Longmont, Colorado's municipal internet service provider NextLight connects new customers

Longmont’s (CO) award-winning fiber-optic internet service NextLight has now crossed north of Colorado Highway 66, expanding to serve customers beyond the Longmont city limits. NextLight announced that it has begun to connect residents of the Anhawa and Strawberry Circle (CO) neighborhoods. The area contains about 125 homes, which currently receive Longmont utility service but have not had access to NextLight until now. When Longmont residents first voted in 2011 to let Longmont provide municipal internet service, the ballot issue allowed it to be built anywhere in the Longmont Power & Communications electric service area, which included some outlying neighborhoods like Anhawa and Strawberry Circle. However, the bond issue that funded the initial build from 2014-2017 could only be used for construction within Longmont city limits. Colorado widened the potential options for growth in 2023 when it repealed the state’s restrictions on municipal broadband, allowing communities to explore all their choices and permitting municipal networks like NextLight to grow without being limited to a particular service footprint.