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LAH Community Fiber - November 2021
Newsletter
November 2021

Dear LAHCF newsletter subscribers,

Articles in this newsletter:
  • Town wide Newsletter article about LAHCF will bring new resident interest - Volunteers needed to help capture interest and mentor more champions and projects.
  • 2022 is looking to be a rocket year for LAHCF with many projects already funded and final permits and designs on the edge of approval.


Winter LAH Town Newsletter will highlight LAHCF to all LAH Residents - Volunteer to help LAHCF organize next wave of champions!


Coming out soon in late November or early December is the quarterly Town Wide newsletter publication of "Our Town" provided by the Town of Los Altos Hills.  This issue will feature a 3 page article on LAH Community Fiber.  This will probably be our biggest announcement to residents yet to date about our growing, community member owned and operated Fiber Optic organization.  Check your mailbox for this publication!

We anticipate many residents will visit our website and want to get connected or gather more information.   Please contact LAHCF at info@lahcommunityfiber.org if you are interested to be a volunteer and champion to help inform and direct residents to their closest neighborhood champion or to encourage new champions.  We can train you on how to use the tools to help direct residents and explain the process for getting service and connected to projects.

Many residents incorrectly assume that LAHCF can simply piggyback off of an AT&T or Comcast cable or connection on poles and provide our fiber service to your home.  In reality, we are installing 100% of new, just LAHCF infrastructure in the ground, street by street, house to house.  Even our very high speed lighted gigabit services backhaul connection completely bypasses the local telcos Comcast/AT&T vendors infrastructure entirely and we peer directly with the "backbone" of the Internet at Hurricane Electric at a data center outside of LAH.  This type of peering offers us almost unlimited capacity as we grow for very affordable rates. 

We are continuing to refine the website to allow visitors to quickly find the resources they need whether that is general information, becoming a champion or signing up for service, or getting involved.

If you haven't checked out our LAHCF website, please check it out. Previous newsletter articles give a good background on the progress of LAHCF over the past 2 years and provides a good basis for understanding the project and challenges of community owned fiber networks.  But most of those challenges have now been resolved and we are set to launch construction in this town to a new level connecting potentially several hundreds of residents in 2022.
 


2022 will be a rocket year for LAHCF!

Much of 2021 year was taken up with necessary steps to enable LAHCF to expand town wide with the Town's approval and even their support.  LAHCF did not fit in the typical regulatory framework of the PUC (Public Utilities Commission) by which vendors are granted access to install their access in public easements.  In September 2021, LAHCF signed the Master Access agreement with the town that allows LAHCF to have official access to the roadway public right of ways to bury our fiber conduit.  We are also now on the cusp of getting our first larger individual project encroachment permits approved by LAH public works which has taken longer than anticipated.

On the positive side of 2021, although actual construction lagged for 2021, some major, multiple mile fiber projects were scoped out by champions and residents, fully funded and now materials are already on order.  We plan to start construction soon in some very visible areas of town.

In late 2021, the Town Council supported LAHCF with the approval of the master access agreement and we now have a council member acting as a council liaison attending our LAHCF board meetings to encourage communication and collaboration between the town and LAHCF.

Both the State and the Federal Government have multiple monies available now for community broadband projects that the Town is looking to apply for funding for LAHCF projects.  The LAH Town Council subcommittee consisting of Stan Mok and Lisa Schmidt, is looking at how to spend its allocated $1.8 -$3M of ARPA  (America Rescue Plan Act - Nationwide $1.9 Trillion)  funds.  Of the 4 categories that are eligible for the funding, internet broadband projects is accepted. Specific language in the requirements encourages community owned - not for profit -  broadband suppliers that fits LAHCF mutual benefit corporation model perfectly.  We invite you to contact Stan and Lisa and encourage them to select LAHCF as one of the recipients of the ARPA funds.  These funds will be used to build critical LAHCF fiber backbone in town and bring fiber to under or unserved areas of town.  Other funding options with SB 156 shows promise for funds that are for either municipal buiilds or Not For Profit broadband organizations like LAHCF.

We should know which projects the city has decided to request ARPA funds for within a few months as the time lines for these fund submissions is March 2022.

 

Weekly LAHCF Champion Meetings:
Each Friday at 10:30 AM is the neighborhood champion virtual meeting where champions or future champions jump on to discuss their projects.  Current champions help to mentor new champions on this call and review the tools and resources available to them.  Information on this meeting is available on the Champions Page on the website.

Sincerely,

LAH Community Fiber and Next Level Networks

Email: info@lahcommunityfiber.org
Website: https://www.lahcommunityfiber.org

Phone: (650) 793-0475
Copyright © 2021 Los Altos Hills Community Fiber, All rights reserved.


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