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<br />October 30, 2019, Work Session – Item 1 <br />EUGENE CITY COUNCIL <br />AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY <br /> <br /> Work Session: Downtown Fiber Project Update Meeting Date: October 30, 2019 Agenda Item Number: 1 Department: Planning and Development Staff Contact: Anne Fifield <br />www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: 541-682-5451 <br /> <br />ISSUE STATEMENT This work session is an update on the downtown fiber project, a publicly-owned fiber network now known as EUGNet. The fiber network has been constructed and has positively impacted the number of jobs in the downtown core. <br />BACKGROUND Expanding Eugene’s telecommunications capacity has long been identified as critical to growing our technology sector and tech-enabled businesses. The 2013 City of Eugene Broadband Strategic <br />Plan identified the development of a downtown fiber network as a strategic goal. Beginning in FY2014, the City of Eugene used the Telecom Fund for a pilot project to connect three buildings in the downtown to the Willamette Internet eXchange (WIX) using fiber optics installed in EWEB’s existing underground electrical infrastructure. The pilot project demonstrated that using underground electrical conduit was a feasible method to bring fiber to individual buildings. In 2016, the City Council, in its role as the Urban Renewal Agency Board, approved an ordinance amending the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan, which identified funds to support the construction of a high-speed fiber network in the downtown. The Telecom Fund supported construction costs outside the Urban Renewal Districts. In addition, the City and its partners were awarded a grant from the federal Economic Development Agency to support the project. The City has worked in close partnership with the Eugene Water & Electric Board, Lane Council of Governments, and the Technology Association of Oregon to implement this innovative project. EWEB completed the installation of the fiber network throughout the designated footprint of the project boundary in October 2019. At this time, 82 buildings have connected to the EUGNet fiber network. The EUGNet system established a competitive landscape for telecommunications in the downtown. It is an ‘open access’ network, which means that the publicly-owned fiber infrastructure can be leased by any internet service provider. There are now multiple ISPs competing to be downtown businesses’ service provider. Telecommunications customers in the downtown have seen their internet speeds grow by a factor of ten and prices have declined by a factor of two.