Fort Collins, Colorado’s popular Connexion municipal broadband network has unveiled SmartHome, a new network management app that can help the ISPs customers better manage the security and bandwidth-consumption of their home networks.
SmartHome lets users see every connected device, set parental controls, prioritize bandwidth for work or entertainment, and guard against online threats through integrated security services like ExperienceIQ and ProtectIQ. The expanded new functionality is being bundled with the ISPs Enhanced 2-Gig and Premier 10-Gig plans.
Connexion currently offers locals three tiers of fiber service: a symmetrical 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) option for $70 a month; a symmetrical 2 Gbps option for $100 a month; and a symmetrical 10 Gbps offering for $200 per month.
Fort Collins, Colorado has repeatedly won awards for being a trailblazer in the municipal fiber space, and local subscribers continue to take notice. The city-owned and operated Connexion network operation just announced it has passed the 20,000 subscriber mark, after nabbing a significant new wave of state and federal funding for expansion early last year.
Fort Collins began thinking about a citywide fiber deployment as early as 2012. By 2015, locals had voted to exempt the city from a counterproductive state law restricting communities from building their own broadband networks.
Construction of the municipal network began in 2018. Subscribers began to connect to the network in 2019, and by 2023 fiber service was available to every last home and business in the city of 169,000. Today, locals enjoy broadband access that’s significantly faster and cheaper than anything on offer from regional private telecom monopolies.
Last year, ILSR’s Christopher Mitchell sat down with Chad Crager, Executive Director of Fort Collins Connexion (Episode 616 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast), to discuss the city's progress in developing a sustainable municipal broadband network.
