three privately owned towers are located, as shown in the map below as well as IRU for approximately 29,500 feet of four strands of fiber placed in the right-of-way by a private entity. This fiber has been incorporated into the design to help reduce costs and increase the speed at which the design can be deployed. Figure 2 — Town Owned Assets IRU Fiber City Limits ♦ City Towers Overall, activities, processes, and resources are being digitized and virtualized. On one level, this is simply a function of the increasing capacity and speed of digital technologies. On another level, these trends are driven by a larger mega- GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 10 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 10 trend toward demand -driven, pull -based systems, including agile development and lean production. Much of the rationale for digitization has been around cost avoidance or reduction, whereas the larger trend is primarily focused on increasing customer value and revenue, but doing so more efficiently. These trends are interacting with socioeconomic trends, particularly the aging population and reduced workforce, and climate change. While beyond the scope of this study, this report provides a solid foundation for effectively addressing the trends noted below. A specific trend directly impacting local governments is the emergence of Smart Cities, which can be defined as "a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital solutions for the benefit of its inhabitants and business."' While Smart City activities have often been very technology -centric rather than citizen -centric, the general purpose is to improve and integrate public processes. Generally, Smart Cities focus on energy, environment, and public -facing activities, but major internal changes, typically referred to as digital transformation, are necessary for external improvements. "Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers."' This has important implications municipalities, not the least of which relate to residents and other external stakeholders. For Los Altos Hills, digital transformation means residents are likely working remotely or running businesses from their homes. Of course, it also means major changes for the town itself. Specifically, citizen/customer-facing systems must be deployed and/or upgraded so the town's business can be done totally online. This also means the town should provide some form of connectivity, such as electronic kiosks and public Wi-Fi, for convenience and those who do not have access as well as amenities. Three related trends are the rise of cloud services, integration of information technologies (IT) with operational technologies (OT), and, most significant for current purposes, emergence of broadband as a utility. Cloud services include a wide range of applications, data collection, processing and storage, and ' https://commission.europa.eu/eu-regional-and-urban-development/topics/cities-and-urban- development/city-initiatives/smart-cities_en z https://enterprisersproject.com/what-is-digital-transformation GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 11 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 1 1 network functions provided via numerous, distributed computing resources. The two major implications for municipalities are (a) reduced need to operate servers but (b) increased costs for and reliance on online services along with (c) new applications—most web-based—that were impractical or unavailable in the past. A general class of cloud -based applications and related technologies focus on adding intelligence to assets and machines of various sorts, allowing them to be integrated with information technologies (or vice -versa). Operational technologies (OT) are "[p]rogrammable systems or devices that interact with the physical environment ... [to] ... detect or cause a direct change through the monitoring and/or control of devices, processes, and events.' 3 For municipalities, OT includes everything from garbage trucks to traffic signals. Increasingly, OT is being added to "dumb" assets such as manholes, parking meters, and streetlights. Integration with IT enables cost reduction and performance improvement. Broacifianc/is technically any channelized communications media but it has come to mean always -on, high-speed internet access. Broadband is important for people as it allows them to access media content, connect with friends, and pursue their interests. As businesses and government undergo digital transformation, broadband is increasingly important in everyday life. Access to education, jobs, and healthcare effectively require broadband. On the other side of this trend, businesses and municipalities that do not have and use broadband are at a huge competitive disadvantage. While it may seem a bit pedantic to include broadband as a trend in a report for a broadband study, it is important to understand that broadband isn't an end in and of itself. Rather, it is a means to improved outcomes that enables other trends. Beneath all of these trends runs a more fundamental trend: The critical and growing need for robust cti 7crscctirifv. Internet access can provide a way for malicious hackers to steal data from or take over municipal systems. Too much OT has digital vulnerabilities that allow hackers to control them, operate software bots, and attack other systems. Cybersecurity is as much about practices and procedures as well as technologies. For example, "deep fake" technology and spoofing—imitating or taking over accounts—are being used to s https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/operational—technology GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 12 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 12 get critical information or direct payments. People need to be educated about how to recognize possible scams and "social hacks" and avoid them. Fiber optics has become the gold standard for broadband deployment. There is no broadband deployment medium that can compare to the speeds, bandwidth, or latency that fiber optics can provide. Wireless, cellular, or HFC cannot hold a candle to the speeds or reliability of fiber. Japan's NICT set a new speed record over a single strand of fiber at 1.02 petabits per second.' To put this into perspective it is "equivalent to sending 127,500 GB per second or 10 million channels of 8K broadcasting per second." Fiber is essential for backhaul for all network to connect to the internet, this includes all cellular networks. Fiber optic cables are flexible strands of glass that trap the light inside a core only 8- 10 microns inside of a strand that is 12 5 microns. Trapping the light and being able to control where it is going allows fiber to avoid the many issues that arise form wireless networks and copper networks such as obstacles in a wireless environment to the slow speeds of analogue or digital signals over copper. Wireless technologies are advancing in ways never imagined. There are two basic trains of thought on broadband, fixed wireline and wireless. The two rarely come together and proponents of each technology over play their own importance thinking that either wireless or wireline is the only way to go. In more urban areas, the reality is wireless last -mile deployment is the future. Last -mile refers the connection from the street to the resident. This is commonly referred to as fiber -to -the -neighborhood. Fiber optics networks are essential for back -haul, connecting each neighborhood to the internet, however the cost savings realized by a wireless last -mile cannot be overlooked, especially with the current wireless technologies available. Terragraph is one wireless company that uses a different technologies and deployment strategies to overcome the inherent issues with the typical wireless deployments. Tarana Wireless is one such company that is reshaping the future of wireless deployments making it faster easier and more cost-effective to deploy high- speed broadband. Companies such as Mimosa, Ubiquity, and others are all creating better, stronger, more resilient, equipment with higher bandwidth. Wireless technology is a way that cities, towns, and private companies quickly deploy more cost-effective networks. ' https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/japans-nict-sets-new-data-transmission-speed- record#: —:text=Japanese%2oresearchers%2ohave%2oset%2oa,(32%20miles). GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 13 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 13 Satellite is another budding technology that is currently going through growing pains. Satellite uses light to relay information from the end user to a satellite orbiting the earth at either low level, 250-350 miles above the earth, or as far out as 26,000 Miles. Although the signal is travelling at the speed of light, going that far into space being bounced off a satellite and returning to earth creates very high latency, the time it takes for data to reach the other end. Satellite signals are shared which requires a lot of satellites to be in orbit with many base stations on earth connected to fiber optic networks providing the end users a connection to the internet. Starlink wants approval for 30,000 low orbit satellites to be deployed for the satellite network to function better that it currently is. The FCC in December granted to 7,500 satellites to be deployed, however Starlink was recently denied RDOF subsidies of nearly $885 million because the satellite provider failed to provide the speeds promised and the high cost of the dish required at residents' homes. Satellite holds possibilities as a broadband provider to the more rural areas of the USA that have no other options. "Starlink's technology has real promise, "FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel explains. "But the question before us was whether to publicly subsidize it's still developing technology for consumer broadband — which requires that users purchase a $boo dish — with nearly $goo million in universal service funds until 2032." Market assessments are intended to discover the broadband availability and costs of services and determine if the market is supporting the current needs of the local population. To better understand the needs and how those needs are affecting the residents, GTG looked at the current offerings within the town and what those offerings cost. Planning for the future is equally important to understand the future needs and goals of the town, residents, and area so those needs can be met when called upon to deliver the services needed. Broadband access and adoption are influenced by many factors including availability, pricing, quality of the service and how it meets or does not the GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 14 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 14 needs of the community. in broadband and telecommunications, quality means the speed and reliability of the services provided. Broadband is being considered by most municipalities as the "new" utility because it has become such an integrated part of our everyday lives and as such customer service is a small factor in the quest for high-speed reliable broadband and only comes into decision making when there is a competitive environment. GTG focused on the following questions when doing the market assessment: 1. What is the current coverage by the local providers? 2. What technologies are offered, such as fiber -to -the -home, HFC (hybrid fiber coax), DSL, 5G, or Satellite? 3. What are the pricing tiers for each provider? 4. What is the competitive nature of broadband in Los Altos Hills? GTG analyzed the broadband landscape for the Town of Los Altos Hills to determine the broadband options available to the residents, businesses, the town, and other entities. The analysis focused on the internet speeds offered, what those services cost, who provides these services, and the competitive nature in the local market, and existing and planned infrastructure. Key Findings • Los Altos Hills is a wealthy tech savvy community. • Comcast is the largest provider in the town. • Households on the same street are do not always have the same access to broadband • Local incumbents are not willing, in most cases, to extend their networks to accommodate unserved locations • There are three facility -based wireline providers, AT&T, Comcast, and Los Altos Hills Community Fiber. • AT&T provides fiber -to -the -home in a small area of Los Altos Hills • Access to high-speed reliable internet is an issue for certain areas of the town. • Those residents that have good broadband are less inclined to support efforts to aid those residents that do not have access to broadband. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 15 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 15 Providers in Los Altos Hills Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF) Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF) is a group of citizens of Los Altos Hills that collectively see deficiencies in current broadband options in the town. They address those deficiencies and help their neighbors install ultrahigh speed internet through underground fiber to their homes. It is a member supported cost sharing network with the highest speed available in the US for residential broadband. They offer up to 10 Gbps fiber to the home for $15 5 / month. Neighbors share the costs of building the network and receive reimbursement via pro rata method (similar to private sewer districts). The goal is to cover 100% of Los Altos Hills and the organization is excited about the grassroots work of the community. LAHCF came into existence in response to the lack of quality broadband to a substantial number of residents in the Los Altos Hills area. LAHCF provides Ultra -high-speed Community -Owned Internet through a non-profit coop business model. "Local community members come together to collectively build and deploy utility infrastructure for their own purposes and, in this case, it is a broadband fiber optic network. The company's mission statement is: Using the interest, skills, talents, and expertise of our local residents to create collaboratively a community owned and operated mutual benefit corporation that offers an affordable, high speed fiber optic Internet network for Los Altos Hills and nearby communities." LAHCF service is provided on an individual case basis. Their pricing is subject to construction costs to connect, membership fees, etc. A key issue for LAHCF is they do not have a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) that allows them to have access to the Town right -of- way and/or public utility easement (PUE) limiting their ability to build on telephone poles and go under highways. ' https://Iahcommunityfiber.org/general-faqs/ 'https://Iahcommunityfiber.org/mission/ GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 16 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project AT&T Page 16 AT&T is the world's largest telecommunications company and the second largest provider of mobile phone services. In recent years, the multinational conglomerate made significant moves into the media and entertainment industries, most notably becoming the parent company of WarnerMedia in 2018. But in February 2021 AT&T announced it would spin off DirecTV, six years after acquiring the satellite TV business. And in May it announced plans to spin off WarnerMedia, combining it with Discovery. Under CEO John Stankey's aegis, the company instead wants to focus on growing its 5G wireless connectivity and, in pursuit of this goal, is now in the midst of an intense, multibillion -dollar battle with competitors like T -Mobile and Verizon for the highest speed and most widely available 5G network! The majority of Los Altos Hills is served with DSL (digital subscriber lines), an obsolete technology providing slow speeds, 2 5/3, typically under the federal threshold of broadband. AT&T does not install new DSL circuits, only servicing existing DSL customers. There are a handful of households that are being served with AT&T fiber and after talks with them it is undetermined when fiber services will be expanded to the whole of the Town. Moving forward AT&T should not be considered a viable option for supporting the needs of the residents, especially on the west side of highway 280. According to bestneighborhood.org, 15.25% of the town is covered by AT&T fiber. Pricing for fiber service is listed below. Table 1 -AT&T Pricing' Speed MRC Data Cap 300 Mbps $55.00 No 500 Mpps $65.00 No 1000 Mbps $80.00 No 2 Gbps $110.00 No 5 Gbps $180.00 No https://fortune.com/company/att/ s https://att-bundles.com/intemet/ GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 17 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 17 Comcast Xfinity Comcast is a multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate and is the largest cable TV company and the largest internet provider in the U.S. They have over 30 million residential subscribers and 2.2 million business customers across 40 states. Net income in 2020 was over $10 billion. In Los Altos Hills, Comcast uses a Hybrid Fiber -Coax (HFC) plant for deploying services which uses fiber to bring broadband to a node. Each node has anywhere from 200-400 customers connected via coax, cable tv cables. Coax is a copper cable delivering speeds significantly slower than fiber and can only handle fast speeds over short distances, leading to cable companies using fiber to shorten the distances while saving costs by utilizing the existing copper/coax infrastructure. Broadband infrastructure utilizing HFC, do not support symmetrical speeds, meaning the speed of download and upload are significantly different whereas fiber and wireless systems deploy symmetrical speeds. As the legacy cable TV provider in Los Altos Hills, Comcast has the most coverage of all the providers, offering service to most residents. Unfortunately, not all customers living on the same streets have access to Comcast services. The lot sizes in Los Altos Hills are significantly larger than the typical urban environment and that leads to high construction costs to extend services. Many customers would sign up for Comcast services however, the lack of return on investment prohibits a profit driven company from expanding in Los Altos Hills. Table 2. Comcast offerings (prices vary by location) Data Device Service Speed MRC Cap Limit Connect 75 Mbps $62.00 1.2 TBI 5 Connect More 200 Mbps $82.00 1.2 TB 10 Fast 400 Mbps $92.00 1.2 TB 50 Superfast 800 Mbps $102.00 1.2 TB 50 Gigabit 1000 Mbps $112.00 1.2 TB 50 ITB is "terabtyes," which is one trillion bytes, a measurement of stored data. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 18 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 18 Satellite Providers Satellite service available in the Town include ViaSat, Hughes Net, and Starlink. Satellite companies use wireless signals transmitted from a base station/ground unit bouncing that signal off an array of satellites orbiting the earth at an average of 26,000 miles. Even at the speed of light a 52,000 -mile round trip adds a great deal of latency. Latency is the time takes for data to pass from one point on a network to another. Starlink has begun adding satellites at a 350 -mile orbit and those using these lower orbit satellites have a much better, lower latency, with a better speeds and performance, however, Starlink's application to add an additional 9000 low orbit satellites has been denied due to a myriad of reasons the foremost being not understanding how low orbit objects behave over time, and what happens if/when they return to earth. Another reason is the need to keep "space pollution" in check by not allowing to be too many things in orbit limiting the ability to observe space from the earth's surface. Table 3 - Satellite Offerings Provider Mbps MRC Data Cap ViaSat 12 $69.99 40 GB 25 $99.99 60 GB 30 $149.99 100 GB 30 $199.99 150 GB 30 $299.99 300 GB Hughes Net 25 $ 74.99 50 GB Starlink 25 $110.00 1 TB The Town of Los Altos Hills is seeking to improve broadband connectivity for its residents that lack high-speed reliable Internet access ensuring Digital Equity in its community. As part of this goal, the Town adopted a proclamation that it is the right of their residents to have: GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 19 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 19 1) Broadband that is sufficient and reliable, 2) Broadband that is ubiquitous, 3) Broadband that is affordable, 4) Broadband that provides educational opportunities, 5) Broadband that enhances public safety, 6) Broadband that improvise quality of life, 7) Broadband that supports economic development. 8) Broadband that attracts capital investment 9) Broadband that supports innovation and research, and 10) Broadband that empowers and enables participation in democracy To accomplish this, the Town set objectives to evaluate building a fiber ring/backbone and offering connectivity to all underserved households within five years. The project involves following best practices for wireless and wired broadband communications included in this feasibility report with recommendations and steps for moving forward. The process includes evaluating funding sources available to assist building out broadband infrastructure. Another goal is to better understand policy that can assist in building out fiber to the home infrastructure faster while reducing cost to the Town. Listening Session On October 5th, 2022 a listening session was held to get input from the residents of Los Altos Hills, allowing them to have an open forum to discuss how they feel about broadband, issues they are experiencing, and provide input on actions, if any, the town should take to alleviate disparities in broadband. • The participants were split between those that have high-speed internet through the local providers and those that do not. • Very few residents have fiber connections. • Comcast covers most of the town with Hybrid Fiber -Coax (HFC). • Many residents live on roads where some households are served and some are not, and the providers are unwilling to extend networks to include unserved residents. • Most unserved residents would support a bond to build fiber to the underserved residents. • The served residents are not sympathetic to those that do not have good broadband and feel the incumbent providers will eventually fill the need. • Safety and home security systems need broadband, and there is a significant number of home burglaries in Los Altos Hills. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 20 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 20 Broadband Survey Online surveys are one of the best ways to look past the inadequate federal and state broadband maps, census maps, and other resources and get the real response from locations in Los Altos Hills with what we assume is the truth about broadband. The following is information gathered from the online survey that was conducted in Los Altos Hills over an 8 -week period with an excellent response rate of 377 total responses. Although 87 responses were partially complete, the information is valuable and is included when possible. The survey is intended to gain an understanding of the perception and reality of broadband throughout Los Altos Hills on a location by location basis. Some of the questions are plotted on a map to gain a visual depiction of the data. Speed test is one of the questions that is plotted on a map to see if there are sections or areas of the Town that are lacking high-speed broadband connections. Survey Responses The Town had a higher response rate compared to other municipalities where GTG has conducted similar surveys. While the average response rate has been 1% of the households in other similar surveys, Los Altos Hills had a response rate of 12% of the 3,125"' households surveyed, which is ten times higher than average. Complete responses are surveys that where all the information is complete with the incomplete surveys are missing at least one answer but do add to the data gathered. Any response that missed more than half were deleted and are not part of the data set used. "' https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losaltoshillstowncalifornia/PST045222 GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 21 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 21 Complete Partial Disqualified ■ Partial ■ Complete Disqualified 0 100 200 300 Figure 3. Responses Internet Services When plotted, this question provides an insight to the areas that have access to high-speed broadband in comparison to those areas that do not. As shown in the chart below, 89.4% of the respondents reported having access to the high- speed broadband compared the 9.8% that reported low -speed broadband. 0.3% 0.5% m High-speed, Always -on broadband service Low -speed service, Including cellular, dial-up or satellite This location has no internet service Unsure / Don't know Figure 4. Type of internet service by percentage of responses Adequate internet access differentiates access from quality, meaning merely having a high-speed connection does not mean the connection is reliable, affordable, or consistent. With only 75% of the expected 89.2% percent of respondents saying the internet is always or usually adequate, that leaves 14.2% GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 22 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 22 that have high-speed broadband with connections that are not adequate and need bolstering. 16.6% 0.3% Always 18.6/ Usually 56.4% Sometimes Rarely Does not apply - No internet at this location Figure 5. Adequacy of internet service by percent of responses Ages of individuals in the household is an important demographic needed to understand the types of needs for broadband that exist. Older populations have different requirements and use broadband in different way. Older populations use more tablets and e -readers, while younger populations use online gaming requiring very low latency. Latency is the amount of time it takes for information being transferred to connect with the destination. Fiber optic networks provide the lowest latency, or fastest to connect, while satellite networks perform the worst with high latency, or very slow connection times. Table 4 — Survey Age Range Age Range Responses Under 17 70 14.03% 18-30 69 13.83% 31-45 58 11.62% 46-60 102 20.44% Over 60 200 40.08% According to the 2020 US census, Los Altos Hills is highly educated with 98.7% with a high school diploma or higher, and 86.3% with a bachelor's degree or GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 23 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 23 higher''. These demographics tend to have higher demand for broadband, more work from home, and have a lower -than -average reliance on governmental assistance. Comcast is the largest internet/broadband provider in Los Altos Hills at 72.5% of respondents being customers. AT&T is the next largest with 22% offering two different technologies, fiber is in an exceedingly small area and DSL, digital subscriber line, being offered in the rest of the town. Other - Write In 1 5% Starlink 1 1% Verizon 1 1 LAHCF 0 2% Comcast/Xfinity r—AMM 0 ■ AT&T ■ Comcast/Xfinity LAHCF Verizon Starlink Other - Write In 22% 20 40 60 Figure 6. Service provider percentage of market 73% :e The types of devices that are connected at the location provides insight to the speeds and latency required at that location. Laptops, desktop computers, and smart phones require the highest speeds while streaming devices, smart TVs, and voice activated devices like Alexa or Echo do not require as much bandwidth or speed. '' https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losaltoshillstowncalifornia/PST045222 GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 24 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Internet connected Smart Home Devices (securty... Alexa, Echo, or other Desktop Computers Laptops Gaming consoles connected to interent Tablet, ereaders, Smartphone 0 20 40 Page 24 60 80 100 Figure 7. Percentage of respondents using these devices Speed test results The chart below shows the speed test results grouped into categories as up to 25 Mbps, up to 100 Mbps, up to 500 Mbps, and Over 500 Mbps. There were 292 speed tests completed, results shown in table below. Currently the FCC considers 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload as being served by broadband. It was proposed in July of 2022'1 to raise the standard of broadband to 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up, 100/20 Mbps. The groupings are intended to be in line with the FCC current definition of 25 Mbps. The State of California has adopted a broadband definition of 100/20 Mbps. Table 5. Number of responses by speed range Category Count Up to 25 Mbps 42 " https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/19/fee-broadband-new-definition-loombps/ GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 25 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 25 Category Count Up to 100 Mbps 90 Up to 500 Mbps 106 Over 500 Mbps 54 Grand Total 292 The information above provides limited value until it is plotted on a map, which is shown below, where it helps to identify areas or pockets of town that do not have access to higher speed broadband. There are reasons for this and disparities that exist that will be discussed later in the report. The map below shows the plotted speed tests grouped according to the table above. It is important to note that in the interest of privacy, the plotted locations are not intended to provide details of any address but general area. Up to 25 tvlbps 4 �ti r Up to 1001 Mbps O ;4+ Up to 500 Mbps O e Q Over 501 Mbps h� *� t 100 r O Fi_qure 8. Responses by speed The map below shows the speed results identified by provider. For clarity, the smaller providers are not depicted on the map. According to the map it is assumed that Comcast and AT&T have coverage throughout all of Los Altos Hills. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 26 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 26 MITI, Up to 25 Mbps " Up to 100 Mbps • Up to 500 Mbps Ao �� U • .._. zover 501 Mbps •. -W_ " Provider Comcast •' " j .� ''r '�% Provider AT&T Figure 9. Responses by provider and speed Government Assistance The following gives insight to the number of residents using government assistance to access the internet through the Federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). This data shows when the low speed is a result of low adoption rates due to affordability, knowledge of how use, no devices available, or no access to broadband. As expected, very few residents in Los Altos Hills are enrolled in ACP. The surprise is the number of households that are eligible,' 3 and even more surprising is the number of eligible unconnected households. This category represents the number of households that do not report having an active internet connection. Table 6. ACP eligible households in Los Altos Hills Adoption Rate < 1 " https://www.educationsuperhighway.org/no-home-left-offline/acp-data/#dashboard GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 27 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 27 Eligible 655 Households Enrolled 2 Households Eligible Unconnected 126 Households Respondents Comments "Simply put, we barely get by. I have actually taken to going to the homes of my siblings to download large files since I can't reasonably do it. My children have commuted to my parents' house to go online for college. As internet access has become more of a utility good, it has become a large concern that our access to it is so incredibly limited." -Respondent 341 We live online! This is the highest priority for us. Xfinity is so bad that I have recently bought a Verizon wireless modem as secondary internet service and put a load balancer between Xfinity+Verizon and my home Eero network. But still, I get brief outages! Please work with LAH Community Fiber to give us the internet we deserve!" - Respondent 260 "reliability most important, Comcast cable is very poor and customer service is a nightmare." - Respondent 68 "We are an affluent community in a high-tech area. We should have reliable internet and good cell phone service. We sometimes can't work from home due to poor internet and cell connections. That needs to be fixed." - Respondent 36 "We are quickly falling behind the technological curve. A stable, high -bandwidth optical fiber connection should be standard throughout the community. Current Xfinity offerings to the neighborhood, while decent on paper, fail to deliver. Poor uptime coupled with even poorer customer service can make working from home very problematic. We should strive to make 1 Gbps up + 1 Gbps fiber -to -house connectivity readily available throughout Los Altos Hills." - Respondent 6 GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 28 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 28 Survey Conclusion The survey provided valuable information, and when compared to the residential Listening Session show some interesting results. One question that arises from the mapped -out speed test results is why is there such different speed results on the same street? It would be assumed that if a resident can get a good high-speed connection, then the neighbors would be able to get the same connection and speed. This disparity in speed can be explained by the many residents that shared thoughts during the listening session exemplified by the statement "We asked what the cost would be to extend down the street to our house, we got quotes of over $100k, we agreed and still the provider wouldn't build to us." Another possible conclusion is that some residents are unaware of better internet access in their area and are with the same provider they have had for many years. Some could have completed the speed test using cellular data (4G), which is slow and unreliable in Los Altos Hills. State and Federal Data The State of California and the federal government have data sets and maps to help identify areas in need of broadband services. Internet providers are required to fill out FCC form 477 that indicates the census blocks where each provider is providing broadband. There are inherent flaws to the mapping, such as providers over -reporting service areas and the fact that if one address is served in a census block then the entire block is considered served. Census blocks vary in size from a few hundred square feet to many square miles. Although flawed, these maps and data sets are valuable information to incorporate and provide data. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is based on speed test data, census data, and form 477 reporting data. Areas shaded in red are areas that have needs based on the criteria found in the below chart. The map below shows no red areas, which indicates that Los Altos Hills does not, from this data set, have any unmet need for broadband. The latest FCC Broadband Map shows coverage for hexagonal areas that change in size depending on area viewed ("zoom level"). Zooming all the way reveals data for specific premises, i.e., real estate parcels when zoomed to a neighborhood. Each address includes information on the providers and services at that location, including technology and nominal speeds. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 29 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 29 Table 7. Internet service providers in the Los Altos Hills area per FCC data Down Up Provider Technology (Mbps) (Mbps) AT&T Inc. Fiber to the 5000 5000 Premises (FTTP) Comcast Corporation Cable 1200 35 Hughes Network Systems, Geosynchronous 25 3 LLC Orbit Satellite Raw Bandwidth Telecom, Inc. Copper 10 1 StarLink" Non- 350 40 geosynchronous Orbit Satellite T -Mobile USA, Inc. Licensed Fixed 0.2 0.2 Wireless Access (FWA) Viasat, Inc. Geo -synchronous 100 3 Orbit Satellite 14 Space Exploration Holdings, LLC GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 30 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 30 Figure 10. FCC Broadband Map of fiber to the premise in Los Altos Hills" The FCC map shows areas considered served shaded blue with darker shade indicated higher percentage of units served (see Figure 10). Fully zoomed out, the entire Los Altos Hills area is served by some form of broadband. At the town level, there is clearly some areas with limited 100 Mbps/20 Mbps broadband, which is the state standard for California. The gap becomes apparent at the neighborhood level, as shown for the northern portion of the Town in Figure 11. Most of Los Altos Hills is not served with fiber. Only the center of the town, east of Fremont Country Club is shown to have 100/20 Mbps service. https://broadbandmap.fee.gov/area-summary/fixed?zoom=12.05&vlon=- 122.148594&- lat=37.37°399&br=r&speed=25_3&tech=3 GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 31 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 31 Map Legend ° •t "�,ti::;} �:=` i Coverage available �� �`•� �; •_ ;6 ! ' O Coverage not available F .t . E 8,�.•0� •°�e°Fe � _ .°x - ° °• • ° q ''aS,i°• ''l''yn'e°,"°•:•••°•=�aa i' • ° ° ,' • �:•°s, Vis..:' .. , xxu c dam • ° ` ° ° ^, w• " Figure 11. FCC Broadband Map of fiber to the premise in north Los Altos Hills The CPUC's California Interactive Broadband Map" shows services faster than 100 Mbps available in and around Los Altos Hills. As shown in Figure 12, there are relatively small areas immediately south and east of the Town without 100 Mbps available. Los Altos Hills appears to have limited fiber access infrastructure. Most premises in substantial portions of the Town and surrounding area are connected via copper. The federal and state data must be considered "best case scenario" even if the data is for last year. " https://www.broadbandmap.ca.gov/ GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 32 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 32 Figure 12. CPUC Broadband Map of internet access service available in the Los Altos Hills area The Town of Los Altos Hills has few policies in place regarding broadband and related assets. The relevant policies include an article on wireless telecommunications facilities (e.g., cell sites and towers) in the chapter on zoning. The ordinance specifies that no such facility may be located or modified anywhere in the Town without a site development permit or conditional use permit. It then lays out the process and requirements for such a permit, including conditions specific to use of the public right of way. The Town does not appear to have a master license agreement or similar for network service providers to use its assets. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 33 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 33 The Town's municipal code includes several references to utility construction, particularly in reference to underground utility districts. Another policy relates to informing infrastructure owners of excavations for forthcoming improvements by the town. Beyond that, the Town appears to have no "Dig Once" or joint build policies or procedures to facilitate broadband development and minimize restoration issues. The Town has a formal Technology Committee with members appointed by the Town Council. The Committee did not have goals for 2023 as of the writing of this report but goals for 2022 included: • Develop evaluation criteria and metrics for Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR). • Investigate technologies that help residents stay safe during earthquakes and improve safety against fires. • Investigate micro -grids and municipal power, and propose. greener, more resilient, and affordable power sources. • Support for online municipal services, including hybrid meeting technology, cybersecurity audit recommendations, and improvements to the town's website. • Contribute to the LAHCF project, including collaborating to meet local connectivity requirements and potential uses LAHCF fiber granted to the town. Information technology, communications, and broadband are not explicitly addressed in the Town's General Plan. The Town adopted a broadband or internet "Digital Equity Bill of Rights" based on a declaration by the California Emerging Technology Fund. This document contains important criteria, outcomes, and principles for digital equity, but it does not include identify specific policies to achieve or even commit to allocating resources to the goals inherent in the document. LACHF Certification The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requires all communications service providers to be certified to operate in the state and place assets in the public rights-of-way. It is not clear what the penalties for not having such certification are, but non -certified providers are undoubtedly exposed to additional liabilities and have no protections against damage to their facilities from certified providers. Such certification is the basis for recognition as an GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 34 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 34 Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC), which is necessary receive federal high-cost and/or low-income support. There are three approaches to certification. The first approach is for facilities - based "telephone companies," resellers, and competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) that provide voice -grade services, including VoIP. This approach results in a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN). The second, simplified registration procedure is for non -monopoly providers of voice services. The third approach is for companies that provide "Commercial Mobile Radio Services," i.e., cellular telephone companies. The state also instituted statewide video franchises and regulations for the deployment of broadband infrastructure with the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 (DIVCA). Nominally, DIVCA facilitate competitive market entry by ensuring consumer protections, establishing a "level playing field," and requiring technology investment, all while protecting local government ability to control public rights-of-way. It is not clear whether LAHCF is subject to any of these requirements. Without state certification, LAHCF may be open to undue liabilities and not protected from damage to their assets. It is possible the state or certified providers could require LAHCF remove its assets from the public right of way. The Government Technology Group and Young Fiber do not provide legal services and nothing in this section should be construed as legal advice. LAHCF and the Town should consult legal counsel to determine whether to pursue state certification. uaps The gaps in fiber optic infrastructure appear to be in the last mile, from internet service providers' distribution networks to residents' homes. Consequently, reliability and speed seem to be major issues for residents. There also seem to be gaps in cellular coverage. The Town has major gaps in its policies related to fiber and other network infrastructure. These include: • "Dig Once" and joint -build policies and programs • Development conditions that include fiber • Siting cells on public assets/property, including a master license agreement • Limited Town assets for Broadband infrastructure to leverage GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 35 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 35 • The Town lacks fiber to the home in a significant portion of the Town • The Town has limited wireless communication capabilities due to terrain and foliage in the community • The Town has limited technical staff to support expansion of broadband • The Town has a disparity in high-speed community between those that have fast reliable Internet access and those that don't High -Level Designs, HLDs, are a conceptual design that includes routes, possible construction methods, and overall footage to gain a budgetary overview as well as possible timeframes needed to complete the project. Los Altos Hills has a unique situation and requires a different approach to developing a HLD that will serve the community as it should. There are members of the community that have great internet and there are those that do not have broadband and the HLD must address the connection of Town facilities, supporting the residents that do not have broadband, and finally to support the economic development of Los Altos Hills. The HLD is put together utilizing the most cost-effective construction methods first: existing fiber optic cables, conduits, and other existing infrastructure before considering new construction. New construction methods such as boring, plowing, micro trenching, or aerial, are by far the most expensive and slowest ways to build a network. Although the cost of new construction methods can vary greatly, they are typically more expensive than using existing infrastructure. The chart below shows the construction methods available and estimated cost for each. Table 8 — Construction Methods Existing Infrastructure Existing Town owned Fiber Optic Re -splicing, adding splice cases, Cable $4-$10 testing, and documenting existing fiber Existing Town owned empty Placing new cable in existing conduit $10- $15 conduit, splicing, splice cases, testing and documenting fiber GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 36 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 36 Remove and replace Town Removing working circuits, splicing, owned Fiber $25 - $35 adding splice cases, testing, and documenting existing fiber Upgrade traffic interconnect Removing interconnect cables, conduit $30-$40 upgrade handholes and sweeps, pull new cable, splice, test, document Aerial Construction Underground Construction Pole Loading, place new cable on Over lash aerial cable $7- $15 existing strand (over lash), splice, test, and document Pole load, build new attachments, New attachment aerial cable $15 - $25 place strand, lash cable, splice, test, and document Micro trenching $15 - $25 Same as above but must permit New aerial with new poles $90-$120 and place new telephone poles first. Underground Construction Assumptions used for the Town of Los Altos Hills HLD including: • Need to build to 80% of households. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 37 Using a vibratory plow with 4' Plowing $15 - $25 stinger to place conduit prior to new cable placement Micro trenching uses a thin 1" - 2" by 12" deep to cut a trench into the ground, pavement, or Micro trenching $15 - $25 other and place conduit in the trench and seal it with special material to prevent cable from coming out of the trench. Uses a 6" - 8" blade to cut a Rock Wheel $100- trench up to 36" deep through $125 any material including rock, ravel, asphalt, dirt etc. Uses rods and a machine to drill Boring/Directional Drilling $75 - $100 a hole under the surface of the earth at any depth needed with minimal disturbance Using machines like mini Open trench $80-$100 excavators, backhoes, shovels to open a trench to place conduit and back fill over conduit Assumptions used for the Town of Los Altos Hills HLD including: • Need to build to 80% of households. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 37 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 37 • All new underground construction will be directional drilling/boring. • Construction costs are for placing conduit only. • Town desires 100% underground construction providing a more robust network. • Underground networks are also more protected from wildfires. • Existing conduit is suitable for fiber cable placement. • Phased deployment 5 -year period. • Per foot costing is based on average pricing from local vendors. • Any cabinets, hubs, or assets built must be placed in the public -right-of- way. • Routes are based on road access. There may be easements to lessen the footage Tradeoff s Construction method costs vary widely, and the inclination would be to use the least expensive methods to save on the up -front capital investment needed. However, all construction methods have good and bad elements about them, and the tradeoffs are something that needs to be considered in advance of construction of a network. Below are some examples of tradeoffs when considering different construction methods. Example 1: New underground construction can be done in a variety of ways with varying costs, with boring being one of the most expensive. Microtrenching is one of the least expensive methods but has drawbacks that need to be evaluated and mitigated prior to use. Microtrenching is a shallow underground technique that is a viable in neighborhoods where there is little traffic and little exposure to major emergencies, such as water main breaks, that require major excavation in a hurried manner possibly exposing the shallower fiber to possible damage and outages. However, in major intersections, heavily travelled roads, water mains, storm drains, side sidewalks and gutters microtrenching presents a much higher risk to damage that using directional drilling/boring which is much deeper at 36" -48" deep on average. Example 2: When implementing a wireless network, it relies on a fiber backbone to operate effectively and setbacks with regards to tower and pole placement would need to be adjusted accordingly. The cost and speed of deployment may GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 38 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 38 be the best possible tactic for network construction, below are possible tradeoffs: • Wireless Telecommunication Facilities ordinance would have to be updated with setbacks reduced or eliminated leading to reduced control allowing all wireless and cellular providers that same access adding towers and poles. • Aerial equipment is more exposed to the elements, destruction, wildfires, and as such can have a higher maintenance cost. • Wireless networks are susceptible to line of site issues with foliage, buildings, concrete structures, hills, and other blockages that change over time. Trees grow, buildings are constructed, and foliage changes over time which could lead to worsening wireless connectivity. Phases Attempting to provide the best possible scenario aiding the Town of Los Altos Hills HLD in deploying a fiber network is broken down into 6 phases. It is important to note that although the town separated into 6 key phases, each phase should be evaluated and built in order of need, spreading out the cost and speeding up deployment. Although the phases build off each other, they do not have to be built in the order presented or each phase does not have to be complete before moving on. Phase 1: Town Sites is the first phase intended to connect town assets, the properties that have private towers, as well as prepare to tie into the existing fiber strands. Agreements could be made so the towers can be used as a backup connection during an emergency and/or used to attract ISPs and utilize the towers as part of a wireless network. There have been many advancements in wireless technologies and those should be explored as a possible solution to the broadband shortage around the towers. Connections to the towers is essential for this option course of action. Phase 2: It was determined from the online broadband survey and other outreach meetings that there are areas with worse broadband than the others. Phase 2 focuses on the northwest portion of the town, west of Hwy 280 and north of Taaffe Rd. It builds off the phase 1 build and utilizes the expensive highway crossing. The area should be built in a logical manner connecting the neighborhoods and streets that are of the highest need. GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 39 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 39 Phase 3: Building off phase 2 construction efforts, phase 3 supports the south/southwest area of the town. It also utilizes a portion of the IRU fibers strands available for town use. Phase 3 area according to the survey, has a higher concentration of residents with broadband above the state standard of 100/20. Refer to needs assessment section for mapping. Phase 4: Phase 4 supports the area northeast portion of the town and will utilize the highest percentage of IRU fiber. There are residents that report low bandwidth and slow broadband mostly along the edges of highway 280 and also the east side of the town. Phase 5: Phase 5 is the last area of focus as it had the highest number of respondents with very good internet and some are already served with fiber from local providers. This area also has some streets and residents that do not have good broadband and report lower than 2 5/3, the federal definition of broadband. Phase 6: Phase 6 is overbuilding the areas of town that are currently served by an incumbent's fiber -to -the -home network. It is not prudent to overbuild those portions until the rest of the town has reliable high-speed broadband. Timing Approximate timing for each phase can be found below. Timeframes are subject to following assumptions: • 20 -day work month • 100% underground build • Fielding is % mile per day • Engineering is % per day • Construction, boring, at a 3000' per week rate, per rig • Vendor can dedicate one rig to project GTG ©2023 DRAFT March 20, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 40 Table 9 — Estimated Timing by Phase Estimated Timing by Phase Phase 1! 22,294 ' 6M 2 M 2 M 4 M Phase 2 130,614 8 M 2 M 11 M Phase 3 155,425 9 M 2 M 13 M Phase 4 118, 648 7 M 2 M 10 M Phase 5 37,697 3 M 2 M 4 M Phase 6 17.701 2 MI 2 M 2 M 14 Months 21 Months 24 Months 19 Months 9 Months 6 Months 'Permitting is a delay to start only. Permitting will continue during construction but will not add time after the initial time frame Construction times can be reduced by using vendors with more equipment available for construction and quicker permitting. Page 1 of 54 Resolution 76-23 Page 41 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 41 Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Phase 6 Existing IRU Fiber Figure 13 — HLD Overview HLD Footages and Budget The below chart shows the footages by phase with the estimated budgetary cost for each phase. The budgetary numbers do not include drops to each resident or business, drops can add a significant cost and some of the residents would require longer than normal drops that would make the cost above normal and is a cost that should be absorbed, at least in part by the end user. It is recommended that the Town place conduit and find a partner ISP to install their own fiber therefor, the construction costs are for placing conduit only. Although the assumption is the town wants an all -underground network, for budgetary comparison the aerial budget below assumes that there is 40% of the GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 42 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 42 network that could be using telephone poles, a more cost-effective construction method. This option would also require the town or a partner to be a registered CPCN company in order to use the aerial infrastructure, it also creates a more vulnerable network. It also assumes the aerial construction would place strand and FOC instead of conduit. Table to — Estimated Costing by Phase As the table above shows there are different ways to construct a network all having different costs, pros, and cons. Understanding that most towns don't necessarily like or want microtrenching used, the cost savings makes it a construction method that needs to be looked at. Most networks include some of all of the different techniques to balance the cost vs rewards and risks. There are a range of business models for local governments to impact broadband development, from passive, policy -only models to fully active, full- service models. Given the Town of Los Altos Hills limited organizational capacity and the presence of LAHCF, the best model for the Town is likely policy -only. The Town simply doesn't have the means or reasons to own fiber assets. Instead, it makes sense to develop policies to encourage local, non-profit broadband service providers. This would involve establishing expedited, non- discriminatory access to local public right-of-way (PROW) and standards for constructing and developing network assets that use the PROW. Beyond that, the Town could establish procurement preferences for services from such GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 43 ,. - 777 Phase 1 Total 22,294 $1,894,990.00 $1,315,346.00 $724,555.00 Phase 2 Total 130,614 $11,102,190.00 $7,706,226.00 $4,244,955.00 Phase 3 Total 155,425 $12,727,045.00 $8,843,321.00 $4,884,910.00 Phase 4 Total 118,648 $8,646,040.00 $6,028,880.00 $3,361,390.00 Phase 5 Total 37,697 $2,766,805.00 $1,928,851.00 $1,074,782.50 Phase 6 Total 17,701 $1,504,585.00 $1,044,359.00 $575,282.50 As the table above shows there are different ways to construct a network all having different costs, pros, and cons. Understanding that most towns don't necessarily like or want microtrenching used, the cost savings makes it a construction method that needs to be looked at. Most networks include some of all of the different techniques to balance the cost vs rewards and risks. There are a range of business models for local governments to impact broadband development, from passive, policy -only models to fully active, full- service models. Given the Town of Los Altos Hills limited organizational capacity and the presence of LAHCF, the best model for the Town is likely policy -only. The Town simply doesn't have the means or reasons to own fiber assets. Instead, it makes sense to develop policies to encourage local, non-profit broadband service providers. This would involve establishing expedited, non- discriminatory access to local public right-of-way (PROW) and standards for constructing and developing network assets that use the PROW. Beyond that, the Town could establish procurement preferences for services from such GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 43 Town of los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 43 providers and a special class for them within a wireless facilities master license agreement. To determine the proper business model for a municipal network, local governments need to understand the various factors and how they interplay with each other. The different business models shown in the table below compare the different levels of investment and amount of municipal control. The Town of Lost Altos Hills has different options from do nothing, let the incumbent providers handle broadband all the way to becoming a municipal ISP and provide services to the businesses and residents in Los Altos Hills. Rarely is either extreme a viable option with the key factors leading to a business model somewhere in the middle. Municipal is ISP Public Private Partnership Do nothing Business Models Any business model beyond leasing a limited amount of dark fiber will require dedicated staff. The Program or Division would need a Broadband Manager with a strong understanding of facilities leasing and maintenance. The Broadband Manager would be responsible for the overall organizational performance, focused on finances and governance. If the City is actively promoting use of the network, it will also need a Sales and Marketing Specialist to identify and manage leases. The Sales and Marketing Manager may also work with wholesale customers to promote internet services to the community. An Infrastructure Specialist will also be needed to follow through with the policies put in place, dig once, also to track placement, ownership, and maintenance of the infrastructure. Finally, the Program or Division will need a fiber management system (FMS) and should have a maintenance fund to cover repair costs. Major maintenance or repair tasks — anything requiring excavation— may be contracted out or may be handled by the Public Works Department staff. Additional positions may also be needed, depending on the scope and scale of the project. GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 44 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 44 If the Town were to move forward with any of the above, it will require substantial overhead and operating costs, as well as much larger capital investment in infrastructure and equipment. Payroll can account for 90% or more of ongoing costs. Equipment licenses, maintenance, refresh, and upgrades create high periodic costs and ongoing reoccurring costs. Limiting operations to a backbone network will greatly reduce both up -front and on-going costs and set the stage for private investment. Public Private Partnership (P3) P3 agreements are a common business model in the modern municipal network for the construction, operation, and maintenance of city owned infrastructure. These agreements are so popular because they can entail any of the following business models by working with private ISPs and creating an agreement that the City can support. All cities have differing levels of assets, capital, and staff to support municipal networks. Some cities have a sufficient staff that can run and monitor a network and some cities contract the majority of the operations to private companies or individuals and have very little staff that can help with the running of a network, while other cities have substantial infrastructure that can be leveraged in a P3 to ultimately generate revenue through these agreements. It is important to understand the level to of commitment from both parties when considering the following: • Who will pay for the network construction? • What funds will both parties be required to put into the agreement? • What are the roles and responsibilities of either party? • Who will determine the ownership and control of any future network expansion? • What is the revenue model that will allow both parties to benefit from an agreement? Public policy only Public policies are a vital part of the modern city broadband network, whether it be city or privately owned. Policies that can have a large impact on the broadband networks include dig once policies and developer agreements. Dig once policies put in place a mechanism for the city to add infrastructure while other companies and agencies are doing work in the right-of-way allowing the city to add infrastructure as part of these other projects. Developer agreements are important because they allow the city to require infrastructure to be added to the development of large plots. Other policies that should be created and implemented are those that streamline the permitting process to encourage local ISP investment in broadband throughout the city. A major deterrent for private company broadband construction in municipalities is if the permitting process and restoration requirements impact the return on investment (ROI) that drives all private company investments. This is not a real "business" model but does have an impact on the local broadband market and GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 45 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 45 regardless of the business model used, policies must be evaluated and updated or implemented. Infrastructure Provider in this business model the municipality builds infrastructure and leases that infrastructure out to other agencies with the goal of generating enough revenue to, at a minimum, pay for the cost and maintenance of the infrastructure. Private companies work off profits and ROI models that require lower cost construction and enough subscribers to offset these costs. There are areas in every city that have a low ROI and private companies simply will not build in these areas and skip to higher profit areas. Cities can build infrastructure that the private sector can use lowing the costs of construction and increasing the ROI. The infrastructure can be conduit only, fiber, or wireless towers. Public Services Provider Cities connecting publicly owned assets, public organizations, county, nonprofit organizations, schools, libraries, and/or other non -private locations are considered public services providers. These organizations are usually limited to anchor institutions, critical organizations, public safety organizations, utilities, and healthcare. Government owned network can provide a better quality of service at lower costs. Open Access Provider Open access networks are those networks that do not offer exclusive access to anyone entity. This philosophy is geared towards increasing competition and potentially increasing revenue by not limiting access only one lessee. Lit services is when the provider supplies the equipment, fiber, and anything needed to support a certain level of service. Simply put, if the customer wants 100 Mbps service that is what the city would need to provide. The customer pays for the level of service they want and the cost increases with the increase in speed. Conversely, if the customer wants to provide their own equipment, the city would only provide the fiber from end to end and the customer is responsible for the equipment and speeds they are wanting. The city only maintains the fiber and does not have any involvement with the equipment. These circuits are known as "dark" circuits and the bandwidth used is not controlled by the city. Although the equipment is not provided by the city, the circuits are very close in cost. Municipal Services Provider (ISP) Municipalities that provide end user services to residential and business customers are considered retail service providers. Most commonly, local governments offer triple -play services consisting of phone, television, and GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 46 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 46 Internet services, essentially becoming an equal competitor to incumbent cable and broadband providers. As a retail provider, the organization is responsible for a significant number of operational functions, including management of retail services, network operations, billing, provisioning, network construction, and general management. For a municipal services approach, the following would need to be taken into consideration. Capital Expenses • Develop the cost model for the network, including one-time and ongoing capital expenditures to build the network. This will include an assessment of current facility locations, Town owned land and the Town right-of-way for construction, and the need to purchase any land or equipment. • Provide a phased deployment approach, including prioritization and costs for each phase. Operating Expenses • Develop the cost model for operations, including O&M, network operations, field services, staffing, billing, and customer service. Revenue Potential From the market analysis and outreach, determine the customer segmentation and growth on the network, across each type of customer (business, school, hospital, etc.). Determine customer growth rates for the network, based on benchmarking analysis from other utility and municipal providers. Determine a proposed competitive rate schedule for potential services, using pricing information from the market analysis and benchmarking information. Financial Viability Develop financial statements including: o Operating income and cash flow o Net present value analysis o Projected revenues and benefits o Uses and sources of funds GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 47 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 47 o Operational expenses o Depreciation schedule o Debt service analysis o Key assumptions • Conduct comprehensive financial analysis on the project to determine overall financial sustainability using key metrics such as free cash flow, debt service coverage, operating margin, and net income. Grants and Other Funding Sources The Town of Los Altos Hills is an affluent community and therefore is not competitive for most federal and state grants that support expanding broadband to unserved and underserved communities. Examples of Grants that are competitive regarding need for unserved and underserved at this time are: • The California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) LATA program (at the time of this writing, this program has run out of funding as well) • Federal Funding Account (FFA) last -mile grant program. This program is part of the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant program and is subject to Federal requirements. The Town should monitor and apply for transportation related grants which can be coupled with expanding fiber optic installation during the project. Grants the City should monitor and apply for that could be coupled with fiber infrastructure expansion include: • RAISE • INFRA/MEGA • Safe Streets for All • FEMA Inter/Intracity Rail Program • Bus and Bus Facilities Program • Smart City Grants • EPA Clean Heavy Duty Vehicles Program The Town has existing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Public, Education and Government (PEG) funds that can be used to begin the installation of broadband infrastructure within the constraints of the funding sources. Due to the Town's lack of competitiveness for current broadband grants, the Town is left with options outside the above two sources that are limited to private funding (including possible Legacy fund), bonds, debt, or direct revenue (fees & taxes). GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 48 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 48 Building out broadband infrastructure does provide the Town with opportunities to obtain lease funding for building out additional fiber infrastructure. GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 49 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 49 1. Form or designate a broadband advisory board Without accountability and designated resources, master plans can fall by the wayside. It is important that there is a level of accountability. The Town should evaluate a committee with one to two council members and town staff that have the level of authority and interest to ensure Broadband progresses in the community. We recommend that in order to avoid any conflicts of interest, the council should not appoint any individuals with ties to broadband service providers that could be perceived as having an unfair influence on the board's decisions. 2. Create policies and workflows Dig once policies are a good way of ensuring the town can capitalize on private sector investment by adding conduit(s) for the town anytime underground construction is being performed in the public -right-of-way, ROW. Developer agreements are another way to have developers of larger parcels or land development. Permitting and restoration requirements prove to be difficult for developers and private ISPs looking to build in the ROW. Permits can take too long to approve, through policies and updated requirements, the Town can alleviate some of this by ensuring the permitting process is streamlined. These policies need to be created or updated with positive influences to encourage private sector investment in Los Altos Hills. Realizing this is a good policy, it should also be advised that creating a dig once policy and development agreements varies from agency to agency depending on their needs and community desires. A dig once policy is of higher importance than updating development agreement requirements and should take precedence. These policies take time and careful consideration for a community, including coordination with public works staff, regional utilities, and providers to protect the City's interest especially regarding the public right of way and pavement quality/maintenance. GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 50 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 50 3. Create a Technology Enterprise Fund Dedicating all revenues generated from telecommunication carriers or ISPs through leases of Town poles, ROW access, cell towers and/or land for placement of towers, and other public assets to a Technology Enterprise Fund will ensure the Town has a financing source for the purchase, installation, and/or construction of new broadband assets and smart town applications, particularly to take advantage of opportunities outside of the annual budget process, such as coordinated joint trenching. These funds would also be used for digital inclusion efforts. 4. Create a Public Private Partnership (P3) Partnerships between the town, schools, service providers and the community assist with improving the overall well-being of the community and lower telecom costs while increasing speeds. The Town should submit a request for proposal to build broadband infrastructure with existing ARPA funds and evaluate the use of Public Education and Government (PEG) funds to expand high speed broadband in the community. To entice a P3 vendor to engage with the Town, potential benefits could include a five-year moratorium on access to Town assets and a master agreement that would assist with expediting building out infrastructure in the community. In the partnership, the Town would own the infrastructure and the public private partner would maintain, market, and operate the network. 5. Incrementally build town -owned Broadband Infrastructure The town should build phase 1 of the plan including running broadband infrastructure by three town owned properties where private towers are located. The City expressed interest in pursuing wireless solutions in the GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 51 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 51 future and this would provide the necessary fiber backbone to support this opportunity. The town has funds available to construct phase 1. The results of the public private partnership will hopefully lead to the build out of the remaining phase of the network, phase 2-5, and if found prudent to overbuild a fiber -to -the -home network phase 6 should be implemented. 6. Support Digital Inclusion The digital divide means there are households that have great access to the internet, have devices for internet usage, can afford services, understand how to use the internet, among other positives, and those that don't have these. Households can suffer from the lack of all these things or just one, the difference between the haves and have nots is known as the digital divide. Digital inclusion is the process of trying to eliminate the divide through policies and programs designed to address these issues. The town of Los Altos Hills needs to work on digital inclusion efforts to help households get and stay relevant in the ever-changing online environment. The Town needs to work with Santa Clara County's digital inclusion efforts to have a synergistic approach to helping all residents and households in the area. The Town should promote the Federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), in coordination with local ISPs, which is an FCC -funded subsidy that helps ensure households can afford the broadband they need for work, school, healthcare and more. Details can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/acl3. Training and economic advancement organizations need to be engaged and promoted through all town avenues. 7. Donate surplus town assets Cities have equipment, desks, computers, and laptops, among other things, that could be donated to senior centers, schools, economic development centers, or any other group that helps lessen the digital divide. Senior centers are in particular need with most residents being on fixed incomes with no way to purchase devices. GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 52 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 52 8. Evaluate Wireless Solutions Wireless infrastructure relies on fiber optics for connecting to the Internet for high-speed reliable communications. The Town should evaluate the use of wireless last mile connectivity to homes as an interim and potentially long-term solution that could assist in reducing cost to build out communications for those that have limited access and speeds. To protect the Town's interest, the Town needs to ensure any wireless option is supported by a proof of concept. It should be noted that pursuing wireless communications may require revisiting the town's wireless telecommunications facilities ordinance. 1. Create a board to advise, keep abreast of, and hold accountability for broadband. a. Define roles and responsibilities b. Establish safeguards to prevent conflict of interests 2. In addition to the board assign or hire a person to be the Town's point person. 3. Create workflows to ensure broadband is a consideration on all city capital improvement projects, permitted work in the ROW, and planning efforts. a. Planning projects to be reviewed by broadband committee for relevance to add broadband components when needed. b. Permits submitted by private companies performing work in the ROW, reviewed by broadband committee, adding dig once policies to applicable permits. 4. Review city policies update as needed. a. Dig Once policy b. Developer agreements c. Review wireless telecommunication facilities ordinance 5. Create a broadband enterprise fund to support broadband efforts, construction, and partnerships. a. Assign a portion of PEG fees to a broadband fund where applicable GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 53 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 53 b. Assign a portion franchise fees to a broadband fund 6. Create a financing strategy that separately tracks revenues and expenditures for this fund. a. Create a funding policy that established a reserve as well as strives to ensure that revenues match expenditures without beinga burden to the- Towns General Fund. 7. Explore funding mechanisms a. Explore a legacy giving fund to support the installation of broadband b. Explore grant opportunities c. Franchise Agreements d. Public Private Partnerships 8. Create an RFP to find partnerships with a local ISP a. Find a partner that can engineer and construct phase I b. Create a partnership that will accomplish the goals of the broadband plan in providing underserved households with reliable service. 9. Work with a partner to finish the buildout of the network. a. Collaborate with the partner to build the phases of the network that in most need. Further discovery may be needed to determine the best buildout locations and timeframes. I O.Promote digital inclusion efforts for the residents of the Town. a. LAH suffers from the lack of access to reliable high-speed broadband b. Promote the Affordable Connectivity Program. LAH is affluent but there are still those residents that have a hard time affording internet access. I I.Instead of auctioning off extra and surplus equipment, donate to local groups and individuals that would benefit. a. Senior Centers b. Youth Centers c. Economic Development Groups d. Small Business Associations e. Under privileged households f. Schools g. Etc. 12.Reach out to wireless providers to setup proof of concept. For example: GTG @2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 54 Town of Los Altos Hills, CA Project Page 54 a. Reach out to Tarana Wireless. It will not be free, but it could save substantial money in the deployment of broadband. i. .Ask for models and budgets for end user and town costs for deploying their network. b. Reach out to Terragraph for a proof of concept i. Ask for models and budgets for network cost separated by end user and town/operator costs. GTG ©2023 DRAFT April 4, 2023 Resolution 76-23 Page 55