The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Kaleigh Cox:
Welcome to another episode of the Broadband Bunch. I’m your host today, Kaleigh Cox, and joining me, our Jason Mittler and Rachel Tennant of FPUA Net. FPUA Net is a municipal broadband project in Fort Pierce, Florida, and they’re also the very recent recipients of a Broadband Communities Cornerstone Award for their outstanding accomplishments, so we are very excited to talk about some of those accomplishments today and just about the world of municipal broadband.
Kaleigh Cox:
Jason, Rachel, thank you so much for being here today.
Rachel Tennant:
Thanks for having us.
Jason Mittler:
Yeah, thank you, Kaleigh. Really appreciate the opportunity and honor to talk with you.
Kaleigh Cox:
Why don’t we kick this off by having each of you just kind of introduce yourselves in a sentence or two and what your role is at FPUANet Rachel, do you want to go first?
Rachel Tennant:
Sure. My role is Sustainability Program Manager for FPUA, and with FPUA Net, what that means is reaching out into the community and trying to bring the message of FPUA Net to our different residents and businesses, which includes not only the fiber to the home message but also smart city technology and the ways that we’re trying to bridge the digital divide.
Kaleigh Cox:
Wonderful. And Jason, what about you?
Jason Mittler:
Yeah, so I’ve been at FPUA for about 19 years actually, and so I am currently the FPUA Net Manager, so I’m responsible for the deployment and management of the ISP and integrating all the technologies into our smart grid and smart city services that we’re going to be offering to the city of Fort Pierce through FPUA Net.
Kaleigh Cox:
Well, seeing that you’ve been there for a number of years, and I know FPUA Net is a newer project, could you tell us a little bit about how you guys got into broadband and how this all started?
Jason Mittler:
Sure. So just as many municipalities, in the early 2000s, we were leasing DSL circuits to our substations to bring connectivity for our relays, and as we started looking at it, we decided to build out fiber infrastructure between all of these assets in the field. And when we did that, we obviously, were able to save cost from those DSL circuits, bring better latency, and what we did was as many other municipalities, they built in an overage of the abundance of fiber strands within our cables so that we could utilize them.
Jason Mittler:
I don’t think at that moment in time, were we really clear what we were going to do with it, but a few years later we started to move into monetizing them, and so we started providing services to those anchor institutions, the public school systems, city, county, sheriff, police, these municipalities that are within the city of Fort Pierce that need strong, reliable connectivity. From that, we moved into some of the larger businesses and kind of sat out that way for a little while.
Kaleigh Cox:
And then you went from focusing on some of those local organizations that needed broadband to the businesses, and now you’re getting into residential internet. What did that process look like? How did you decide where to build? Did you have existing providers just tell us a little bit more about the residential side of the project?
Jason Mittler:
Sure. It kind of goes back to the early 2000s, when we actually did some evaluations. In 2003 and 2014, we looked at expansion, we just didn’t jump on it, and so it wasn’t until 2018 that our current CEO and Director of Utilities, Javier Cisneros presented to our board the smart city initiative, kind of modeled after the city of Chattanooga. And with that vision, we started talking and started making plans to move into the small business and residential market. Currently, in the city of Fort Pierce, you have about 5% of fiber offering to the parcel, and so as we wanted to deploy smart grid solutions and smart city services, it only made sense. And so that’s kind of how the Lincoln Park Project was born, and so we could talk more about that. If you’d like.
Kaleigh Cox:
Yeah, I do want to get to that. Before we do, can you tell us a little bit about what kind of providers were already in the area? What kind of speeds we’re available at least?
Jason Mittler:
Sure. So, we have a cable company and a telephone company. When we first made our decision, really the actual cable company itself was the only one offering speeds up to a gig of download, but the upload speeds and latency, were not where fiber would be, and so we wanted to move into a fiber offering to every home and business.
Kaleigh Cox:
And did you get kind of feedback from the community on that? Did you do any sort of survey? Or what did that process look like?
Jason Mittler:
Actually, we didn’t. Again, because we were moving forward with smart grid and we wanted to be putting public wifi and some other smart city services, we’re deploying fiber, and so we decided let’s look at bringing fiber to the home and the areas that we’re bringing smart city services to.
Kaleigh Cox:
I love that, and I do want to kind of focus a bit more on that concept of a smart city. Rachel, can you tell us a little bit about what you mean by smart city and what that’s looking like for Fort Pierce?
Rachel Tennant:
Sure. That’s something that’s still under development, but there are a few items that are already either in existence or part of the plan, and then, of course, there are more to come. Some of the more basic things we’re looking at, and for example, something that FPUA has already begun, is advanced … It’s the AMI, the Advanced Metering Infrastructure. That’s, for example, something that’s kind of smart city-ish, and we’re also looking at things like we are partnering with the St. Lucie County Tourism Development Council to put their webcams, their live cams that are featuring some of the local environmental things like our shores and our islands and our jetty, and putting those on fiber so that they are more reliable so that when folks, wherever they are, are going to these links, they can actually get good coverage of what it is they’re trying to see.
Rachel Tennant:
Some of the other things include free public wifi at parks or certain neighborhoods and certain areas. We have sort of a bus stop, that’s another place that we’re looking at. And then some of the things for the future that could be our things like working with the police department for traffic cameras. We’re working with the city of Fort Pierce staff to bring in kiosks, which will be placed throughout the downtown area and serve not only as a way to give folks in the downtown area maps and information about downtown and what different things there are to see in our city, but also provide a bit of a revenue stream for the fiber model too, because there’ll be things like ads on there, and we’re hoping we’ll be able to get some local ads in there as well. So that’s just kind of a sampling of some of the things.
Kaleigh Cox:
I love seeing that you guys have a mix of applications that have a lot of utility for existing services in your community, as well as some of the really just fun projects that are centered more around being a tourist destination. Can you tell us a little bit more about how being a tourist destination has kind of impacted your approach to this project?
Rachel Tennant:
Oh, sure. So I’m not sure how much I would say it’s impacted our approach for bringing fiber to the home, to our area. I think that’s something that is a priority for us and bridging the digital divide. All of that is a priority for us, regardless of the tourist destination status. I think what it’s done really is serve as a way to kind of augment what we’re trying to do because now our audience is not only our community and the residents that live here who will benefit from fiber infrastructure, but it’s also these extra individuals, people who are coming here just to visit our area and can maybe have a more pleasant or inviting experience.
Rachel Tennant:
Not only when they’re here, with the kiosks and free public wifi, that’s fiber speeds, but also when they’re not here. If they go home and they just want to show someone, “Hey, look at the jetty. Look at Jaycee Park. These places are beautiful. You’re never going to believe it.” And they can go on to see these live stream videos, and they’ll actually be able to see them with reliable wifi. I think more than anything, it’s helped us to build those partners with the Tourism Development Council, for example, and with the city for tourism purposes, but more as an augmentation.
Kaleigh Cox:
And I’ve heard a lot of people right now just in the industry talking about business leisure or b-leisure travel, and you’re one of those great destinations where people could come and work for an extended period of time and enjoy the beach and have the fiber they need to work, so it’s really exciting to see you guys develop that.
Kaleigh Cox:
I am curious, Jason, if you have had any pushback on this project. I personally am all for building fiber to the home, no matter who is willing to build it, but I have often heard pushback on muni networks and should they get into treating broadband as a utility. I’m curious, have you heard any of that pushback?
Jason Mittler:
At the moment, we have not. And I think that the primary reason is, is that we’ve kind of been that hidden gym inside of Fort Pierce where a lot of the incumbents didn’t really know about us because we’ve only offered dedicated internet to the anchor institutions and large businesses. As we move into small businesses and residential, we’ll see. I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not, but we feel like because we’re not just building to the home for just broadband, we’re building smart city services and smart grid solutions at the same time, it just made sense.
Rachel Tennant:
I think too I could add to that, Jason. I remember the first time we went to the … There’s a sort of resort building here in the downtown area and we were meeting with them to see about bringing fiber to their building and all the different units there, and one of the first questions that they asked us was why is FPUA in the business of bringing internet? And I don’t think that was so much pushback as it was curiosity, and I think that’s where our messaging has really become most important. This idea of well, we’re in the business of bringing internet now because it’s the infrastructure that we’ve already installed for our purposes and for these anchor institutions like Jason was mentioning. But also now we’re going to launch from that, and while we’re here, bring smart city technology, which includes this fiber to the different residences.
Rachel Tennant:
I think from my perspective, just in the last few months here, that was the main thing that I’ve seen, is a curiosity more than anything.
Kaleigh Cox:
And I think that there’s a lot to be said for the way you guys have approached it, right? Where you focused on the anchor institutions, you focused on serving. I mean, this is what, your fifth utility, Rachel? How many others? What other services does the city provide?
Rachel Tennant:
Yes, so FPUA, which is an enterprise fund of the city, provides electric, gas, water, and wastewater, and now we’re building fiber.
Kaleigh Cox:
Yeah, so you’ve kind of established this reputation as providing a variety of services, this started off as just improving those services, and then it was kind of like it’s so easy for us to take the next step and just provide a service to the residents, and I love that people have been open to that. And you’re not as driven by the need for profit as maybe a private company would be, and so you’ve been able to turn your attention to some more low-income areas. So I do want to come back to that Lincoln Park Project. Jason, could you tell us a little bit more about that?
Jason Mittler:
Sure. So, Lincoln Park is a beautiful area of Fort Pierce that have a beautiful heritage and a lot of historic value to the city of Fort Pierce. It kind of resides between Avenue … It’s a larger area, but the area that we’ve been focused on is between 7th Street, 25th Street, Avenue D, and Orange Avenue, and the opportunity came from our partners, Allegany Franciscan Ministries, the city of Fort Pierce, Sampson County, to help redevelop the business corridors along Orange Avenue and Avenue D.
Jason Mittler:
And so we began conversations about how best could we offer services. During that project, obviously, COVID happened, right? And in that, it went from just business development to bringing fiber to every parcel and offering free public wifi in the parks and areas where people would congregate. During some of our market research, we found that it was the lowest broadband adoption rate in St. Lucie County, and so that just kind of hammered the nail in the coffin to say, “You know what? FPUA needs to build this in this area because no one else is.”
Kaleigh Cox:
And you mentioned it had low adoption rates, we talk a lot in our industry about access, but adoption is such a critical part of that as well, especially going into a low-income area. What do you guys plan to do to help drive the actual adoption of the services?
Jason Mittler:
Sure, so with the affordability connectivity program, and the news just came out with President Biden actually signing a deal with, I think, 20 providers today to offer rates at or below the $30 stipend. So that’s been our plan since the beginning since it came out to offer a $30 rate, 100 Mbps symmetrical service to residents inside the Lincoln Park area so that if they are low income or they meet all of … Any of the qualifications in the subsidy, that they would essentially get free internet during the affordability connectivity program availability.
Rachel Tennant:
I think too we’re looking at building relationships as well. I mean, we’re spending a lot of time in the community that we’re planning to serve, that we’re aiming to serve, and I think that’s a big part of it too, especially now for looking at 20 companies coming and offering essentially the same thing with essentially free internet, just like we were planning to do. These relationships are going to be, I think, very important for us.
Kaleigh Cox:
And I’m curious, Rachel, has the word gotten out yet about this project? Have you gotten any kind of gauge on the community’s reaction to it?
Rachel Tennant:
We’ve done some, we haven’t done a lot. There’s a lot between the utility company that the … A lot of other development projects that the utility company is also pursuing at the same time, so there’s a lot of buzzes generally about FPUA and when we’re ready, I think it will launch pretty seamlessly as far as communications about it. What we’re trying to do right now is just kind of tie up some of the loose ends and get all of our messaging together and get all of these different pieces sorted out so that when we launch we are consistent and clear with our message throughout the community.
Kaleigh Cox:
And I think that pacing is in line with what I’m hearing about your project as a whole just that you’re not rushing any of this. You have taken your time in a good way in getting into fiber and doing things in the right order and at the right time, and I imagine that just goes a long way towards building trust in the community, which is so incredibly important for any organization, but especially a municipal project like this. And so I just think that’s really cool to see, and I’m excited to see where this goes.
Kaleigh Cox:
Well, I’m glad we’ve been able to get a good look at FPUA Net and what’s to come. So, Jason, I’m going to come back to you and pose our famous two questions here at the close. First, Back to the Future, if you could hop in the DeLorean and travel back to the start of this project, or even the start of your tenure at FPUA, what would you maybe whisper in your ear and tell yourself to make this project even better?
Jason Mittler:
Yeah. As I mentioned, in 2003, when we first got our network study, and then again in 2014, when fiber to a PON service was an option, I would probably tell myself or management to take the jump. Let’s move on this because if you can go back and look backward, the elevation and the urgency of broadband have just catapulted. And I think if we would’ve jumped at the time that we started those initial reports, our city would be fed by fiber already.
Kaleigh Cox:
Yeah, that’s a great point. Better now than never, right? And better now than later. So yeah, great insight there. On the flip side of that coin, the crystal ball question, if you could look into a crystal ball and see where FPUA Net is going to be in five, 10, or even 15 years from now, what do you envision for Fort Pierce?
Jason Mittler:
Well, as FPUA Net is a smart city internet service provider, we see a smart city that has deployed a smart grid throughout it, that’s got free public wifi in the parks and areas that people can access to help bridge the digital vibe and bring digital equity, as well as bringing fiber to every home and business within our territory.
Kaleigh Cox:
All right. Well, that is all I have for you today. I want to thank both of you for your time in sharing your experience. I know that we have listeners in the municipal broadband space, and hopefully, they can walk away with some ideas on ways to improve their own projects. So just thank you for being a source of inspiration for us and I hope you enjoyed your time here on the Broadband Bunch.
Jason Mittler:
Thank you so much.
Rachel Tennant:
Thank you.
Kaleigh Cox:
Until next time. Have a great day.
