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CenterF use Broadband Feasibility Report Businesses reported that in the past, broadband was very unreliable. As a result, the majority of the businesses we talked to still subscribe to two broadband services to protect against losing service in an outage. This might mean fiber along with a second connection to Consolidated or Charter. Many businesses without fiber subscribe to both Consolidated and Charter. This is not normal, and we've never seen anything like this in any other city. There are always a few businesses in every city for which Internet access is so mission-critical that the business buys multiple broadband connections for redundancy. But we normally only see this for the largest businesses, and generally most businesses only one broadband connection. Most of the businesses that have moved to fiber will likely abandon the second broadband connection, but it will take time for businesses to build trust in the current ISPs. Fiber networks generally have fewer outages and problems compared to older telephone copper and coaxial copper networks, so the fact that most businesses can buy service on a fiber network is positive and we expect businesses to get more comfortable with the ISPs and fiber connections over time. There are still a few issues with both fiber providers that make businesses hesitate to fully trust them. • Businesses reported that Consolidated only has one good local technician and if that technician is not working or is on vacation customers fear they can't get problems resolved. • Businesses reported that broadband performance on Charter tends to fluctuate throughout the day, which makes it hard for the businesses to rely on Charter. However, businesses that still use Charter report that the quality of broadband is significantly improved over what was provided in the past. • Many businesses reported that they are not ready to trust City Fiber as an ISP. One perceived roadblock is City Fiber's unwillingness to guarantee fast repair of outages and to make repairs in the evenings and on weekends. Businesses indicated that they are unhappy that City Fiber won't work to distribute broadband inside of buildings. City Fiber hands fiber to businesses where the fiber reaches the building and it's the customers responsibility to figure out how to use it. That's a function that businesses expect from a full-service ISP. The City is Vulnerable to Fiber Cuts Ideally the ISPs operating in the city would maintain redundant fiber routing, meaning that if there is a fiber cut on one path out of town that the broadband connections to and from Ellensburg would automatically be routed to the second path. City Fiber is the only ISP in the community with redundant routing. It maintains a path to the west to Seattle and a second path along US 97 to Portland. The danger of the current routing for the other ISPs is that a catastrophic event along the fiber path to the west, such as an earthquake, could cut off Internet access for customers of the other ISPs. The city already suffers several minor outages every year, but a major outage could be devastating. This could mean a prolonged broadband outage for all residences and most businesses. Residential Broadband is Not as Good as it Should Be The study looked in detail at the technology and performance of the residential ISPs serving the community using a residential broadband survey and speed tests. CCG also discussed home broadband Page 5