Local Boulder citizens voice their desire for a municipal fiber network.

Cincinnati Bell Inc. said Thursday it has more than 25,000 subscribers for its Fioptics digital TV and broadband service in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

Ms. Espeseth said a $112 million federal grant helped speed the completion of the highly-touted grid. She said, “It moved a 10-year program to a three-year program.”

So you may ask, “why are they doing it if it’s so darn expensive?” From EPB CEO Harold DePriest comes the best answer I’ve heard from a executive in quite awhile: “Because we can.”

Should the project be accepted, $13 million will be spent in our community—roughly $9 million of it grant money—to build a large-scale fiber-optic network for 88 anchor institutions such as hospitals, libraries, government offices, parks, and businesses.

If the fiber not needed for traffic control were put up for lease to entrepreneurs interested in offering high-speed broadband connections, it could spur a free-for-all.

Fiber optic would be delivered to homes and buildings at no cost, and service providers would offer service such as cable or Internet through the network.