Commission hears latest update on city broadband project

Ponca City’s board of commissioners and city staff members continue to lay the groundwork for  the installation of fiber to the home broadband service as a city utility.

Discussions this week focused on setting an activation fee for customers; outlining a rate structure for three levels of broadband speed; the billing process; marketing plans; naming the utility and acquiring a block of public ISP addresses for customers.

Dave Williams, who has been the leader on the project, presented the latest plans to the commission in Monday’s work session. No action is taken on items during a work session, but issues are discussed and placed on the agenda for next Monday’s regular commission meeting.

At present, installation is planned for the first area only, which is bounded by Highland Avenue and Hartford Avenue, 14th Street and Union Street.

Three levels of service are planned in the current business plan: 50 megabits, 100 megabits and 1 gigabit. Every customer will have 100 percent fiber cable. There will be no contracts, introductory offers or hidden fees, Williams said. He added that there are no data caps, and customers will get the bandwidth they pay for every time, all the time.

Pre-signups will be required when the service is rolled out.

Further discussion and action on the new utility is planned for the Oct. 22 Commission meeting.