PLACENTIA, CA – The City of Placentia has received the prestigious Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in the City-Business Relations category from the League of California Cities. The coveted award, which recognizes outstanding achievements by California cities to improve the quality of life and services provided to local communities, honors the City’s partnership with SiFi Networks for the Placentia FiberCity® Fiber Optic Broadband Access for All project.
“On behalf of the City Council, I am so proud to receive this prestigious award highlighting our partnership with SiFi Networks for Placentia FiberCity®, fiber internet access for all. This project will not only close the digital divide in Placentia, but it goes beyond that to ensure high-speed internet is available to all at faster speeds than currently being provided by existing internet service providers at the same or lower cost,” said Placentia Mayor Rhonda Shader. “We are grateful to SiFi Networks as this award would not be possible without their partnership and investment in our community.”
The City of Placentia entered into a unique public-private partnership with SiFi Networks in 2019 to deliver fiber optic broadband internet access to every home and business within the City. The Placentia FiberCity® Project is a privately funded $35 million investment into Placentia, which will not only eliminate the “digital divide” in Placentia by delivering high-speed broadband access to every home and business, but also create extensive economic development opportunities for both the public and private sectors within the community.
“We would like to congratulate the City of Placentia on winning this award. Being recognized as an outstanding city in the State is an incredible achievement and we are really proud that it is for the work surrounding the FiberCity® project.” commented Geoff Spickler, VP Community Relations, SiFi Networks.
“We thank the City for their partnership and we look forward to delivering this world class network to the community” added Geoff.
The citywide, full fiber infrastructure is currently under construction. The first area of the network is due to go live before the end of this year, with a staged activation thereafter.
“High-speed fiber networks are critical infrastructure for economic development to thrive in any city, and this public-private partnership will improve the City’s ability to retain and recruit new businesses. Additionally, Placentia will benefit from developing and sustaining Smart City applications to improve City services, including delivering fiber optic lines to every City facility and property. These are just a few of the infinite possibilities with this partnership,” said Placentia City Administrator Damien R. Arrula.
“The Placentia FiberCity® project will provide connectivity for the City to adopt new technologies that are not currently possible because of limited infrastructure. As a member of the ‘Smart-City’ committee, we are exploring new ways to better serve our community, particularly our broadband-disadvantaged neighborhoods within the City,” said Placentia City Council Member Jeremy Yamaguchi.
Further closing the digital divide, SiFi Networks has introduced FiberCity® Aid. This privately subsidized program will allow up to 10% of the City’s residential addresses to benefit from a significantly reduced subscription rate, and may also be able to benefit from federal subsidies on top of this, providing very low cost gigabit-level Internet access to disadvantaged communities.
The City was honored at the annual League of California Cities conference on Thursday, September 8th.
For more information on Placentia FiberCity®, please visit www.placentia.org/fibercity and www.placentiafibercity.com . For more about the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence program, visit www.HelenPutnam.org.
