Superior, Wisconsin officials say they’re getting very close to lighting up the first subscribers of a city-owned fiber network that will finally bring affordable, next-generation fiber access to the city’s long under-served community of 26,000.
“We have phase 1 in the ground and are working with Nokia right now for final configuration and testing,” Stephanie Becken, broadband manager for ConnectSuperior, tells ISLR.
“It's our plan to have our sign-up website ready in the next two weeks, as our two ISPs finalize their connections and offerings pages,” she says. “I'm hopeful we'll have drops and initial service started by mid-May, but we may be looking at June—there's always something!”
In 2020 the city passed a resolution declaring fiber essential infrastructure. In 2021, the city council voted overwhelmingly to move forward on a deployment master plan developed for the city by EntryPoint Networks.
In 2023 the Superior city council voted 8-1 to approve deployment in the project’s first pilot area: a swath of around 830 homes and businesses lodged between Tower Avenue, Belknap Street, and North 21st streets. But the phase 1 target area has expanded a little since as the city has moved forward on logistics and planning.
“In addition to our first 830 passings, we have Hanco boring and prepping another 200 passings in Superior's North End, as we work on constructing a major part of our first ring,” Becken says. “The City is also contracted with Mi-Tech for low level design of the entire city, as we plan out our next build phases.”
The city maintains that its ultimate goal is to connect every last city resident. Phase 1 of the network deployment is expected to cost $6.25 million, buoyed heavily by grants made possible by the 2021 federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
“Phase 1 is coming in at $6.25 million—and that includes consulting, engineering, build, inside plant, staff—etc.,” Backen told ILSR. “That $6.25 million covers a lot. The actual build costs came in 40% less than projected.”
The full cost of deployment is projected to cost somewhere between $40 and $60 million, with costs ultimately offset by what they hope is a 40 percent or higher take rate. The city has also applied for some of Wisconsin’s $1 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grants made possible by 2021’s Infrastructure bill.
“I don't think we can anticipate future builds to come in so far under the projected cost, but I'm hopeful the projected $40-$60 million is high,” Becken said.
Born Out Of Frustration And Market Failure
Superior’s new network is being fueled by decades’ worth of frustration at the regional broadband duopoly, composed largely of cable giant Charter Spectrum and regional telco Lumen (formerly CenturyLink).
Like so many regions of the U.S., limited competition has resulted in high prices, spotty coverage, and poor customer service.
A 2019 city survey found that 73 percent of locals stated they would support a municipal network, with another 23 percent of respondents saying they would possibly support the network. Like other cities pursuing municipal networks, interest in the model spiked during the COVID-induced remote work and online schooling boom.
“Private providers haven’t kept up with modern needs. We are left with outdated infrastructure, rising costs and poor service quality,” City Councilor Tylor Elm told Wisconsin Public Radio last fall. “Businesses are paying too much for unreliable connections, and too many of our neighbors still lack access to fiber.”
Superior’s broadband network is open access, meaning that multiple providers can compete over the shared city-owned infrastructure. Studies have repeatedly shown that such an approach dramatically reduces the costs of market entry for competitors, resulting in higher quality, lower cost broadband for the public.
“Residents in our city have been paying too much for mediocre access to the Internet,” Superior Mayor Jim Paine laments at the project’s website.
“The unfortunate reality is that the current dominant internet access model in our country is one where network operators build closed systems that are designed to maximize profit and limit access. Alternatively, the Superior Fiber Utility seeks to maximize value and lower costs through competition.”
Ultimately, the city believes that the new network will reduce the amount locals pay for broadband access by as much as thirty percent. Officials remain hopeful they can provide gigabit service for $46 to $55 per month to residents, and somewhere around $75 a month to area businesses.
Superior officials were greatly inspired by the success of EPB Fiber in Chattanooga, and the estimated $2.69 billion return on investment the Tennessee city saw in the ten years since the $220 million project’s completion. They were similarly inspired by the success of the open access network in Ammon, Idaho, where locals are able to switch between several ISPs in moments by simply selecting their chosen provider via a city web portal.
Becken shared more insight on the city’s quest to deliver affordable access to city residents in Episode 612 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast.
Header image of downtown Superior courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Inline map of Phase 1 construction area courtesy of Connect Superior website
