Daunted by the high costs of building its own municipal fiber network, Flagstaff Arizona instead struck a public private partnership (PPP) in late 2024. A year and a half later and that partnership is starting to drive significant new fiber deployments and some significant new investment to the city of 77,000.

Or that’s at least the conclusion of a new whitepaper by the Fiber Broadband Association, a policy coalition of municipal broadband networks and key fiber industry giants such as Adtran, GFiber, Corning, Calix, and Graybar.

The analysis, "Broadband Community Profile: A Public-Private Partnership for Fiber – Flagstaff, Arizona," explores how the PPP the city struck Arizona-based Wecom Fiber is expected to inject at least $100 million into local economy over five years while saving the city an estimated $18 million in capital expenses.

Frustrated by market failure and a lack of meaningful broadband competition among regional telecom monopolies, Flagstaff considered building its own municipal fiber network in 2023. But city officials found that even just connecting 34 city-owned buildings (estimated to be around $20 million) would be untenable given budgetary constraints.

With a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) boom sweeping across the nation as communities look to build or expand access to ubiquitous, reliable, high-speed Internet infrastructure, Fiber Connect 2022 is poised to bring together leading network operators well versed in a multitude of technologies, local government and public sector leaders, network builders, and an assortment leading industry experts later this month.

Coming on the heels of last year’s gathering – the largest Fiber Connect conference to date – this year’s event will return to Nashville from June 12 – 15. It promises a more expansive agenda with more exhibitors, special events, receptions, and networking opportunities, as well as a bigger showcase, which includes a new feature this year that presents six innovative Proof of Concept (PoC) Demonstrations that will be on display in the Fiber Connect 2022 Expo Hall. 

This year’s conference will also feature a daily class on the FBA OpTIC™ Course, which is designed to “Train the Trainer” as the FBA ramps up its effort to cultivate future fiber technicians. 

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“The event will feature executives from a broad scope of industry sectors — traditional audiences as well as new audiences — commercial network operators, mobile network operators, electric cooperatives, municipalities, digital infrastructure asset owners and developers, investors, technology suppliers, enterprises and more,” says Gary Bolton, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, the host for the annual conference.