The City of Grand Junction Broadband Survey Results SUBMITTED BY NEO FIBER

Transcription

1 The City of Grand Junction Broadband Survey Results SUBMITTED BY NEO FIBER MARCH, 2016

2 The City of Grand Junction Broadband Survey Results NEO Fiber put together two surveys to receive input from the community in regards to broadband needs for The City of Grand Junction. The first survey was designed for residential users and distributed via the City website. The second was designed for businesses and anchor institutions and distributed via the DDA and City websites. 313 survey responses were received for the survey targeting the residential users. 83 responses were received for the business and anchor institution survey. The survey provided instructions to respondents to take an actual Internet speed test. The lowest speeds recorded between both business and residential surveys was.32 Mbps download and.06 Mbps upload. The highest speeds recorded were 144 Mbps download and 90 Mbps upload. The average speeds recorded for business users were Mbps download and 7.47 Mbps upload. The average speeds recorded for residential users were Mbps download and 4.61 Mbps upload. In January of 2015, the FCC voted to change the definition of broadband by raising the minimum download speeds from 4 Mbps to 25 Mbps and upload speed minimum were increased from 1 Mbps upload to 3 Mbps. 44% of the speed tests conducted by DDA respondents, 50% of the city business respondents and 35% of the residential results were under this new threshold in download speeds. For the residential survey, all of the results recorded for CenturyLink customers fell below the 25 Mbps download threshold. CenturyLink s average download speed was 7.85 Mbps and upload speeds averaged 1 Mbps. Charter s average download speed was 36.9 Mbps and upload speeds averaged 5.07 Mbps. For the business and DDA surveys, CenturyLink s average download speeds were Mbps and average upload speeds were Mbps. Charter s average download speeds were Mbps and 4.28 Mbps in average upload speeds. These real world speed tests confirm the need for major broadband improvements in Grand Junction, with 35 50% of the results not meeting the FCC s broadband threshold. Much of the feedback from the surveys and from the Community Engagement meetings discussed that adequate network infrastructure is available; however, in order to access abundant broadband, customers are charged a very high rate. For example, a business can subscribe to Gigabit Internet Services but would be required to either pay for the construction costs to build fiber to the business or pay $4,500 per month or both. This is not affordable to most businesses in Grand Junction.

3 Although the survey is a randomized sample, the results of the survey strongly suggest the following: Reliability is the most important factor for the community. This is followed by price and then speed % of all respondents in the DDA study area said that their Internet speeds were too slow at least some of the time % of respondents in the DDA study area reported total loss of service at least some of the time. The community wants to see faster, more abundant broadband services Telecommuting. 46% of the residential respondents have either one or two people working primarily from home, providing insight into the broadband needs of homes and businesses within the community. Price is Important. When asked how willing or unwilling they would be to switch to a service of 1 Gigabits per second downstream or upstream with a range of monthly prices. For residential users, more than three quarters (79.54%) of respondents would be very willing to switch service for a rate of $50.00/month. At $65.00/month however, 37.24% of respondents would be very willing to switch. For business customers, the results were, 51% of the businesses would be very willing to switch to 1 Gigabit service at $200/month and 29% at $300.00/month. The range of what is currently being spent for Internet services varies for business users; 39.53% are paying between $50 100, followed by 34.88% in the $ range. Role of government. When asked about the primary role of The City in broadband, over half (51.3%) of all respondents said that The City should install a state of the art network and offer services to the public. While nearly 20% believe that The City should install a state of the art network and enter into agreements with private companies to offer services to the public.

4 Residential Survey Results Age of users. The largest age group of all respondents was years of age, with 38% falling into this bracket. The next largest group was that with ages between at 28.7% Current Pricing. 43.3% of respondents are paying between $56 $100 per month. 18.9% are paying over $100 per month for Internet service.

5 Bundling of Services. 62.2% of respondents said that their pricing only includes Internet service. While roughly 25% said that it included either telephone of TV services. Single Invoice. When asked how important it is to receive one invoice for Internet, cable TV and/or phone service, more than two thirds of respondents said it is not important. Reliability. When asked about reliability of their Internet connection, more than one quarter, or One in four respondents were not satisfied with available speeds most of the time. And less than 7% stated that the internet connection is very reliable and the connection never drops. Perception of Speed. When asked to rate the speed of the Internet, many of the respondents stated that the Internet speed was good or acceptable. Some stated it was slow or very slow. Less than 5% of the respondents stated the speed was excellent. The primary take away from the

6 results of this question is that more education could be done within The City in regards to what is acceptable speed and perhaps what the rest of the world is experiencing in terms of speed. Speed Test Results. The survey provided instructions to respondents to take an actual speed test. 276 of the 313 respondents took the speed test and recorded the results. The average speeds recorded were Mbps download and 4.61 Mbps upload. The lowest speeds recorded were.32 Mbps download and.06 Mbps upload. The highest speeds recorded were 144 Mbps download and Mbps upload. 35% of the speed tests recorded were below the FCC s 25 Mbps broadband threshold. Over 75% of all respondents that recorded speeds greater than 25 Mbps in download speeds subscribe to Charter. Interest in improved broadband. When asked if respondents would be interested in accessing a faster, more reliable broadband network, 95.81% said Yes. Interest in Gigabit Broadband. When asked how willing or unwilling they would be to switch to a service of 1 Gigabits per second downstream or upstream for the following monthly prices, more than three quarters (79.54%) of respondents would be very willing to switch service for a

7 rate of $50.00/month. At $65.00/month however, only 37.24% of respondents would be very willing to switch. Based upon this limited survey, pricing for residential customers needs to be targeted in the $50 $75 per month range. What Matters. Respondents were asked to rank what was the most important to them in terms of their Internet service with 1 being the most important. Respondents ranked reliability as the most important attribute, followed by price and then speed.

8 Work from Home. Nearly 40% of the survey respondents have one person who works at home and roughly 8% of the respondents have two people who work at home. School Aged Children. 64.4% of the people taking the survey do not have school aged children living at their home.

9 According to the 2010 Census data, 21.2% of households in The City of Grand Junction have children under the age of 18 living in the home with 14.7% of households have school aged children between the ages of 5 and 18. Devices. The survey asked which devices were used to connect to the Internet and asked to check all the devices that apply.

10 Over half, 56.1% of the respondents stated they used a Smart TV and 59.6% use Streaming TV. 95% use a smart phone. Service Providers. Respondents overwhelmingly use Charter (80%) followed by CenturyLink (15.34%).

11 Network Technology. Most of the residents have Cable (74.04%) or DSL (16.03%) for their Internet service at home. Role of government. When asked about the primary role of The City in broadband, over half (51.3%) of all respondents said that The City should install a state of the art network and offer services to the public. While nearly 20% believe that The City should install a state of the art network and enter into agreements with private companies to offer services to the public.

12 Open Ended Feedback. Below are responses to the open ended question, If you have any other comments regarding your current Internet service or a community broadband service, please tell us below. The Grand Junction tech community is growing rapidly and the internet of Grand Junction needs to be able to keep up with the demands. I also have a Denon Receiver for music that connects to Wi-Fi, that was not included in the list above, I use Verizon too in the home Please, please, please, make our broadband speed, availability, reliability, and everything else better! I truly believe our lack of good broadband contributes to the lackluster growth in our area. Just keep Comcast out of it. They monopolize everything, raise rates, and their customer service is horrible current services as well as broadband should be put out to bid, not making it a "done deal" with a current provider. Charter has proven to be unwilling to improve as well as being arrogant toward it's paying customers. Their complacency and council's willingness to accept this is a call for changes on both sides.

13 I pay for Business service at my home since the Res service was so bad. I am now paying $100 for slower than Residential speeds, but my speeds are consistent and I have very little down time. With res service, I went back and forth with CS for 8 months with 0 results! If companies cannot provide the service paid for, and refuse to provide decent customer service, then they do not deserve to have people's business! Internet access should be a utility like water, sewer, roads, etc. Since this all involves installing fiber optic cable I don't see that coming to my house in the next 20 years However I think it would attract tech companies and it is the wave of the future. So I am for it. More than one choice for cable services would be grand!! If Salisbury, N.C. and Chattanooga, TN can do it, there's no reason Grand Junction shouldn't. GJ won't attract new industries without it. In our location (81507), there is only one internet provider available (Charter) so we are hostage to that company's pricing and service. I don't know what the answer is to question 18. I would like to have reliable, reasonably priced internet available at my home and right now that is not possible with only one provider. Since Charter terminated my connection on December 11, 2014, I have been extremely angry that the G.J. City Council and the Mesa County Commissioners cannot demand even basic services from Charter in return for Charter's license to operate. If Century and Charter are unable/unwilling to solve their problems, then government must fill the void. The economic viability and competitiveness of Western Colorado is at stake. Considering how few affordable options there are due to the communication company monopolies, another choice would be appreciated. Charter always has outages and never does anything about even after going to their office person. They will send out a tech and they everything is working and 30 minutes later you lose service again

14 While I understand the bundling I personally only want internet at this time. Unfortunately, that runs about month and there is no bundle that would reduce this cost, with cable tv added to my internet it would be month which is more than I can afford. I'm having enough problems paying the 60 a month for just internet. It would help if I could get internet for about 40 month and I'm sure a lot of other people would agree if like me all they want is the internet. All I have read are BAD reviews about ISPs in this area. Comcast was a compromise of terrible customer service for decent speeds. I think it's reasonable as a first world country to be able to provide internet services much like those in Japan and other countries of the world that carry a much faster speed with a much cheaper and more realistic cost. With the digital demands and the necessity of the internet in today's society I feel it is a responsibility of either local government or private companies to continue innovating internet related technologies. Many cable providers in areas without competition continue to raise prices without putting that money towards advancement infrastructure or delivery methods. I'd love to see gigabit internet in Grand Junction Their speeds are unreliable and, besides their own speed test, doesn't correlate to promised speeds. Make sure improvements in high speed (1Gbps) networks cover not just Grand Junction, but also the Grand Valley (Redlands, Clifton, Orchard Mesa, Palisade) To attract more technology based businesses and people we must offer fast Internet and not be limited to 2 main providers to just upgrade when it is cost effective to just them at the time. signal breaks up frequently when watching on demand programs. NFL channel often breaks up as well. Be a 1 GB City, like Chattanooga TN This should be City Council's top priority. Stop wasting time on dumb, fruitless projects (Foreign trade zones). This is economic development.

15 If we had more dependable and faster service, we would expand our home network to include other devices and applications to modernize our home. It makes no sense to do so with our current provider, Charter. They are only interested in $$$$, not customer or a reliable, consistent service. We support a public network that is state-of-theart and is answerable to the voters and not to the almighty $$$$ as are private providers. Thanks for listening. The faster we change broadband service in Grand Junction, the better. Do not have anything to do with Charter. Look into building a city/utility owned network similar to what s being developed in Longmont. Send Charter packing ASAP. Develop system for all of MESA County if possible. I think the City should stay out of the broadband business and let the experts handle it. I would also be in favor of the city recruiting a private company to provide reliable, fast internet. I don't understand why Charter and CenturyLink have a monopoly here and other companies haven't come in to compete with them. If we had other choices, we would definitely choose someone else to buy our Internet from. At this point it's a real barrier to attracting quality employers and commerce to the city. City must have final say in quality, speed, reliability with private companies and be able to charge them penalties if they don't maintain these items. With as many people, businesses and Gov offices that use internet, it would be nice to have an affordable package. When I tested my speed I thought it would be different...i had just several minutes of unresponsive internet. It happens frequently throughout the day when I m the only one using the internet More than anything we need affordable options whether it's through the city or just through other private providers. Charter is the only cable provider so if we want to bundle or phone/internet and/out cable, we only have one choice and they know it so our price is very high.

16 Would have liked to be able to choose a couple of responses to # 18 including working with private providers - it may take a combined effort. more options of reliable services would be great... with discounts for seniors. for question 18, I would check both option one and option 5 but you can only select one. Speeds and reliability are lower at the key times I use them; the test today was not indicative of typical speeds at our house. Incumbent internet service providers are not investing in infrastructure and upgrades here. Our students are at a distinct disadvantage because of the unreliable and frustrating internet services we have in the Grand Valley. CMU internet for students is particularly bad - TERRIBLE for an institution of higher education. Present service is way too expensive!! Please include residents of Grand Junction including people living in the county Cost is becoming prohibitive for seniors on fixed income, need a Sr. rate for TV and Internet. I'm tired of slow connections. I don't like it when I'm playing a video game online, and the connection drops significantly because someone else is also playing a game, or watching Netflix. Thank you for doing this. I hope you can bring Charter's ridiculous price down. Charter is terribly unreliable. Their speeds are fine when they're working, but their service is only dependable in that it can be depended upon to go down at inconvenient times.

17 When you look at the most successful economies around the US, you find that, invariably, they have gigabit+ internet access for businesses and homes at sub-$200/mo. prices. Most, like Denver, Omaha, Boulder, etc., are around $80/month. We talk a big game about how we want to improve our economy, how we want businesses to move here, how we want to create a better way of life for our city. It's time to put our money where our mouth is and make it happen and fast. Montrose is making this happen. They're already doing it with a city budget that is a fraction of our own. It's pretty embarrassing, actually, that we are the only MSA in Western Colorado without highly-available gigabit internet and we're getting creamed by our smaller neighbors. Currently, to get 100Mbps service downtown I can pay $1,200/mo. That's out of the range of my business and most any small business, and even a lot of the bigger businesses around won't pay that. It's hard to imagine that any business would be compelled to move here with that kind of unnecessary overhead. Especially when they can move to a city with faster speeds at lower prices. And that's just speed. I've lived in four cities in the past 7 years, and Grand Junction has, by far, the least reliable internet service I've ever experienced. Not a day goes by without an interruption at home and or at my office. More and more people use VOIP for telephones, streaming services for TV, and even connect their heating and cooling to the internet. Medical devices now communicate with doctors directly from the home. It's more important than ever that internet access be reliable 99.9% of the time. Chattanooga made it work with a municipal internet. That's not necessarily the right approach for Junction, but some kind of public-private partnership is certainly a good idea. We don't have the luxury of time. GJ is falling behind the rest of Colorado and it's falling behind fast. It's time to go. The same or similar access speed is present at my office on First and North Avenue. I also have an office in Montrose that has 60M/4M. We have pathetic infrastructure in GJ and the FCC and suppliers should be held accountable. As more entertainment is delivered via broadband, it's critical GJ stays ahead of the curve. We pay for a business account at home so I can have static IP addresses for a VPN. We would like to host a site as well but the availability is too spotty to do so. I don't want tax dollars to pay for this - it needs to be paid for by those who use it - not everyone will benefit and so not everyone should pay for it.

18 My address is county but am surrounded by city locations. I would want services to be available to me as well. Otherwise my answer above would change. I have been in contact with Century Link for the past 3 years and they keep promising higher speeds. I also contacted Dish and they don't have anything in my area. My kids come from Fort Collins and can't even conduct their business (their jobs) when visiting because of such slow internet. It is totally unacceptable. We really need help. The local providers are not willing to cooperate. I will be glad to participate in additional surveys if I can get fast and better internet. I have had some form of cable TV since the late 60's or early 70's and Charter is by far the worst company I have ever seen. they treat this 4 state region as second class citizens. Competition generates competitive prices. Charter's initial plan starts at one price, then after a certain amount of time, increases the price with no added benefits. If Charter can provide the service at the initial price, why can it not continue at that price? With no competition, Grand Junction customers are a captive audience. Been living in GJ for more than 16 years and am tired of the turnover in the company's providing TV and internet. I am also hesitant in allowing the government to manage public communications access. We are so behind the times for business development and education with these slow speeds. The Internet should be a reliable, high speed public utility. It's the 21st century, not I am sick to death of CenturyLink, Charter and other providers that only want to offer 1980's style technology and high prices. Screw Xcel and Grand Valley Power. This is what I want -

19 Charter is the main internet provider in our area and is the worst, the connection is shitty and heaven forbid you want it to be reliable. I have heard every excuse under the sun, the weather is too hot for the equipment, too cold for it, the previous 8 techs I had out did their job wrong, it s too windy, too cloudy and my favorite, I am too demanding of the equipment, since you know I want what I am paying for and what they advertise. These people are liars and cheats and this valley deserves a company that cares more about people than money. Internet is no longer optional if you want to go somewhere with your life. Whatcha the last season of parks and rec and you will get it. Charter is one of the big reasons I am leaving this valley. No matter what path you take there needs to be an affordable under $30/month plan. Paying $60/month or more for residential service is crazy. We live on 24 & k roads. Only service available is "line of sight tower". Very slow. Cannot stream anything or play online video games etc. very annoying! DISH Network slows service way down after using 10 gigs! Have to go to Starbucks to use their Internet! Ridiculous! Please help!!! Tax dollars and telephone user fees are used to provide significant broadband, mainly along the front range. The map of broadband access in CO proves this. Internet access on the western slope is 20 years behind the rest of the country. Where I live, the ONLY provider available is satellite internet, and it is barely above a fraudulent service and is very expensive. My wife teaches at CMU and my daughter takes online classes, so reliable, fast internet is a necessity, yet we cannot get it. Engineers with local telephone carriers have told me they can install the needed equipment for just DSL, but they refuse to do so because it will take too long to recover their investment. I have offered to donate land for a cell company to put up a tower, but they refuse to do so. The State of Colorado refuses to do anything to regulate unscrupulous providers, or much of anything else on the western slope, yet they will gladly spend my taxes and federal charges on my phone bills to provide high speed internet to housing developments on the front range. If my taxes are going to be used, then the city should install a variety of internet access equipment, including wireless, and charge a fee to continue expansion throughout the county. The county commissioners need to stop being lazy and join in this effort.

20 Charter straight up sucks. Inconsistent service, poor customer service, overall low value for the high price tag. At the minimum, we need more internet companies to choose from. We so behind the times. It is impacting our economy. Upload speed is very important to me Thank you City of Grand Junction for looking into this. I work from home a lot and depend on an intent connection to do so. Living in the time that we do now, I find that it is very important to be connected to the internet. It is a means to communicate that could be considered more important than the telephone. When looking for employment businesses usually ask for an address, and I know that if you need to get in touch with some companies they do not even have a phone number to call, you must chat with them over the internet. To install I state of the art network service for the city of Grand Junction will do wonders not just for businesses and schools, but for the public itself. Please I urge you to consider fast, reliable, and reasonably price internet. Thank you. Please bring Google Fiber to the Grand Valley! How about some free wireless Internet areas, like Glenwood Springs provides in their parks? I am glad to see the City addressing this. In the modern world, good broadband separates forward looking communities from those that are mired in the past. I think all of downtown should have/offer wireless for free, as well as our hotels/airports/retail locations. People expect this from everywhere. The first few years after I moved here, I didn't pay for Internet and so depended on other locations. I was also getting a master s degree online at the time. It was difficult to find comfortable and inviting spaces with strong and free Internet connections, which seemed like a basic service in lots of other places.

21 Internet should be free I think we are a big enough city to have better service. However, the city should tell people what service they should have. Still want choices very sporadic internet speeds. have had to use a wireless hotspot from my cell phone to use internet before. I dislike paying $60 to charter for Internet when a new customer can get service for a year for $40. I would gladly pay $40. I will likely switch as soon as another reliable option is available. Help!!!! As we hurl into the future, internet is just as fundamental as sewer or trash! We're being held hostage by companies that don't give a hoot because there is no incentive to care! Provide other options other than Charter to the residents Given that internet access has become so important for many reasons, including working, personal use, activism, and all types of information, I believe that municipalities should provide high-speed broadband at low cost to residences, commercial, and governmental locations. improve internet access in Glade Park I would love be to see this happen, the current businesses offering broadband are very unreliable. It would be nice to have more choices. We need some better options! Charter is yes the fastest, however they always have problems, customer service is just plain rude, the price is expensive for the service, the connection is constantly being interrupted and modems are having to be reset. We need another provider that offers very fast and reliable Internet that does Not have a usage limit. There needs to be competition. The TV cable packages that Charter offers have priced our family out of cable TV. We use a digital antenna and receive very little TV.

22 Please do something. I feel lack of reliable internet is keeping economic development from coming to Grand Junction. This isn't just about not having my Netflix stream properly; this is about economic prosperity. Charter is horrible and has a monopoly in this town on high speed, even if you break it down by Fast Track and other providers, Charter stands alone because they offer the fastest speeds in town and their service SUCKS! We need more options otherwise, Grand Junction will not grow technologically. With a University here, you would think there would be more options with high-speed internet. Especially with 2 computer science courses offered by them. Just horrible service, WE NEED BETTER! City officials need to focus on the city. They need to focus more on revitalizing downtown. I would love to see municipal broadband treated as a utility, and I would absolutely pay a premium for a fast, reliable, local service. As it stands, I pay charter $60 / month and the service is OK. I haven't had very many issues, but the issues I have are annoying when I pay the same as other do for much faster, much more reliable service, I.e. Google Fiber. Charter has taken away way too many stations while increasing the costs. Not very generous, in fact, pretty shitty of them! We need more options and faster service. When I called Charter to gripe about the cost of their internet, they lowered my monthly fee from $60 to $40 for one year. I have no TV sat/cable and use VoIP for home phone. You should make your speed test link open in a different tab so it doesn't wipe out the entries for the first 6 items.

23 It would be really nice to have steady reliable Internet with consistent speeds it makes it really hard when you have school age children that need to access the internet for school projects and a college student in the house that does online college and we constantly lose our internet and the speed constantly is extremely slow and ridiculous it's also important that if our school district and city and county rely on our internet service they it is up consistently we have seen so many times that in the schools the system's crashing and it affects everything for the school from the phone to the teachers even teaching it causes it to go to a complete halt almost and it is out of control and ridiculous Charter has proven to be absolutely unreliable with their service and they have been unable to fix anybody Service to be consistent. Goes from businesses to personal use when are Valley and all the companies rely on charter for credit cards and for their cash registers and affects our economy with nobody can make purchases unless they have cash I really hope the City of Grand Junction steps in and forces some good change something definitely needs to be done Undecided on Question #18 I need a quality upload speed and would love to see the area get a fiber connection I live on River Rd/Riverside Pkwy and my only option for Internet is century link or satellite. I would like more to choose from. Our current internet offerings are insufficient. We should be able to get a moderate speed (25Mbps) for a moderate price. Single providers do a terrible job regardless of government or government selected monopolies. Competing sources and performance based management are the only hopes for efficient low cost service.

24 Charter's internet service is fine for the majority of households. It's fast enough and reliable for the average citizen to stream, do work, etc. However, dealing with Charter is absolutely horrible. And they could care less because, surprise(!), they're the only show in town to offer high speed public access. In this instance, competition is a good thing. Open it up to other companies that can offer equal or better services but are actually competent to resolve problems when needed. For months they actually had a breach of privacy with my account. They even had me submit an Identity Theft Report (which I never heard back from). My account was crossed with another with the same name as me. When I logged into my account, I could see his services, address, etc. He was essentially "piggy backing" off of my account. Who knows what information he could see of mine when he logged in? Months of phone calls/ s did not resolve this. I finally had to close the account, effectively shutting off my services and the other guys service completely, and open a new account under my wife's name. Thank you Charter. On the other hand, if GJ City offered high speed internet service, it could create local jobs etc. However, how effective would GJ City be at providing customer service for the product? If they have no competition, would they care if problems are resolved? I guess that's maybe what needs to be discussed. If GJ City can do a better job than a private company and have an equal or lower cost, then go for it. If not, allow more than one private company to offer these services. I do not want to pay for phone or cable as part of a bundle- I almost never use them. I would love to pay just for internet, without a company dictating what kind of services I have to pay for. Because our world is so internet-based, I believe that access to affordable, high speed, reliable internet should be a public right. Internet is the only part of a bundle that I want. Cable and phone are outdated and unnecessary. Internet only please :) The focus should be on economic development and private ownership of networks. While no one in our family works from home, I have three children who home school. Computer - speed and reliability - are critical to daily lessons. Charter sucks. We voted and we need the City Council to stop being pushed around by charter and CenturyLink. This infrastructure is more important than a money sucking event center.

25 If Charter continues to improve their service, let them continue. In this area of the Redlands, we've had fiber optic cable, I think, from ATT days. The current provider is overpriced and under delivers service. Charter is overpriced for when you only have just internet service. I "cut the cable" for other Charter services and am doing quite well by saving $ a year. I have "VoIP" for phone, over the air t.v. and Netflix. works very good for me Would like to see something with better cable TV service also. Three thoughts: It needs to be available to everyone in the City, including your farthest annexation. The public, business, schools, government, and medical community should all be included. Concerned that without some over site the private sector might screw it up and leave the mess for the city to sort out. Kind of like cable at the moment. Customer service and Speed are both equally important to me but had to pick an order. Reliable and affordable broadband is the Highline Canal of this century, as important as the railroad and Interstate in their time. Without broadband, we will remain trapped in the boom and bust cycle of unreliable energy development. Current service is way too expensive, but is the only high speed option. More options will breed more competitive pricing. Currently have bundled service Internet, phone, tv with Charter It is billed on one invoice. I get a discount because I have a bundle with telephone line. If I disconnect the phone, the internet and TV service will rise. The cost of Internet is currently in the bundled price. It is too expensive. If other countries can have cheaper and faster internet, why shouldn't the U.S. I'm curious about how this has worked in other communities... Also let s have everyone chip in some in taxes to add this benefit to the whole community and then monthly fees for those that choose to use it. Disappointed. No fiber optics in my section of the city.

26 Single source franchises result in poor service and poor customer support and higher prices. Open competitive Markets keep companies sharp and up to date while consumers also benefit with better service and pricing. Get the prices down for internet & TV Streaming and web seminars are all impossible here where we cannot get more than 1.3 mbs. Adds flowing in on the internet choke the system to a stop. Putting in the fiber optic system for everybody should be a very high priority for the City of Grand Junction. Charter is unreliable but the only option. We need better service in order to help the business community. Need for speed will only increase. 1. If the City wants support to build a fast network for itself, it needs to allow the general public access to that network. 2. Grand Junction is not as large as the largest cities in the country. Private providers are going to service them first because they have larger populations and have higher densities (more people in smaller geographical areas), which makes those cities more profitable. If we (city residents) don't install a fast network ourselves, we're going to be waiting a long for private providers to do so. 3. Local governments are a little behind the curve on providing internet service to its citizens - fast, reliable internet is just as important and necessary as clean water, reliable electricity, and other public utilities. We need more than one cable provider to provide competition. The private sector needs to provide the services. No exclusive contracts. The City needs to be involved in developing the state of the art network and letting the private sector build and deliver the service with more choice in cable providers. Question 10 doesn't work right... I'd be willing to pay up to 100 for much faster internet. We usually have good internet service where I live in the Ridges subdivision. I hear other locations in the valley have more problems than we have. 5 & 11 Confusing.

27 need better services on the mesa also this should all be done through private enterprise. The city should help clear the path for the private party. Business and Anchor Institution Survey Results Type of business % were engaged in offering professional services, while technology businesses trailed in a distant second at 14.71%.

28 Business size % of all employees working at firms with 2 5 employees, work primarily from home. While roughly 44% of all sole proprietors that responded work primarily from home. Working from home. Of all firms that have employees working from home, the largest group (34.15%) do so 5 days per week or more. While 29.27% do not work from home at all.

29 Service Providers % of the respondents have Charter, while 22.73% have CenturyLink. This is not necessarily representative of market share within The City of Grand Junction, but rather is a small sample based upon the respondents answers. Current Pricing. The range of what is currently being spent for Internet services varies for business users; 39.53% are paying between $50 100, followed by 34.88% in the $ range.

30 Bundled services % of respondents said that their pricing only includes Internet service. While 38.64% said that it also included telephone. Single Invoice. When asked how important it is to receive one invoice for Internet, cable TV and/or phone service, more than two thirds of respondents said it is not important.

31 Reliability. 72% of respondents replied that their Internet service loses connection some of the time and 19% said that their service was always too slow. Perception of Speed. When asked to rate the speed of the Internet, 46.51% said that their service is slow or very slow. While only about 21% of the business respondents considered their service to be good to excellent. Speed Test Results. The survey provided instructions to respondents to take an actual speed test. 40 of the 48 respondents took the speed test and recorded the results. The average speeds recorded were 40.9 Mbps download and 5.99 Mbps upload. The lowest speeds recorded were.32 Mbps download and.06 Mbps upload. The highest speeds recorded were 66.3 Mbps download and 90 Mbps upload. 50% of the speed tests recorded were below the FCC s 25 Mbps broadband threshold. 42.5% of all respondents that recorded speeds greater than 25 Mbps subscribed to Charter. Interest in improved broadband. When asked if respondents would be interested in accessing a faster, more reliable broadband network, 93.94% said Yes.

32 Interest in Gigabit Broadband. When asked if the business would subscribe to Gigabit service at various price points, 51% said they would be very willing to do so at $200/month. And 29% at $300.00/month. At price points beyond $500/month, less than half of all respondents said they would be willing to subscribe. As in the residential survey, having access to affordable pricing for business customers is important.

33 Impact of Faster Internet Speed. Businesses were asked if faster Internet speed was available, how the business would be impacted % asserted that they would be more efficient and 41.67% said that they could provide more products and services to their customers. What Matters. Respondents were asked to rank what was the most important to them in terms of their Internet service with 1 being the most important. Business respondents ranked reliability as the most important attribute, followed by price and then speed.

34 Role of government. When asked about the primary role of The City in broadband, 42.55% of all respondents said that The City should install a state of the art network and offer services to the public. While 17% think that The City should either, install a state of the art network and work with private companies to offer services to the public, or work with a private firm to build a network. Network Technology. Currently, 39% of the business respondents use a cable modem, followed by 33% using DSL. And only 12% of respondents access the Internet through fiber technology.

35 Open Ended Feedback. Below are responses to the open ended question, If you have any other comments regarding your current Internet service or a community broadband service, please tell us below. Telecom industry cannot be trusted Just completed the survey. There is a programming error on #15. It does not allow me to fill out all the fields. It will leave either the first or second field blank regardless of how many times I try to enter the info for both. Also, #2 & #3 questions should have a 0, none, N/A option so these questions can be answered by people who are OCD and want to fill out every question (Me:). Charter has very poor customer service Any type of reasonable speed is massively overpriced in the valley right now and there is little to no competition in that arena. It hurts our business to buy the internet that we need to operate.

36 I would like reliable, fast service at an affordable price. Run by my city in a not for profit effort! I am already paying an outrageously high price for slow, unreliable service, so 'd be willing to pay the GJ government for faster, reliable service. If we're going to suffer under a de-facto monopoly, then I'd rather have it be under the control of the government where we potentially have more influence. Additionally, if providing better broadband isn't a profitable endeavor for private industry, then the "people" (i.e. local government) will need to step up for the good of the community and local industries. As a people, we need to make the investment to attract more industries to the valley, which may in turn make it more profitable for commercial broadband providers to engage in the future. City of GJ needs to build this network to compete with other communities who are trying to attract the same businesses to their community. Not everyone in the valley has access to Charter/Spectrum for internet service. We do, and it is pretty decent. However, other providers in the valley seem to have little to no regard or concern for their customers. Century Link prevaricates for residential clients who are understandably unhappy with 1 mb or less of service and then promises 20 mb of private optical to some business customers. The main issue with our experience with internet connectivity in our area is consistency. Also, up and down speeds are equally important. We have found acceptable download speeds, but we have not been able to find any upload speeds that are acceptable at a price point we are able to afford. Our fiber broadband has been very solid. But I find it obscene to pay nearly $1,000/month for 10mbs. Even 100mbs would be ridiculous. I should absolutely be getting 1,000mbs for $1,000/month or less. Thank you for your efforts in dragging GJ out of the stone age. Gig fiber all the way to homes. Also, need better downtown free Wi-Fi and cellular. We don't have access to broadband at our office location, so are stuck using a T-1 line through CenturyLink. Charter isn't willing to connect us in, so we don't have any other alternatives. Any help the City could provide would be greatly appreciated

37 I have tried for 3 years to get faster service to my office. In addition, I live nearby and have identical issues at home as I do at my office. The cable provider will not install service to this area. they say it is too expensive and routinely quote $40, to install just to scare people away. Then when the issue is pushed to their more senior level management, they do not return phone calls. At this point, I would not do business with the cable provider due to their lack of interest in doing business my business or others in the area. DSL is maxed out for our area. Businesses in the area are frustrated. Also, I cannot sublet office space due to the lack or internet services. Charter is absolutely the worst provider of any service we have encountered. If you can get rid of them, it would be a great service to the community. We value upload speed as much as download speed Within the next couple of years Internet service with 1 Gigabits Internet upload AND download speeds will be critical for both business and home. Charter is horrible, but the only viable option at the moment. Internet must not be held hostage by private companies. It needs to be a utility for all to use. The current provider, Charter, is unreliable most of the time, have failed to update any of their equipment, and are inefficient.

38 DDA Survey Results Type of business % were engaged in the retail sector, while professional services trailed in second at 21.88%. Business size % of all employees work at firms with 2 5 employees, work primarily from home. While approximately 61.54% of all sole proprietors that responded work primarily from home.

39 Working from home. Of all firms that have employees working from home, 17.86% do so at least one day of the week. While 10.71% work from home at five days of the week. Service Providers % of the respondents have service with Charter, while 26.47% have CenturyLink. This is not necessarily representative of market share within The City of Grand Junction, but rather is a small sample based upon the respondents answers. Current Pricing. The range of what is currently being spent for Internet services varies for business users; 30% are paying between $ , followed by 33.33% in the $ range.

40 Bundled services % of respondents said that their pricing included telephone service as well as Internet service. While 35.29% said that it only included internet. Single Invoice. When asked how important it is to receive one invoice for Internet, cable TV and/or phone service, more than two thirds (67.65%) of respondents said it is not important, while 29.4% said that it is somewhat important.

41 Reliability % of all respondents said that their Internet speeds were too slow at least some of the time % of respondents in the DDA study area reported total loss of service at least some of the time. Perception of Speed. When asked to rate the speed of the Internet, 39% said that their service is slow or very slow. While only about 21% of the business respondents considered their service to be good to excellent. Speed Test Results. The survey provided instructions to respondents to take an actual speed test. 25 of the 35 respondents took the speed test and recorded the results. The average speeds recorded were Mbps download and 8.95 Mbps upload.

42 The lowest speeds recorded were 5.27 Mbps download and.69 Mbps upload. The highest speeds recorded were 90 Mbps download and 6.57 Mbps upload. 44% of the respondent s test results were below the FCC s 25 Mbps broadband threshold. Interest in improved broadband. When asked if respondents would be interested in accessing a faster, more reliable broadband network, 93.94% said Yes. Interest in Gigabit Broadband. When asked if the business would subscribe to Gigabit service at various price points, 36% said they would be very willing to do so at $200/month, and 16.67% at $300/month.

43 Impact of Faster Internet Speed. Businesses were asked if faster Internet speed was available, how the business would be impacted % asserted that they would be more efficient and 41.67% said that they could provide more products and services to their customers. What Matters. Respondents were asked to rank what was the most important to them in terms of their Internet service with 1 being the most important. Business respondents ranked reliability as the most important attribute, followed by price and then speed. Role of government. When asked about the primary role of The City in broadband, 43.75% of all respondents said that The City should install a state of the art network and offer services to the public. While 18.75% believe that The City should install a state of the art network and work with private companies to offer services to the public.

44 Open Ended Feedback. Below are responses to the open ended question, If you have any other comments regarding your current Internet service or a community broadband service, please tell us below. Who determines that $200 is a good minimum number when other countries that don't have nearly the economy that the US does, can do it magnitudes cheaper? These are the new "highways" of our generation and need to be available to everyone, cheaply. We all need inexpensive access that is equivalent to us driving our cars. A tax that allows us to get this, and pay for additional bandwidth or service levels brings this technology to all. We need to study Chattanooga to see how they are able to build and sustain it themselves without being held hostage to the regional monopolies of the Cable and Copper providers. Secure access and virus protection are important. Critical dependencies include timely system updates, a configuration management plan and life-cycle equipment replacement. afraid if I drop internet, phone bill will increase Reliability is paramount, it doesn't matter how fast internet is if the speeds can't be guaranteed at least 99% of the time for business-class service and 85% of the time for home. I can't count how many times a day my service is interrupted for reasons I'll never understand. Shared services like cable are a joke, and often suffer from reliability issues and consistently slower-than-advertised speeds. Fiber to the premises for both residential and commercial is the most important thing Grand Junction needs right now and it needs to start with downtown businesses. It is an absolute embarrassment that we haven't already had gigabit fiber for the last two or three years. It simply can't be overstated.