City of Fort Worth Promotes Digital Equity

"We wanted a cost-effective solution that we could install quickly without needing to set up equipment in people's homes. We also needed something simple to access that wasn't going to incur ongoing subscription costs," said Kevin Gunn, chief technology officer at City of Fort Worth. "It won't be similar to a purchased service, but it will allow children to do their online homework or let someone fill out an online job application from home."

The project design was in place just 15 days later. The team selected Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (Cisco URWB) radios to provide "set-and-forget" connectivity, with Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3300 Rugged Series switches and Cisco Meraki MR86 access points. This solution makes it simple to manage the environment in the cloud and provide instant visibility of issues such as outages. Cisco Umbrella provides security and basic content filtering to give users a safe browsing experience.

"The value of technology like Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul is that it can provide connectivity to communities relatively quickly and ensure neighborhoods are not left behind as we work toward delivering city fiber buildout," says Gunn.

Out in the community, the devices were mounted on light poles and public buildings such as schools to send the signal across the city. Presidio produced a site survey to determine where they should be placed to provide optimal coverage and identified obstacles such as trees that were preventing line of sight between radios.

"The project was at the mercy of weather conditions and even an endangered hawk that nested at one of the backhaul sites, but everyone came together for the common good to keep things moving. It was challenging and extremely rewarding," said Gunn. "It would have taken years to deploy a solution of this scale with fiber. This Cisco solution was not only faster, but also means we're incurring minimal incremental operational expenditure."

In addition to installing and customizing the Cisco technology, Presidio provided ongoing support to identify and correct issues in the system while the solution was being deployed. The technology was also fitted with Cisco industrial switches to give the city a future-ready environment should it wish to enhance the network or accelerate its smart city delivery.

Leading the way with digital equality

With the Cisco URWB solution, the city deploys public Wi-Fi at less than half the cost of fiber. This immediate Wi-Fi access will serve residents during the next five years while the city-wide fiber rollout is in progress.

To date, 10,000 households can access free Wi-Fi, and the remaining 5000 expect to be connected in the coming months. Where once students were staying after hours to use school Wi-Fi or accessing it from parking lots, they can now complete assignments from home. And that goes for adult learners too.

Citizens also have better access to government services, such as support with taxes or organizing waste disposal. Being able to browse and apply for jobs is a big advantage for people previously excluded from the job market who can now find work and more actively participate in Fort Worth's bustling economy. This is not just good for residents; it also makes Fort Worth more attractive to businesses and is predicted to reduce unemployment.

"Access to the internet provides a sense of connectiveness, and our community has that today," Leon Reed, Lake Como Neighborhood Association second vice president explains. "What I'm really proud of is the benefits the children of our community will receive as they will have a real opportunity to advance their education by continuing to learn at home. And I'm also excited about the adults having the opportunity to go online and search and apply for jobs. I'm so proud of the vision of Fort Worth to provide all its citizens the opportunity to enjoy what the world has to offer."

Fort Worth is a trailblazing city with a reputation for innovation. As it leads the way in digital inclusion, it's also establishing a blueprint to connect other underserved communities across Texas and the United States—and that's certainly a project to be proud of.

*2019 Broadband Deployment Report, Federal Communications Commission, 2019.

**59% of U.S. parents with lower incomes say their child may face digital obstacles in schoolwork, Pew Research Center, April 2020.