My hat goes off to my clients at the Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B) consortium on the announcement of its innovative public-private partnership. I think the fantastic UC2B team has accomplished something singular—a unique partnership that illustrates the benefits that can arise when local government works with the private sector to find Internet solutions.

I am proud to have worked with the fantastic UC2B team for the past nine months to negotiate this win-win agreement. UC2B has shown how a community can use its existing infrastructure to reduce the cost of entry for a network operator—and by doing so, can attract gigabit service for its residents while also protecting its core value.

As a result of this partnership—which Telecompetitor has called “a particularly good deal for the community”—UC2B has secured an open access fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network buildout that will protect its public policy interest by providing the same opportunity for access to the entire community. In return, UC2B’s partner—the ISP and network operator iTV3—gets value through access to UC2B’s existing middle-mile infrastructure (which it will operate) and the foundation of a significant last-mile consumer network.

We’ve been involved with the UC2B project since 2009. We are particularly proud to have been part of negotiating such an innovative public private partnership—which, as FCC Chairman Wheeler said, “provides a valuable model for communities and companies throughout the country and a demonstration of the creativity that is stimulated when localities are free to work with the private sector to improve broadband offerings.”

UC2B Website: http://uc2b.net/about/

FAQs: http://uc2b.net/faq/

Telecompetitor: http://www.telecompetitor.com/urbana-champaign-gigabit-network-will-open-access/

FCC statement: http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-chairman-tom-wheeler-stmt-uc2b-and-itv-3-gigabit-announcement