The Los Altos Hills Community Fiber Association’s goal is to bring very high-speed (minimum 1 Gigabit download and upload) internet service directly to LAH residential homes using a 100% fiber optic network. The network is completely owned and operating by LAHCF members who are subscribed to the service.
The Los Altos Hills Community Fiber Association is a mutual benefit corporation under the laws of California and should soon receive its IRS determination as a 501(c)12 organization. This type of corporation is used for organizations like Cooperative Telephone Companies and small sewer districts where owners pay for a one-time construction fee to create their commonly owned asset.
To get hooked up, residents join the organization and pay relevant construction fees for either connecting to an existing fiber backbone or for creating one in a new area. In addition, there are home connection fees that vary greatly depending on your home’s distance from the fiber backbone.
LAHCF subscribers (those who are receiving service) pay a reasonable monthly fee to cover the fiber uplink, support, maintenance and funds to sustainably maintain the system into the future.
LAH Community Fiber Association does not generate any “profits” that will go to any board members, members, or creators of this association. LAHCF is operated by an elected group of volunteer board members who do not received direct or indirect compensation nor do neighborhood organizers (Neighborhood Champions) for particular neighborhood builds. LAHCF will create reserves like HOA would need to do to continue to maintain the network and operations and provide for equipment replacement.
Where LAHCF differs dramatically from other broadband providers is that as more subscribers join onto the network and the installation and uplink costs are shared among more subscribers, the monthly cost should not go steadily up at an alarming rate. We have no external share holders that are looking for the biggest return on their investment, and we are not funding other parts of our business. Instead, LAHCF is owned by the subscribers and their interest is to collecting monthly fees to cover operational costs, maintain the network and keep fees as low as possible.
Like any organization, we still need to purchase professional services to offer Gigabit services to our members. LAHCF will contract with companies to provide those services. Currently the vendor that we have selected to provide the installation, and management of the LAH Community Fiber network is Next Level Infrastructure. LAH Community Fiber has the ability to select another vendor to provide our installation and network services in the future.
Los Altos Hills Community Fiber 