Own Your Internet

One question many town residents ask is… why don’t we have better Internet options—more specifically, higher-speed Internet at a lower cost? A group of town leaders led by First Selectman Rudy Marconi is exploring the feasibility of creating a town-owned fiber network, but we can only move forward if town residents are willing to participate.

 

Reliable Internet is critical modern-day infrastructure—just like electricity and water. We depend on good connectivity to work from home, do schoolwork, to operate businesses, and to stay in touch with the world. 

 

This website will provide information and progress on the group’s efforts to develop a full feasibility study and engineering plan that we can then submit to the federal government to build a town-owned fiber network. A completed study would potentially qualify Ridgefield for a piece of the $65 billion in federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

 

The first step to the development of the study is the completion of a survey by as many residents and businesses as possible.

 

​The potential benefits driving the concept include:

 

• Increasing the speed and reliability of Internet access for all residents and businesses.

• Providing competition and giving residents multiple options for Internet Service Providers.

• Creation of a network that will improve economic development and support cultural expression by our non-profit community.

• Improving town services, such as public safety, transportation, healthcare, education, and emergency communications.

 

We’ll be sharing more information and answering your questions via this website, community meetings, and other outreach.

 

Please note that the cost of the feasibility study and the bulk of the cost of the engineering plan is coming from the Western Connecticut Council of Governments.