Near the Heart of Silicon Valley, a Community Failed by the Big Internet Providers Is Building Its Own Network

Scott Vanderlip can see Google’s headquarters from his house in the town of Los Altos Hills (CA) (pop. 9,000). But still, some of his neighbors struggle to access the online world that the tech company has helped shape. Even the residents who could connect to AT&T or Comcat’s networks, such as Vanderlip, were dissatisfied with the monopoly companies’ poor service quality. So they created Los Altos Hills Community Fiber, a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation that’s bringing a local, high-quality connectivity option to the area. 

Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF) owns and finances the local Fiber-to-the-Home network and recruits interested community members, while its technical partner Next Level Networks manages network operations and construction and provides residents with tools to help organize their neighbors. The arrangement gives LAHCF subscribers more say over how the network operates and what speeds they have access to, a stark difference from the antagonistic relationship that many national Internet service providers (ISPs) have with their customers. “Anyone can do this,” said Next Level Networks COO David Barron in a phone interview. “You just need a few motivated people to organize, and you can be completely free of the telcos and cable operators.”