If you happen to be reading this story online in Morgan Hill, you might be waiting for the rest of it to load.
If so, you probably will not be surprised that Morgan Hill’s internet received a “D” grade from the East Bay and Central Coast Broadband Consortia. The City of Morgan Hill recognized the problem, and is working to create a private/public partnership with local internet providers to pull the city into the modern age.
The city earned a “D” because only Charter Spectrum met the California Public Utilities Commission’s benchmark of minimum standards of 6 megabits per second Mbps download and 1.5 Mbps upload speeds. While this may prove an annoyance for residents, it is a downright impediment to businesses who often require much faster upload speeds.
“Putting lines in the ground or on poles is very costly, and while we recognize that internet access is important, it still is a private sector business,” Lang said. “These businesses need to evaluate cost and profitability before they install lines. It costs about $1 million every mile to run lines, so they need to know that they will have the customers to make a return on the investment, and if they’re not going to make a profit, they won’t do it.”
In a bit of irony, a seemingly outdated technology—landline telephones—are still some of the best ways to deliver better internet access. Traditionally, Morgan Hill has depended on existing telephone lines to provide internet access. Newer developments in town, such as Paradise Valley and other hillside neighborhoods, started out underserved since telephone lines were not run to those areas when they were built.
“Lots of things have changed,” Lang said. “For years, it was a given that neighborhoods required the infrastructure—copper is an essential element. As new neighborhoods sprung up, they weren’t set up with the telephone wires.”
To address its internet problem, the city will explore a public/private partnership between Morgan Hill and internet providers. Additionally, later this year city staff will present a “Dig Once” policy to the city council.
The city looks to a few examples of private/public efforts to improve internet speed: those of San Leandro and Westminster, Maryland. In Westminster, the city partnered with Ting Internet, a company that boasts “crazy fast internet” with gigabit fiber that can provide up to 1,000 Mbps speeds. In their partnership, the City of Westminster financed the installation of fiber while Ting operates the service.
In San Leandro, the city partnered with a nonprofit organization to use city-owned conduits to provide broadband internet to their business districts. Like San Leandro, Palo Alto and Silicon Valley Power have incorporated broadband services through the power utilities. In all cases, the internet capabilities in all three cities improved.
The City of Morgan Hill introduced the possible “Dig Once” policy in August 2016 as part of the city’s 2016 General Plan Telecommunications Plan. Dig Once means that when the ground is broken for infrastructure, transportation or construction projects, the conduit for future use will be laid as well.
“When we do work on our roads or on the sewer system, that would be an opportunity to put some conduit in the ground that can be later used to support our telecom development,” Lang said of the city’s Dig Once policy.
“In the long run, it would save the city and the private sector a lot of money, and it helps to preserve our roadways since we wouldn’t have to cut into the roads again,” Lang said. “It helps to achieve our long-term goals.”
Like water, sewage service, and electricity, having access to the internet is quickly becoming a basic human necessity. While Morgan Hill residents may bemoan slow service at home, poor internet access may cross Morgan Hill off the list for businesses.
“If you’re running a hair salon or a manufacturing business, you probably won’t be too concerned about internet, but it does matter if you’re running a high-tech business,” Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce member Ken Murray said. “We’ve had several businesses reject Morgan Hill because of that, and that is a reason why this needs to be a strategic priority for the city.”
Laying more fiber networks would help, but the future belongs to wireless, and given the high cost of running fiber lines, wireless technology would be much cheaper. For a business owner like Murray, providing fast internet is an essential piece to bring in high paying jobs to Morgan Hill.
“Running fiber lines can cost millions of dollars, but you can put up a wireless tower from $20,000 to $25,000 and get a one-gigabyte network,” Murray said.
Besides heavy-hitter telecom companies Frontier and Charter, other players in the Morgan Hill market are Etheric Networks, Wave Broadband, South Valley Internet and Bullet Wireless. Charter provides access through fiber and coaxial cable, and they provide internet and television. They also provide internet for business with their glass or copper products.
