Memphis introduces new broadband plan, hopes to expand access to thousands of residents

Mayor Jim Strickland (D-Memphis) unveiled a program that could create affordable broadband internet access for thousands of Memphians currently living without it. The plan would partner the city with a private telecommunications company to install fiber optic cables to at least 6,000 properties—both residential and commercial. The applicant awarded the contract would have to meet a series of guidelines, and if the City of Memphis finds that the company is not in compliance with the requirements, it could remove the "Smart City Fiber Access System" designation—which allows that company to pay lower fees. Within two years, applicants given the Smart City Fiber Access System designation will have to have installed fiber optic cables to at least 20% of residences and businesses in the city and have installed cables to 10% of the low-income properties. By three years time, those numbers have to reach 40% and 30%, respectively. By the fourth year, 60% of properties and low-income residences must be installed. Ultimately, applicant companies will have to install at least 6,000 connection points throughout the city by the end of that four-year period. A political action committee registered in the Washington, D.C. area, named A Better Tomorrow for Tennessee, sent a series of texts to Memphians opposing Strickland's proposal before it was formally introduced. The texts called the broadband plan "costly" and "unneeded," saying the priority for the administration should be crime and jobs.