Tonight City Council and Holland BPW met and had a presentation from CTC Technology and Energy about a possible business plan to run fiber to the entire BPW service area.

The consultants talked through a presentation based on the study that we’ve been reading over since it became public Friday.

Nothing specific was voted on tonight, but this sets the groundwork for real progress. We will have much more to say in the coming days as our group determines how to best move forward.

In the meantime, some quick facts from the presentation:

Building out fiber to everyone in the current BPW service area would cost $63 million. If that was only the City, it shrinks to just under $30 million. Assuming a 39.6% “take rate” (percentage of homes connected), service could cost $80/month for 1 Gbps. No setup costs or equipment rental.

It would most likely be paid for with bonds, but there are multiple options on the table.

These are conservative estimates, and we hope they could get that monthly price down. The more people sign up, the easier that is.

Again, this is all preliminary. We’ll have much more, and ways for you to get involved, coming soon.

Thursday: Look for the Press Release from BPW and hopefully some more press coverage.