Author: racefiberblog

Race Communications live in Atherton.

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Hundreds of residents in Atherton, CA now have access to fiber gigabit internet with speeds up to 1,000 Mbps due to an initiative driven by OpenFiber. On Monday, March 4th, 2019, Race Communications installed the first two eligible homes in Atherton, allowing homeowners to experience what being gigafied really means. One homeowner described the service as “out of this world fast”.

OpenFiber builds and operates an open infrastructure to enable multiple carriers and service providers to hop on the network giving its consumers a variety of choices. The network in Atherton serves schools, public buildings and every home in Atherton.

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The installer leaving our first Atherton installation.

“We believe the future is here and OpenFiber provides unprecedented capacity, speed and latency to drive revolutionary consumer experience from smart homes, virtual reality to next-generation HD entertainment and more.” Phillip Clark CEO at OpenFiber. “We look forward to a continued partnership with Race and other providers to provide connectivity that helps meet residents’ personal and business needs.”

Race is delivering Fiber to the Home (FTTH) technology in Atherton as part of its participation in the OpenFiber network, and its commitment to meet the broadband needs of residents and local businesses in California. Race Communications will also provide phone and television services.

“From telecommuting to remote education, broadband access is essential to our everyday life,” said Raul Alcaraz, CEO of Race. “Our team at Race has been blessed to have a successful track record of public and private projects, and we feel confident we can deliver a reliable, fast and affordable broadband system.”

For more information or to order gigabit service, residents can contact Race Communications’ sales team, at (877) 722-3833 or at team@race.com

In case you missed our town hall…

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Here is a recap of our recent town hall meeting at the Rood Administrative Center:

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We know many of the residents in our service area lead busy lives and were not able to attend our town hall meeting on Wednesday, January 30. Don’t worry – if you missed the meeting, you can catch it on Facebook through the Nevada County page or on Youtube through the Nevada County Media page once the video is uploaded.

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There was a great turn out for the town hall meeting on 1/30/2019

Lead by Race Communications’ CEO, Raul Alcaraz, the meeting provided a lot of helpful information for the community. Alcaraz covered the company’s history, products and pricing as well as the project’s long history and bright future! Alongside Alcaraz, were several of the Race executive team.

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From left to right: Raul Alcaraz – CEO, Domenic Pacini – VP of OSP & Engineering, Carlos Alcantar – CTO, Jim Miller – VP of Sales & Marketing.

While construction is still a few months away, Alcaraz assured residents that the project would be completed within the timeframe set by the CASF grant. Fiber to the home networks are changing the internet landscape and new fiber networks have quickly become the gold standard for cities across America, and Race is going to ensure that Western Nevada County does not get left behind.

To date, Race has been awarded eleven separate grants through the CASF program to advance broadband adoption and infrastructure deployment in areas such as Mojave, Tehachapi, Phelan and Bridgeport. Of these CASF projects, 9 have been completed and our tenth project is well underway. Bright Fiber will be our 11th CASF project. We have seen a huge benefit from our fiber networks in all of our CASF projects.

It has been a long journey to get to where we are – and there is still work to be done. However, we believe we have the expertise needed to get the project completed within 18 months, if not sooner.

Over 500 residents have paid a $119 deposit for gigabit service, and some deposit payers were wondering about the status of their money. Race will honor everyone’s deposit by applying it as a credit to their first bill. In addition, Race will also be giving deposit payers one free month of data service. In order to apply the credit, Race will create client IDs and provide account and login information to all deposit payers.

We understand that some people may move or simply not be interested in receiving service anymore. For those deposit payers, Race will provide a refund within 30 days of receiving a request. The refund request form can be found on nc.race.com

If you have questions about availability or want to see if your home or business will be in the planned fiber footprint, please check our map on nc.race.com or visit the map directly.

Town Hall scheduled for 1/30 at 7:30 PM

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By now, you have heard that Race Communications has acquired Bright Fiber Network, and you’re probably wondering what that means for you as an advocate and supporter of the Bright Fiber project in Western Nevada County.

We have been working tirelessly to move the project along since early 2018. The Bright Fiber Network and its Nevada County project were awarded a $16.2M California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant in December of 2015. On January 10th of this year, the CPUC approved the transfer of the Bright Fiber Network from Spiral Internet to Race Communications.

Our team at Race has the experience and expertise to complete the project in an efficient and timely manner having received ten CASF grants, of which nine have been successfully completed. Our tenth project, “Gigafy Phelan” is well underway.

Bringing our services to a community is a resource-intensive project that requires careful research and planning— luckily the majority of the tough legwork has been done. For more information on the project and our plans, please join us for a town hall meeting on Wednesday, January 30th at the Eric Rood Administrative Center in the Board of Supervisors’ Chambers. The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM.

Please be sure to register for the meeting through Eventbrite. Space is limited, don’t wait!

If you cannot make it to the town hall in person, NCTV will be live streaming the town hall on Channel 17.  You may also watch the live stream on Facebook or you can find the recording on Nevada County TV’s YouTube channel afterwards!

CPUC Greenlights Sale of Bright Fiber Network to Race Communications!

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JANUARY 10, 2019

Today, the California Public Utilities Commission (Commission) voted to approve the purchase of Bright Fiber Network, Inc. (Bright Fiber) by Race Telecommunications, Inc. (Race), giving the green light to a $26.8 million dollar fiber-to-the-home build, servicing 1,941 households in western Nevada County. The project was approved with a unanimous 4-0 vote.

The original Commission California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant for the project which was awarded to Bright Fiber in December 2015, but was delayed by other federal grant developments and Bright Fiber’s search for financing for required matching funds.  In June 2018, Race announced its planned acquisition of Bright Fiber, which it will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Race to complete and manage the project. A successful Internet Service Provider that has received ten and completed nine Commission rural broadband projects in the state, Race will provide all necessary financing and bring deep technical and managerial expertise to the Bright Fiber project.  

“It’s been a ten-year journey to arrive at the point where construction can finally begin on this transformational gigabit fiber project in an area of rural Nevada County, where broadband Internet access is severely limited,” said John Paul, the President of Bright Fiber.  ”My neighborhood champions, the hundreds of project supporters and I are simply thrilled and grateful that the Commission approved Race taking the helm and completing Bright Fiber’s vision to bring our community into the Information Age.”

To contain costs that steeply rose since the project’s original application in 2013, Bright Fiber and Race proposed an amended project that is 25% underground with 75% aerial installation, meaning that the fiber will be attached to existing poles similar to telephone and electric facilities.  The Commission reviewed and approved these changes to the broadband project, including a $69,534 reduction in the CASF grant, now amended to $16,086,789.  The revised total cost of the project will be $26,811,315. The Commission found that the lack of reliable and affordable broadband in the project area remains the case today, and this transfer allows the project to be completed. Under Assembly Bill 1665, the Commission is working to provide broadband to 98% of the residents in the state by region.

The Commission granted an extension of the original deadline for construction to May 2020.  Race has already completed the engineering for the amended project and said it will immediately begin the permitting process with the local authorities and seek to complete the project within the required timeframe.

“Race is humbled and grateful that the Commission has moved quickly to approve this transfer of control of Bright Fiber and review the needed CASF project changes so that Race can construct this important project for the community,” said Raul Alcaraz, President of Race.  “Our team at Race has been blessed to have a successful track record of CASF projects, and we feel confident we can deliver a reliable, fast and affordable broadband system.”

Race and Bright Fiber will hold a Town Hall meeting for the community in the evening on Wednesday, January 30th to describe the amended project to interested community members and to answer any questions.  The location and time of the Town Hall will be announced shortly.
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Founded in 1994, Race Telecommunications, Inc. has a successful track record of delivering high-speed fiber solutions to rural and disadvantaged communities that are both affordable and sustainable. Working in partnership with the California Public Utilities Commission and non-profit community advocacy groups, Race has made it its mission to bridge the Digital Divide in California.

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Bright Fiber Network, Inc. is an independent internet service provider in Nevada County.  The company began as Spiral Internet in May 2006. Since its inception, Bright Fiber has evolved its business and service offerings in the rural broadband market and has worked tirelessly to bring a state-of-the-art fiber network to western Nevada County.  After the sale of BFN to Race, BFN will work exclusively on the fiber-to-the-home CASF project. A separate company, Spiral Internet LLC, has been spun off from BFN and will offer web hosting, dial-up, email, and DSL resale services under the leadership of John Paul.

Race wins 2nd place at annual IEEP “Red Tape to Red Carpet” awards.

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On Wednesday, November 7th the Inland Empire Economic Partnership hosted their sixth annual “Turning Red Tape to Red Carpet” awards ceremony. Race Communications was nominated for the “Smart City/Smart County” award alongside OntarioNet and Connect Anza. This award recognizes cities and counties that have taken innovative approaches to provide reliable high-speed internet to their residents and businesses.

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Race has been in business for over 20 years and for the past 9 years we have been working in parallel with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to provide affordable gigabit fiber internet to rural unserved and underserved communities across California. We would not be able to do this without the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

“Gigafy Phelan” is our tenth grant project – and also one of our largest, covering 98 square miles. Once fully built, our network will provide fiber to the home gigabit internet to over 7,600 homes and businesses. To date, over 600 residents and business owners have been installed.

Since we began providing services in May, we have seen several positive social and economic improvements. Residents are now pursuing online higher education and working to complete degrees, local community groups are forming science and technology-based learning groups and advancing digital literacy, and homes and businesses are implementing the use of wireless security systems in crime-prone areas.

We want to thank the Inland Empire Economic Partnership for recognizing our efforts in the community as well as the staff at Race and the community of Phelan. This project would not be the success that it is without either.

Connect Anza took home first place for their efforts in Anza and the surrounding areas – The first strands of fiber were hung in July 2015 and bringing high-speed Internet has been a welcome change. The system is still being built, but now encompasses most of their cooperatives service territory in the Anza and Aguanga areas. Construction to serve the eastern areas of the cooperative will begin soon.

OntarioNet claimed 3rd place. The project, which is powered by Inyo Networks, will provide high-speed Internet, Ethernet, and Voice over IP services to the City of Ontario and its businesses.  All services are using a crystal clear, all-fiber network.