GREELEY — Greeley’s Broadband Task Force is expected to come out in support of establishing a public-private partnership to develop municipal high-speed internet service, according to an agenda for Greeley’s City Council meeting Tuesday night. 

The taskforce, made up of city business leaders, residents, health-care providers and educators, has been meeting since May 2019 and is set to present its findings and recommendations. An investment in building a completely city-owned network is not among the group’s recommendations. 

The group’s members listed the creation of a public-private partnership to develop the broadband network as its top priority, city documents show. A city-run program was the taskforce’s fourth-ranked option. Only one option — maintaining the status quo — had less support. The group also considered the feasibility of working with existing private providers to improve services (second most popular option) and developing a grant program to provide financial assistance to residents without broadband access (third most popular option).

Allo Communications LLC has expressed interest in partnering with the city. 

The Broadband Task Force has considered a series of different types of public-private partnerships. The city could provide resources and in-kind assistance to a private telecommunications company, which would own 100 percent of the broadband network. Or Greeley could pay for the backbone of the network to be built and the provider could complete the connections to homes and businesses. Alternatively, the provider could invest in the entire network buildout, and the city could buy the infrastructure back over a period of years.

Building out a costly public system is not feasible because, unlike nearby cities such as Longmont, Fort Collins and Loveland, Greeley lacks a municipal electric system.

Those cities have “issued enterprise utility revenue bonds to fund broadband networks which are secured by revenues from both the electric and broadband system,” according to the taskforce’s report. Those bonds “received investment grade ratings which helped reduce the risk profile of the bonds for a better rate.”

Following tomorrow’s presentation, Greeley City Council members will have the option of requesting additional information from the taskforce or give the go-ahead for city staff to begin drafting requests for proposals from potential private partners.