FY16 Gustavus Broadband Capital Project

[Nathan Borson]

Dear Gustavus City Council:

Attached is the updated Project Scoping Form for the Gustavus Broadband Project. For those who have been following this project over the years, these are the main updates since last year at this time:

• The funding source has changed from federal EDA and state CIP to FCC's Connect America Fund (CAF Phase 2), which pays installments, thus requiring that construction be financed with a loan. CAF 2 is a new program still being developed. We can be ready to construct sooner if we get a CIP grant to proceed with design and compliance work next summer.
• The project now depends on faster, cheaper upstream Internet access (middle mile). We hope to know more about that shortly.
• The project now includes voice service to qualify for the FCC funding. The city would have to become a phone company ("Eligible Telecommunications Carrier") like Ketchikan is. This increases both revenues and expenses and requires more outside expertise. The plan will need to be revised, and an expert partner will need to be identified.

I will be at the work session Monday to answer questions about this project.

Sincerely,

Nate

Nathan Borson, Co-Owner

Corvid Computing, Project Manager

Gustavus Broadband Project

City of Gustavus, Gustavus Community Network

(907) 697-2810