Building a reliable, local and accountable Community Fiber Broadband Provider with LAHCF

LAH Community Fiber - Community Information
(C) 2021 LAHCF

May/June 2021

Dear LAHCF newsletter subscribers and neighborhood champions -

Hello Champions or wannabe champions! - Stay engaged and informed by jumping in on our weekly Champions meeting at 10:30 AM on Friday mornings ( See info at the end of the newsletter) The number of neighborhood champions continues to grow daily and we already exceed 45 champions! If you do not have access to the neighborhood champion tool to help crowd source your neighborhood, please contact LAHCF at info@lahcommunityfiber.org

The number of builds project launched grows too. Check out the Build menu on our website at https://www.lahcommunityfiber.org

Fremont Pines Lane Phase II neighborhood build in process - April 2021

LAHCF experiences its first back-haul fiber cut in over 2 years and handles it quickly with accountability

I often talk to LAH residents who complain rightfully about the continual short or longer term outages happen with both AT&T and Comcast almost weekly. As a subscribers to those services, you typically are never are informed ahead of time of any planned outage or provided any explanation for an outage afterwards. As subscribers to these larger providers, you now expect service will go out on a regular basis, and expect outages extends beyond your home and you will be out some unknown period of time.

Back in late April, one of the two fibers that connect our LAHCF back-haul circuit to the data-center where we peer into the backbone of the internet was cut. Within about 45 minutes, we immediately notified all of our subscribers on the network of the outage via email. This segment of our network is the back-haul circuit that is leased to LAHCF and maintained by a middle mile fiber provider that is there to provide excellent support and up times for this link.

Within a few hours, the middle-mile fiber provider confirmed the break in the fiber path and identified the issue using equipment that can determine where the outage occurs based on distance from a source. LAHCF and Next Level Networks sent out a second email with updated information to all subscriber with this information. Once it was determined that 1 of the 2 fibers was still operational, we switched the entire back-haul circuit to use one fiber mode instead of 2 and starting delivering service back to LAHCF users immediately.

Later that night, the middle-mile provider found the exact location of the break, a squirrel chew on the corner of Oak and Grant Rd telephone pole, and did a fiber repair. Next Level Networks provided a third email to our subscribers up the update and announcement of the analysis and progress. We also notified them of a short, planned 5 minute cut-over at 6 AM back to full 2 fiber back haul.

Accountability - Network outages are going to occur - no network is faultless, but we can be responsive and accountable to keep our subscribers in the loop. Hopefully this is one attribute where a locally owned and operated community fiber broadband provider can exceed other larger service providers.

Redundancy - Long before this event occurred a few weeks ago, LAHCF was already planning various back-haul redundancy and other resilience options within our own network. As we grow the network and more resources become available, we will be implementing these redundant connections. In the previous 2 years that LAHCF had been running, there was hardly a single minute of back haul outage that effected the entire LAHCF network. It has been difficult to fund expensive redundant connections for a small number of users. Now that we are growing, these projects are becoming feasible.

Sincerely,

LAH Community Fiber and Next Level Networks

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

Phone: (650) 793-0475

Weekly Neighborhood Champion Zoom Group Meetings
Friday 10:30 AM

To assist all of our neighborhood champions in their builds and outreach, we are offering weekly neighborhood champion -Group Zoom Calls - Every Friday at 10:30 AM - Can't make the Friday meeting, please email or call and schedule another check-in!

Topic: LAHCF Neighborhood Champion Group Zoom
Time: Friday Mornings at 10:30 AM 10:30 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85206039889?pwd=RzlkNlBNTHAvQzhRdU1IVDNIcGxpZz09

Meeting ID: 852 0603 9889
Passcode: 391871
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