Santa Cruz partners with internet provider to see if a gigabit network is possible

The City of Santa Cruz is partnering with Cruzio Internet – one of the oldest independent Internet providers in the United States – to try to bring the city a municipal gigabit fiber network.

“The City of Santa Cruz is stepping up to propel Santa Cruz into the select gigabit club,”Santa Cruz Economic Development Office Director Bonnie Lipscomb said.

There aren’t a lot of cities in the United States that offer this service. Chattanooga, Tennessee, has one of the more famous networks.

According to leaders, the partnership will create the Santa Cruz Fiber project, studying how feasible it is to build a 21st-century gigabit fiber-optic communications network that covers as many of the nearly 63,000 residents as possible.

“Unbeatable broadband is a part of our quality of life,” Lipscomb said. “Internet is a basic lifeline and businesses consider fast Internet an essential utility.”

The agreement states the project will survey residents to see interest, as well as complete an engineering report and feasibility study to determine whether or not to move forward in creating the network.

“For over twenty-five years, Cruzio’s mission has always been to bring the best Internet available, to everyone in Santa Cruz at prices everyone can afford,” Cruzio co-founder Peggy Dolgenos said. “We’re extremely excited that by working with the City of Santa Cruz, the goal of ubiquitous fiber optic coverage is closer than ever before.”