Residents in Knights Landing, Calif., to Receive High-Speed Broadband for First Time

WOODLAND, CA — Yolo County and Wave Broadband announced Wave’s commitment to provide high-speed Internet access via fiber to the home in the town of Knights Landing, Calif., by mid-2017. This rural community of 995 citizens currently has little to no high speed Internet service outside of the local library. The provision of broadband to Knights Landing is the initial step in a larger collaborative effort within Yolo County to provide broadband to all rural communities.

In May 2013, elected leaders countywide met to discuss broadband Internet access throughout Yolo County. The intent of the event was to better understand the issues and gaps the County faces in the provision of Internet access and to strategize on how to improve access to this crucial infrastructure. At this event, it was decided that the cities and the County would jointly undertake a countywide broadband strategic plan, spearheaded by the Yolo Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo). The Yolo Broadband Strategic Plan was completed in March 2015. When the Yolo County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation on the Strategic Plan, Knights Landing was identified by the Board as the top priority to focus County resources to improve community access to broadband.

“This project will help our residents gain much better access to the Internet for education, employment, health information and telemedicine, home business start-ups, entertainment and current events,” said Yolo County Supervisor Duane Chamberlain. “We hope to build on this success throughout the county in our other rural communities.”

Expanding Wave's West Coast Fiber Network
This project will extend Wave’s fast-growing West Coast fiber network directly to residences in Knights Landing, providing access speeds of up to 1 Gigabit. Knights Landing will become one of only a handful of communities in Northern California so far where gigabit fiber is being deployed.

“We are excited to work with Yolo County to introduce high-speed broadband service to residents of this rural community and plan for it to serve as a model for additional fiber network expansion in the county and beyond”, said Mike Puckett, Wave Broadband manager of strategic accounts, who will oversee the project moving forward.

“We have had an excellent relationship with Wave Broadband for many years,” said Kevin Yarris, Yolo County general services director. “With Wave, we have been able to connect the cities of West Sacramento, Winters and Woodland to better share information between our jurisdictions and we look forward to replicating this Knights Landing pilot in other rural areas throughout the county.”