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Danbury residents respond favorably to idea of low cost, high speed internet service

A six question survey sent out to Danbury residents Wednesday to gauge interest in $15 a month fiber-optic internet service resulted in a 12-percent response rate, higher participation than some recent votes held in the City.  Mayor Mark Boughton proposed the idea during his State of the City address in December as a way to bridge the digital divide and help close the achievement gap. 

 

76-percent of Danbury residents who answered the survey from were on board with the idea.  8-percent of respondents said they wouldn't be interested and 15-percent had no opinion on the subject.  Danbury Director of Project Excellence Stephen Nocera says sometimes if people feel they don't have enough information about something they'll respond in the negative, but there was no option to give a reason for a particular answer.

 

Residents would have to pay $15 a month for five years, $5 a month for the next five years and after that the rate should be zero.  Boughton says that would be possible through new enrollees sustaining the the cost of infrastructure maintenance.

 

The plan would have to be presented to a company, like Frontier Communications, which would build and maintain the fiber optic network. 

 

Nocera says the next steps include figuring out how to create the critical mass of residents that providers would need.  The City also has to come up with options for people to engage or disengage from the project.  He says they want to give flexibility and not mandate something that people don't want or need.

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