Broadband Infrastructure Assessment Study Results

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In November 2016, Magellan Advisors completed their Broadband Assessment Study. Thank you to the over 430 property owners and businesses who participated. The study has provided the Town of Palm Beach with valuable information about the broadband needs of the Town, ways to improve service and opportunities for revenue generation to offset undergrounding project costs.

What we learned about Palm Beach residents’ opinions

55% of Town internet consumers don’t think or are not sure if their current internet service is meeting all their needs!

Additional Survey Results

 

What does the study mean?

  • Reliability and speed are the top two needs of Palm Beach internet consumers.
  • Internet speeds in Palm Beach are significantly lower than national averages.
  • The current broadband infrastructure is unable to meet the needs and demand of internet service in Palm Beach.

How can internet services be improved and undergrounding costs reduced?

Upgrading broadband infrastructure as a standalone project would be very costly. However, with the Undergrounding of Utilities Project, Palm Beach has an opportunity to improve broadband service and provide revenues to the Town to offset the cost of undergrounding.

Preliminary revenue projections were discussed and it was decided that a Request for Interest (RFI) be issued by the Town to the Broadband Community in February to determine the level of interest that Broadband Service providers have in coming to the Town to provide a fiber optic service alternative to residents and businesses. This will allow Broadband revenue projections to be fine tuned and then applied against the overall Undergrounding of Utilities project cost projection.

 

Survey Findings

The Undergrounding of Utilities Project has greatly increased competition amongst internet service providers who want to provide broadband to residents. By installing conduit for broadband providers, the Town can reduce project costs, create revenue opportunities and provide the latest technology to residents to improve speed and reliability. Once the RFI results are in, the Underground Utilities Task Force can then decide the best route for providing fiber optic service to residents and consumers.