FTTH DEPLOYMENT
2 4
|
B R O A D B A N D C O M M U N I T I E S
|
w w w. b r o a d b a n d c o m m u n i t i e s . c o m
|
M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 9
Cruzio Launches FTTH
In Santa Cruz
Though its planned partnership with the city didn't materialize, Cruzio now has an
ambitious plan to deliver high-speed broadband throughout much of Santa Cruz County.
By Masha Zager / Broadband Communities
I
n August 2018, the competitive provider
Cruzio Internet lit the first residential fiber
customer in its home city of Santa Cruz. e
launch of fiber services, with gigabit speeds for
$49.95 per month, marked the end of a long road
for Cruzio – and the beginning of a new story.
A family-run ISP, Cruzio has provided
internet services since 1989 (pre–World Wide
Web) to Santa Cruz, a city of 65,000 on the
coast of central California. It also serves parts
of the Bay Area. Most of its business consists
of reselling DSL and providing fixed wireless
service, though it connects some enterprise
customers with dedicated fiber lines.
Several years ago, Cruzio approached the
Santa Cruz city government and proposed a
public-private partnership – the Santa Cruz
Fiber Project – that would wire nearly the entire
city with fiber. e city responded with interest,
and in June 2015, the parties announced a
partnership. Both agreed on the broad outline:
e city would finance the network through
revenue bonds and own it; Cruzio would
engineer, build and operate it. e particulars,
however, were elusive. After spending a long
time trying to hammer out details, Cruzio and
the city concluded that they could not arrive at a
mutually beneficial agreement.
Along the way, Cruzio collaborated with
the city and wireless equipment vendor Siklu to
connect Siklu millimeter-wave radios to existing
Cruzio fiber and deliver wireless connectivity to
Cruzio deploys fiber in downtown Santa Cruz.