Sherwood edges closer to city-wide broadband internet service
Within three years, broadband is expected to blanket the city.
SHERWOOD, Ore. — Over the next three years in Sherwood, surfing the web, sending an email, or streaming a show will be faster and easier.
That’s because broadband internet, a city of Sherwood utility, should blanket the entire city.
Overseeing the broadband project is Brad Crawford, who is the IT director for the city of Sherwood.
Crawford explains the origins of the project.
“In the early 2000s, shortly after I started here, we began talking about creating a broadband utility in Sherwood,” Crawford said. “We started off with some initial fiber optic lines between city buildings. It quickly grew to the formation of Sherwood Broadband, in 2004. One of our first actions was to acquire fiber optic connectivity from Sherwood all the way into a large data center in Portland.”
Crawford said this connection allowed Sherwood Broadband to purchase wholesale services that would then be used to provide the service to residents and businesses at low costs.
“We bought all the equipment to kind of start that,” he said. “We were the first to provide fiber optic-based internet service in Sherwood. In those early years, due to low funding, we worked on slowly growing the network and focusing on service to businesses and other public agencies. We had a few residential connections, but that wasn’t the initial focus. We were primarily focused on businesses in Sherwood and the surrounding area. During this time, we acquired some large customers, most of whom are still customers today.”
Crawford said that it was around 2018 or 2019 that the city started talking about what it would look like to provide service to Sherwood residents.
“We built a pilot project to do that, we hired a few staff so that we could do the construction ourselves, where we needed it,” he said. “At that time, we had quite a bit of success. We activated our first pilot area customers in early 2020.”
Crawford continued, “The city council quickly said let’s move forward to do the whole city, and we activated our first full city neighborhood in 2023. We’ve continually, since then, been building out all the rest of the neighborhoods in Sherwood. Right now, we are about 60% complete.”
Funding for the project, Crawford said, came from bonds that would be paid back by revenues received by the utility and the Urban Renewal Agency.
All neighborhoods are expected to be completed within the next three years, and some apartment complexes and condo units have different requirements, which could result in a slightly longer timeline.
Crawford said the goal is that every business and person living in Sherwood would be able to have Sherwood Broadband Service available to them.
He added that Sherwood is one of the first cities to have city-provided broadband. Others include Monmouth, Sandy, and Independence. Monmouth and Independence joined forces and created a utility called Minet. Hillsboro is another city that provides service.
When it comes to internet service in a community, competition is always good, according to Crawford.
“First and foremost, competition is always good for the consumer,” he said. “The more options you have, the better the pricing should be – the more honest we all have to be on our services.”
Crawford continued, “We’ve heard from our residents. Having a service that is local and regulated by your elected officials means you as a consumer have a little bit of say in how your services are priced, delivered, and supported. With us being a full-service provider, we have our own crews, technicians, and engineers that are sourced here in Sherwood. We are quick to respond if anything comes up.”
