Given that the map is out of date, much of midtown has AT&T fiber. And that AT&T is installing fiber at a fast rate, how can the city justify this?

Are they going to spend all this money and find out that by they time they are operational, AT&T has beat them to the homes? And they what will they say?

/marc

Why more faster better expensiver internet? The only advantage to high speed is for gaming. Are we seriously catering to D&D nerds?

How's the 50 year undergrounding of utilities plan going? Which area is being done at present? Which area is next to be done?

Haha Bystander -- we won't live to see it. Your comment should be put in a time capsule to be opened in 2123.

I want A&T ABF fiber service to my home office as soon as possible. I need business service with one public IP address.

I have to have 2 services because both are so bad, and nothing else is available. It’s not affordable. I wish this was coming to my neighborhood.

Where have we heard this story before?

"How's the 50 year undergrounding of utilities plan going? Which area is being done at present? Which area is next to be done? "

A related question is how will fiber work in neighborhoods already undergrounded? Has CPAU finally answered this question because they hadn't when this pricey project was pushed through where taxpayers had NO way to reject the project in the city "survey" that immediately requested advanced deposits for a project yet to be approved.

City Fiber has been a big success serving primarily businesses for about 3 decades. That success has piled up $35 million in the Palo Alto Fiber Fund Reserve which is being reinvested now to beef up the fiber network yet again, this time adding selected residental neighborhoods to the offering.
The big deal is competition.
Notice how Comcast has gradually improved their service offerings and speed once AT&T Fiber started to be offered in selected Palo ALto neighborhoods.
The race is on for better fiber services at lower prices in Palo Alto. Couldn't come soon enough.

I live in one of the neighborhoods that has underground utility lines. Unfortunately, neither AT&T nor the City plan to provide fiber service to us because of the underground lines. Very disappointed. I hope at some point -- and sooner rather than later -- "every nook and cranny" of Palo Alto, including these neighborhoods, will be served by fiber. It is so much better in terms of speed and reliability, and not just for nerds.

I had a good laugh in reading this article as this has been an ongoing discussion for two decades and some smart people I know have given up trying to advise the city on fiber being deployed throughout our infrastructure.

I suggest this should be a joint effort with the counties for a mass deployment. And the city is partnering with AT&T for the deployment? Another good laugh although it would be the same with Comcast. Perhaps our elected officials should visit other locations where FiOS has been available for two decades. Or another world renown city such as Chattanooga TN which deployed fiber in their infrastructure years ago.

Maybe they have better elected officials.

Solution searching for problem. What a waste. Fix the streets.

Chattanooga got $112 million subsidy from the federal government and is barely turning a profit. Their profit and economic benefit is almost all coming from their commercial service not residential. Numerous municipalities have lost lots of money on residential fiber that has they need to pay back put of the general fund.

I can't wait to get the city's fiber service. Comcast is terrible and I don't have another reasonably priced option. Go Palo Alto! Let's get this project moving.

I'm an IT expert with decades of experience. One of my drinking buddies many years ago was Vint Cert before there was an Internet. Vint is well knows as one of the fathers of the Internet, and the Arpanet before it. We are still in touch. When I learned of the stall between Palo Alto with their high-priced Internet ring, and other suppliers like Google and AT&T, I met with a city official to discuss possibilities. The notes of that conversation were published, but seriously taken out of context. I won't reveal his name, but you may find it online. I gave up on Palo Alto administration, imagining that they have too many private agendas to do the best for we citizens. Already, I risk having my comments deleted!

My son has AT&T fiber at his location in Palo Alto. It costs a little more than the ancient DSL service, but it is orders of magnitude faster. The big thing most users don't realize is the service can be as fast uploading as well as downloading, so business users at home can get much better performance with AT&T fiber. My son's service has been good but not excellent because squirrels sharpen their teeth on the waterproof cable housing. That's the price we should happily pay for a beautiful city with domestic wildlife.

I was told that Google offered to install fiber throughout the city a few years ago, and the deal was almost signed. At the last minute, Palo Alto insisted that the entire infrastructure must revert to city ownership and management in a few decades. I was not a party to those discussions, so I can't tell you if it is truth or fiction. I do know that I want my Internet access managed and supported by a highly qualified organization that will only improve service and reliability. I don't trust Palo Alto to do that for my lifetime and yours.

I had an unexpected knock on my door this afternoon, and I met two AT&T representatives who signed me up for 2Gb symmetric Internet service over fiber. Unexpected and awesome! I have been waiting for this for a very long time, because I operate a professional remote computer service from my home office. I am now well serviced, and I will make no further comments about how Palo Alto might provide any better service. This is one of those rare times when I think "good enough" wins.

@Homer Jamison, fascinating tale. And given the way the city's been aggressively pushing for city ownership of a competitive business requiring real-time customer service -- something at which they've never excelled --, they must be convinced there's some benefit to staff, consultants etc -- in managing all the outsourcing contracts.

The question is what.

Another Vint Cert buddy had tales to tell about his early involvement with the city's earlier internet connectivity boondoggledecades ago where he used to joke that the whole process from start down to the flawed installation manuals required each customer to have their very own dedicated high-level engineer.

More $tudie$ Needed. Measurements of the orifice of the pocket, and calculations of how many Benjamins it will it take to fill the hole. Every time this subject hits the front page, the orifice is bigger than last time.

"Where have we heard this story before?"

It was called "Palo Alto Cable CoOp".

R.I.P. Palo Alto Cable CoOp.

I would happily pay an extra installation cost to get fiber to my home, but AT&T doesn’t seem willing to deal with parts of Palo Alto with underground utilities.

It seems like this is an area where the City of Palo Alto could get a lot of new fiber customers, as there is a lot of pent up demand (I know of 3 neighbors who have been waiting for fiber for years), and in this part of Palo Alto, the city will have no competition from AT&T for fiber service.

@JohnMcD, it would have been if CPAU Fiber oeople were even aware that some neighborhoods had underground wiring. When I wrote to ask them about it early on, they asked ME which neighborhoods those were!!!

Also, if Palo Alto will be piggybacking on AT&T, awhy would AT&T suddenly become more "willing to willing to deal with parts of Palo Alto with underground utilities' under its outsourcing contract with Palo Alto.

As someone who paid for undergrounding decades ago, I resent having to pay for a service I can't even use -- especially one so poorly thought out as this one.

@Online Name
Re: "As someone who paid for undergrounding decades ago,..."

Don't forget that the formerly undergrounded neighborhoods will be de-undergrounded as the city updates/expands the local electrical supply network. Large green metal electrical boxes will pop up like 2001's monoliths in your front yard, emitting a pleasing buzzing sound.

Sonic.net is advertising 10 Gb/sec fiber for $50/month. The only problem is that they don't service Palo Alto as of now. But I believe they are interested. I have been a Sonic customer for many years and now with fiber. When I got fiber it was through AT&T. They came and did the installation. As of the first of the year Sonic is not affiliated with AT&T and so I'm grand-fathered in. The thing I like about Sonic is their customer service. If you have a problem, you talk to someone now, no pushing buttons to switch you around. I also have VOIP for my land line. Are the city fiber people talking to Sonic.net for Palo Alto's needs?

Actually Sonic does provide access to Palo Alto; we're current subscribers to Sonic which piggybacks on the AT&T lines, the same ones Palo Alto plans to use.

Unfortunately AT&T has been down since around 8:30 AM with no restoration time given and Sonic says to call back tomorrow if AT&T hasn't fixed the problem by then.

We're usually pleased with Sonic's customer service.

(I'm connecting now via my cell connection.)

Online Name Our service is OK in Professorville area. No issues.

I have AT&T and no outages in the last year

AT&T did me a solid today! I now have 2 gigabit Internet service at my apartment in the Ventura neighborhood, and it tests out at about 2.5Gb in both directions. With five static IP addresses, I expect my monthly bill to be around $125.

Why 2Gb you may wonder. It gives me a way to test and tune the higher end performance of the new WiFi 6E access points. Some kinds of progress come slowly to the heart of Silicon Valley, but they're really coming.

Thanks. I told my partner and he says we're probably on different fiber nodes and that someone from our neighborhood who's also experiencing an outage thinks construction on Seale may have cut a cable line. (Sigh)

An AT&T fiber line runs past our house, underground along Middlefield Road. Our internet service went down at about 1:30 AM on Saturday, July 29, and it's still not working as of Sunday morning.

This 2-day outage in Leland Manor is being widely discussed on NextDoor.

No doubt our $30,000,000 will ensure that AT&T's customer service for Palo Alto fiber customers is so much better than what they currently provide, right Palo ALto??

Got ATT fiber a while back. Absolutely wonderful! We’ve never had an outage and the price is good. Do you really want local govt involved in this??? Remember what Reagan said: run the other way if they say they are here for the government to fix something.

Just fyi that much of Leland Manor is STILL down on Monday evening and has been down since Saturday.

None of the folks discussing this on Nextdoor got any type of email or answers from AT&T any warning from AT&T nor have we gotten any estimates on when service will be restored.

Wondering how PA will be staffing up for customer service and AT&T account management.

Leland Manor is STILL without AT&T internet access and without ANY response from AT&T, including when we might see service restored.

People who've signed up for text alerts have heard nothing.

People are wondering if the trenching/construction on Seale a few days ago caused the outage.

Is this the type of customer DISservice we can expect for $30,000,000 or will the city use this as negotiating leverage.

> Re: Online Name: “if Palo Alto will be piggybacking on AT&T, why would AT&T suddenly become more ‘willing to willing to deal with parts of Palo Alto with underground utilities' under its outsourcing contract with Palo Alto.”

I’m not saying AT&T would start caring about my neighborhood— they clearly don’t care about it now! My neighbors and I have been asking for fiber service for years from them and they just don’t seem to care about areas with underground utilities.

My hope is that CPAU Utilities doesn’t just compete directly with AT&T. There will be more demand and higher willingness to pay in neighborhoods like mine that AT&T Fiber doesn’t already serve and thus have no current option for fiber.

@JohnMcD, it would be soecial if AT&T cared about its direct customers and those of its partners/distributors like our Sonic.net all of whom have been struggling for days to get any type of answer from them.

One persistent NextDoor poster reported today " I just reposted this with an update from my call with ATT today; they are now reporting an estimated resolution on AUGUST 6 - five more days! ???? And who knows if they make it. I’m now at Rinconada Library taking advantage of their excellent Wi-Fi and DVD collection."

Today Sonic.net finally got a non-answer from AT&T that it could tell Somic nothing about when service would be restored -- four days into the outage.

One would hope the city and our local media are on top of this if they hope to pitch PA Fiber to The Home as a reliable service for people and businesses.

(Let's hope this post goes through and that cell phone is considered a secure connection.)

Thanks to the perseverance of several neighbors on NextDoor our service has been restored after only 5 -- FIVE -- days.

AT&T's customer service was a bad joke, especially the agent who told us service wouldn't be restored until Sunday.

Be prepared for a rocky, financially risky and costly ride.