City of Superior Announces Broadband Expansion Plan

SUPERIOR, Wis.– The need for strong high-speed internet has been growing over the years, especially in communities like Superior. And with more people going virtual during the pandemic, the need is even more important for those in the community.

Superior city leaders unveiled their plan tonight for a big expansion and change to the city broadband network.

Superior Mayor Jim Paine and councilor Tylor Elm unveiled their plans for Connect Superior, a $31 million effort to expand broadband access around the city.

“We need to improve that infrastructure so folks can get the speeds that they need,” said Elm.

The plan would create a public private partnership between the city and its internet providers. The city of Superior would install the broadband network to create the infrastructure to give fast and reliable internet to all parts of the city.

“We’re going to own the wires, the actual fiber, the actual broadband that connects to people’s homes,” said Paine.” But what we’re going to do is we’re going to allow private companies to offer access to the internet over that infrastructure.”

Planning for the broadband expansion started in 2018. But Councilor Elm says the pandemic pushed school and work virtual widened the digital divide even further.

“It was an important issue back then and it’s an even more important issue now,” said Elm.

The increase in virtual activity caused outages or slower speeds around Superior. But Elm says the broadband expansion won’t just bring down prices but it will reduce cost for internet as well.

“Folks are getting about 100 by 10 megabits as a basic package from one of the main companies and this would be 1,000 by 1,000 megabits so it’d be synchronist,” he said. “It’s a faster upload speed and it’s about up to 30 percent less cost.”

The effort will be paid for by those using the service. But the city is eligible for grants from the latest round of federal COVID relief that can help bring down the project’s price tag.

“This is not a new tax, this is not going to be forced on anyone,” said Elm. “Imagine going through this pandemic without the internet but a lot of people did go through the pandemic without the internet and even more went through the pandemic with bad internet or just good enough.”

Now according to Mayor Paine, work on the plan is expected to begin sometime later this year. As that work continues, the mayor and Councilor Elm said this is just the start of meetings for the project. With more virtual and in-person meeting set to take place as the project continues.