Welcome to Los Altos Hills Community Fiber Association!
The Los Altos Hills Community Fiber Association (LAHCF) uses a new, exciting, and unique operating model to bring very high-speed internet service directly to our residential homes using a 100% fiber optic network — completely owned and operated by Los Altos Hills residents who are subscribed to the service.
LAHCF is not a municipality-sponsored and managed, fiber-optic project. LAHCF is a not-for-profit, mutual-benefit corporation under the laws of California. It is funded, managed, and operated by our own members and it is completely independent of the Town of Los Altos Hills. However, we do require the cooperation of the town to allow access to the utility right-of-ways as they do with other utility providers.
LAHCF does not generate any “profits” that will be distributed to board members, subscribers, or shareholder of this organization. By IRS law and by our bylaws, all net revenues will be given back to the shareholders, with the exception of a relatively small reserve to be used for equipment replacement, maintenance, and unforeseen expenses associated with the services we provide our membership.
LAHCF hires a professional services for-profit company (currently Next Level Infrasturcuire) to manage and execute its fiber installation, network management, and support.
This website provides information for potential and current subscribers, including:
- General information about LAHCF and its partnering professional services vendor, Next Level Infrastructure
- Background on LAHCF and why community fiber groups are needed
- Information to help you decide whether you need to contact to the organization to find out more
- List of completed and upcoming LAHCF builds and related resources
Are you looking to connect to LAHCF and get fiber installed on your property?
Please visit the Get Service page for the next steps!d
Are you looking for more information about what LAHCF is and what that means for getting connected fiber service? Please hover over the About LAHCF menu and review the Operating Model and our Mission Statement. Or visit the FAQs menu and read What is Community Fiber or peruse the General FAQs and Subscriber User FAQs, We always recommend you subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about projects and progress as we expand the operations.
Recent News
Update January 2022 – Launch of Fremont Rd/Burke Extension Installation
Construction has started on the Fremont Rd/Burke Extension Fiber Project. The first leg is being installed in front of Gardner Bullis School on Fremont Rd and will move toward Burke Rd in the next few weeks. Come out and check the operations to install our fiber backbone conduit. Our fiber is then pulled through the 8 individual micro-duct conduits that are inside of that large orange conduit.
Update July 2021
LAHCF is officially recorded in the Congressional Record by Rep Anna Eshoo!
In June 2021, Los Altos Hills Community Fiber was mentioned in the Congressional record and specially recognized by Representative Anna Eshoo of California’s 18th Congressional district as a model community broadband project to emulate. One of the bills that she has been working to develop and support is H.R. 1631 – The Community Broadband Act of 2021.
H.R. 1631 Definition:
This bill prohibits states from blocking the provision of broadband by public providers, public-private partnership providers, or cooperatively organized providers. Further, public providers and state or local entities participating in a partnership must administer applicable ordinances and rules without discrimination against competing private providers.
Anna Eshoo wanted to highlight two community broadband projects in her district and one project she selected was Los Altos Hills Community Fiber. (click on image below to see full congressional record entry)
Anna Eshoo and Senator Booker have carried this item over from the 114th congress and continue to work this legislation through Congress. They highly support community owned and operated broadband networks.
Update June 2021
LAHCF continues to add connected subscribers and many new neighborhood build projects are moving forward with their neighborhood champion process. Please refer to the Builds tabs to find the closest project near to your home. We already have 45+ neighborhood champions in town launching street by street projects that are in various phases of interest, research, engineering or construction.
Community Broadband is the future for many communities to obtain the best possible broadband speeds available by offering fiber to the premise solutions. LAHCF is on track to be the fastest residential broadband provider in America with our offering of 1 gbit or 10 gbit solutions today to our members.
Update November 2020 – We are now installing entire neighbors with fiber!
Do you need to contact us with questions, or issues, or wish to be involved? There are several different ways to connect or contact us, so please choose the best option on our contact and support pages in the menu above.
Speed Tests – Compare LAHCF to your Broadband provider
We were required to use a special speed test to test the speed of our fiber network as most DSL Speed tests simply do not work at the GB speed rates that is offered by LAHCF.
The image below shows the upload and download speeds and ping and jitter values.
10 Gig Circuits available to all connect LAHCF users
LAHCF is set to lead the nation in providing the highest possible Internet speeds. We have left traditional copper-wired vendors of AT&T U-VERSE and even cable Comcast thick wire technology in the dust. In a nut shell, any type of copper/metal wired Internet service just can not compete with a fiber (glass) technology when you have any distance involved. Have you ever received a mailer for a 10 gigabit up and down service from any vendor? Until a vendor offers fiber to the premise (house) like LAHCF, they simply can not support anything close to 10 gigabit without a direct fiber connection.
Both U-Verse and Comcast use fiber to their neighborhood nodes but they still deliver internet to you via a wireline (twisted pair or thick wire cable) that “last mile” or last few blocks. LAHCF solves the last link to bring that fiber-level service to your home where you need it!
There is a good reason why 99.999 percent of Internet traffic is transported over fiber and not copper wire-based lines. Why should our Internet speed come to a grinding slow speed when it gets to our last residential 1/4 mile? Our current telcos don’t want to invest in our communities to bring fiber to our homes. As long-term residents and property owners, we can see the value of investing in a fiber-to-home solution and are willing to see that investment over a 20-year span. Telcos need to show their investment in an upgrade is paid for in a much shorter time frame, like 1-2 years, much harder for them to risk that investment.
Compare the speeds yourself!
You can download this app we used above at:
https://www.speedtest.net/apps/windows
Next Level Networks was founded by broadband industry veterans seeking to bring down the cost of fiber to the home internet delivery. Next Level Networks will build and operate the Gigabit -class symmetrical network. The LAH community Fiber network will be owned by all of its members and operating under an agreement with Next Level Networks. This will allow each neighborhood or community to be in control of its own communication future.
Los Altos Hills Community Fiber 