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Yellow Springs To Offer Broadband Internet As A Public Utility

Ellis Jacobs on a Zoom call.
Kristin Stratman
/
Screen Capture
Ellis Jacobs speaking at the Yellow Springs Village Council meeting.

The Yellow Springs Village Council voted unanimously in favor of the new public utility last week, in order to give residents easily accessible internet.

Yellow Springs will soon offer municipal broadband internet to its residents as a public utility. The Yellow Springs Village Council voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance at a meeting last week.

Yellow Springs Village Manager Josue Salmeron says much of the cost will be covered by state and federal grants.

“You’ve got CARES money, the infrastructure bill, and the state broadband money that is making funding available for nonprofits, cooperatives, and municipal governments to build out their own networks because the private sector isn’t doing it,” said Salmeron.

At the meeting, Ellis Jacobs, a Senior Attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, said the internet should be accessible to everyone.

“One of the things that we think we could accomplish with this sort of public utility is we could try to build equity into the model as we create it,” said Jacobs.

The village plans to make the service affordable for everyone by offering internet packages at various prices.