Connected Nation

What makes the best ISP? We talk to leadership at one of CNET’s top picks for 2024 AND 2025

• Jessica Denson • Season 6 • Episode 40

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What makes Fort Collins’ community-owned internet one of the best ISPs in the nation? Find out from their Broadband Executive Director on this latest episode of the Connected Nation podcast. 

Join us as we sit down with Chad Crager to discuss how this city-built network is redefining customer service, digital inclusion, and the future of broadband.

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Fort Collins Connexion

Jessica Denson (00:00):   
This is Connected Nation, an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband from closing the digital divide to improving your internet speeds. We talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our neighborhoods. On today's podcast, we talk with leadership from Fort Collins Connection, a community-based ISP that's winning national awards for its service. Find out what the company is doing better than others, how they're doing it, and what's ahead for an ISP that's making headlines for being among the best of the best. I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation. I'm Jessica Denson, and today my guest is Chad Crager, the broadband executive director for the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. Welcome, Chad. Hi, Jessica. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. Uh, we've been actually planning this for about six weeks, maybe, maybe longer than that. When you, when your team first reached out to me, you're pretty busy, huh?

Chad Crager (01:04):
Yeah. Um, it, I think we're all busy these days, <laugh>, and I appreciate us being flexible and finding a time for us to chat. 

Jessica Denson (01:10):
Yeah, me too. Um, reading about your, your organization, the good things you guys are doing, I think that our, um, listeners will really benefit from this conversation. But before, uh, we dig into the meet, uh, I really like to let our listeners know a little bit about who we're talking to. So if you could, uh, tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to Fort Cols. 

Chad Crager (01:33):
Yeah, I have, uh, my background is mainly in all types of transportation professionally. Um, I actually moved to Fort Collins eight and a half years ago to be the city engineer. And so I remember when I first moved here, I read about that the internet, or I'm sorry, that the city was thinking about, um, developing their own internet. And I really didn't understand it. I moved here from Austin that had plenty of competition, <laugh>, and ironically, I'm in this position today, and, and what happened is that, um, you know, my background is, is transportation of all types, including large projects. And the city started building out, uh, basically our fiber, and that's just a giant project that happens to hit everybody's sprinkler in every front yard in the city. And, um, they, there were some challenges happening and they needed someone to come in and help sort of write the ship for the overall project.

(02:29)
And so I came in, um, really leading the build and was in it for a year, year and a half. And the executive director, he left and an opportunity came up and I decided to take it. So my background is not telecommunications, um, but I don't think that's a bad thing because I really have to lean on my staff that is much smarter than me, <laugh>, um, which is, which is great. Um, I have to know, of course, what they're talking about. Yeah. But other than that, I really have to rely on great staff we have here in Fort Collins. 

Jessica Denson (03:01):
Um, isn't that the, the saying like a good leader hires great people and then gets out of their way? 

Chad Crager (03:07):
<laugh>? Exactly. If I can support you get outta your way, and I have to know enough to call bs. But other than that, it's, um, it's a lot of fun to work with a team. Um, you know, I've found that sometimes subject matter experts tend to get in the weeds sometimes, and in my case, I get to lead as fantastic folks. 

Jessica Denson (03:25):
Yeah. You must have, uh, you must have to have a real innate sense of curiosity too. Like, oh, why, how does that work that way? Why does that work if you come from a background of being an engineer and then going into this space? 

Chad Crager (03:36):
Yeah. An engineer is all about solving puzzles. It doesn't matter what that puzzle is. Um, the other thing for me, I am very big on customer experience, which in this industry, I think is one of the most important things that we can do. 

Jessica Denson (03:49):
Yeah. I, I imagine, I, I think a lot of customers are going, yes, <laugh>. So you mentioned, uh, it was funny you mentioned the sprinkler thing. Do you mean that people were they were laying the fiber and people were like, what's going on with my <laugh> with my yard? 

Chad Crager (04:05):
Yeah, I mean, the, the reality is anyone that has a sprinkler in their front yard really has no idea where those lines are, right? 

Jessica Denson (04:13):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Chad Crager (04:13):
And so when this, when any entity comes out to build something in your front yard, you can't say, Hey, my sprinkler's there, but you know where the heads are, but you don't know where the actual lines themselves are. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So inevitably we're hitting almost every sprinkler that there was. And it's really fun in Fort Collins because people turn 'em off in the winter, and so you don't know if you had 'em or not until that spring when everyone decides to turn the sprinklers back on, and all of a sudden you're getting, you know, hundreds of phone calls. 

Jessica Denson (04:42):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So is that, is that the fact of the, um, the, the winters there are a little tougher in Colorado than they are in Texas? For sure. I grew up in 

Chad Crager (04:51):
Texas. Exactly. Yeah. So otherwise here, and we're really getting into, into conversations. I didn't think we'd talk about <laugh>, but otherwise here, um, <laugh>, well, your, your, your sprinklers, your irrigation systems, they freeze. And then you're spending, you know, thousands of dollars in the spring to replace everything. So here they turn 'em off and they blow 'em out. So they hook up an air compress or blow out all the water so it doesn't freeze. And to get back on track, <laugh>, um, a hundred percent of our build is underground. And so because of that, that's why we hit all the sprinklers. We don't even have pedestals above ground here. Um, there everything is below ground in Fort Collins, including, and this started in the eighties with our electric system. So our entire electric system in Fort Collins is also underground. 

Jessica Denson (05:38):
So it's an approach the city itself takes, and that residents and those who pay for things, really expect is that this stuff is not gonna be how, 

Chad Crager (05:49):
That's exactly right. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. That's exactly right. It's not just for aesthetics, it's, it's, it's also because of reliability. When you have things underground, you don't have to about the storms that a lot of cities have mm-hmm <affirmative>. That knock out their power or their internet. 

Jessica Denson (06:02):
So, uh, how big is Fort Collins? Is it, uh, is it, how far is it from Denver? Is it in the shadow of Denver, or is it further out in the mountains, or, 

Chad Crager (06:12):
Yeah, it's about an hour north of Denver. We're actually closer to Cheyenne, Wyoming than we are to Denver. Um, so it's definitely, it's, um, you know, there's a lot of cities that are sort of bedroom communities to Denver. We're far enough away to where we have our own identity, if that makes sense. 

Jessica Denson (06:28):
Yes, it does. Um, and I've been up through that way, and at least when you're traveling to Cheyenne, there's nothing for quite a ways. 

Chad Crager (06:36):
No, yeah. It's very rural. Yeah. We're, we're north of Denver, kind of tucked up against the mountains on the west side of, uh, I 25. 

Jessica Denson (06:43):
So when you're doing, um, so let's, let's dig in deeper so to speak. Uh, I love a little pun <laugh> about the fact that it's a, a city owned fiber network. Right? 

Chad Crager (06:54):
Right. 

Jessica Denson (06:55):
Talk about what, what makes that unusual? Um, not, not every city owns their own networks. Right. How does that work? Do you have, do you have others? Um, do you have service providers come in and use that or rent that from you? How, what's the model there? 

Chad Crager (07:10):
Yeah. I'll give you a little history to Fort Collins. What happened. And so back in the, you know, basically 2010 or so, the city recognized they needed better internet from the incumbents. And they asked those incumbents, when are you going to invest in Fort Collins? And the answer from both was, we have no business plans at all to invest. Well, that, that really wasn't the right answer. So we as a city decided to explore building our own internet. And if you remember back when Google Fiber decided they're gonna announce their first city <laugh>, people started doing all kinds of crazy things from polar plunges of changing their name. That was sort of the impetus for us, and I think a lot of cities to consider doing it on their own. Um, now we actually started this journey with a public-private partnership that fell through, and the city decided, uh, back, back in 20 16, 20 17, to actually do it on our own and build it out. 

(08:07)
And, and the way we were able to do it, and this is important, is we, because we have our own electric, we call it light and power, we were able to bond against that in order to activate the funds that we needed to build it out. And so in Colorado at the time, uh, you had what was called Senate Bill 1 52, that the incumbents put in place at a state level that you had to have your basically residents vote for in order for you to even talk about putting your own internet in. Well, not only did that pass overwhelmingly, but we also put $150 billion bond in front of the voters, and that passed as well because of such a strong desire to have a better internet experience in Fort Collins. And so we decided to do it on our own. Um, the advantage of that is we, uh, as, as we start to collect revenue, we will not only improve the system, 'cause it a hundred percent of the money goes back into the system, but we will also able to help out with either lowering prices or other aspects of the city with the revenue that comes from the inter internet. 

Jessica Denson (09:12):
Yeah, I was gonna ask about low income residents. That's something that, um, you know, a lot of states are dealing with now, not only just reaching people, but how do you help those lower income residents or those rural residents or, um, yeah, those are just outside of that. Do you guys really approach that in a, a specific way or is that just the internet there is just so affordable that it really you're able to reach most people? 

Chad Crager (09:36):
Yeah, that's a great question. So we, um, our prices are such that one, we don't have anything less than a gig. So one gig is our lowest and that's $70. And we recognize from the beginning to not everyone can afford that. And so from the very beginning of connection started, we set aside 6% of our internet revenue for digital inclusion purposes. And what that does is if those that are income qualified, so 60% a MI average medium income below, they only pay $20 a month for that same one gig service. We don't believe at all in throttling back our speeds. That's awesome. And so the, the $50 difference is made up from the 6% of the money that we set aside, if that makes sense. 

Jessica Denson (10:21):
It does, mm-hmm 

Chad Crager (10:22):
<affirmative>. And so that, that allows us to be sustainable regardless of who's in office at a federal or state level. And so it's been very successful. We have about 1200 customers that are on that rate. 

Jessica Denson (10:37):
Um, so what about partnerships in the area and, um, regional connectivity? How does that work? Uh, do you, do you work with a lot of other groups around, around the city and around the state? 

Chad Crager (10:49):
Yeah. What makes this area of, you know, really of the country unusual is that we have really four cities very close to one another that all have municipal broadband. And that's us Loveland Longmont, who was the first in Colorado and Estes Park. And, uh, one of the reasons that all four of us are together is that, uh, many, many years ago, decades ago, we just, those four cities decided to rely on another entity to generate their power. And when they did that, all of the power and the substations were tied together through fiber. Well, no one knew back at that point that fiber would be used to how it is today. But that's why those four cities actually have municipal fiber. And we still, to this day, actually tomorrow, we're getting together as sort of the leaders from each of those entities to talk about how do we do things better? How do we, you know, how do we gain efficiencies back haul we have and our governmental agreements with each other so that we provide, you know, redundancy, we provide actually technical support for others. We provide network engineering services. And so there's a ton of collaboration in this area. And, and some states don't have any municipal fiber. Yeah. And we have four just in this one area. 

Jessica Denson (12:02):
And, you know, there's all this talk about the Bead the bead program that the federal dollars that are going into the state. Are you in contact with the, uh, state broadband office there in Colorado? Is that something you guys talk about how you do it? Or is that not a concern for you at this moment? 

Chad Crager (12:19):
Yeah, we are actually, um, we were, um, I don't know how to say this, but the original round of beat we were awarded funding

(12:27)
Uhhuh <affirmative>, um, that disappeared and we've since reapplied for Bead as well. And, and what's great about BEAD is we have great relationship with the county that we're in, it's Larimer County, and the county is willing to, uh, really fund the 25% cash match for anything beyond our city limits. Our county that we're in recognizes the need for not just the cities, but those that are in the rural areas to get great fiber broadband. And so they're willing to put that cash up and in return we'll do a revenue share until that cash that they provided is paid off. And so that's why we're excited to continue to go after other funding opportunities, including beat. 

Jessica Denson (13:10):
That's, that's fantastic. Yeah. I think everybody's hurting from that moment of, oh, none of these plans, we have to redo all this <laugh>. Right. And I feel sorry for the state 

Chad Crager (13:20):
Broadband offices. Right. It's not 

Jessica Denson (13:21):
Their fault. No. I feel horrible for 'em. They all look a little bit belu the last time I saw him at a conference <laugh>. Um, and I mean that the nicest way. Yeah. Um, so you guys are doing something right 'cause you earned top spots and PC mags, uh, best ISPs list for 2024. And CNET put you as the best internet providers for 2024 and 2025. Why do you think you earned that re ranking? What, what is so great about it? I mean, other, some of the, I you touched on some things, but really expand upon why you think you've, you've earned those honors. 

Chad Crager (13:55):
Yeah, that's a great question. I think, you know, the reality is we have brand new infrastructure in the ground with fiber broadband all the way into the house. And so because of that, we really have the best technology that's available, including, you know, one, two, and 10 gig customers, which is fantastic. But, you know, the reality is technology will eventually be caught up by our competitors. And our big differentiator right now, even if they did catch up to us, which will take them a long time, and a lot of money, is our customer experience. And it's not just something that I talk about. It is every single person in connection understands that what we are doing is providing an amazing service. And it really needs to be like something that you would get from the Ritz Carlton as far as what you provide your residents. And so everyone understands that. And because of that, our churn is extremely low. Because once people get it, they realize if they have an outage, they can call in 24 hours a day, seven days a week and get a live person to talk to and fix whatever they need. And we'll roll a truck if there's an outage. But the whole point of that is our foundation is built on how do we provide a customer experience in an industry that traditionally people have extremely low expectations, <laugh> for what they're going to get from their provider. 

Jessica Denson (15:17):
Yeah. That it's true. If I have an issue, I'm like, oh gosh, I hope I can find somebody like <laugh>. I live in Louisville, Kentucky, and um, 

Chad Crager (15:24):
Okay. 

Jessica Denson (15:25):
I meant to do, I have, they, they're usually really good, but when I do have a problem, it is hard to get. My boyfriend makes fun of me. 'cause I'm like, live assistant life assistant, please <laugh>, give me a somebody <laugh> I can't stand talking to. That's one of my, uh, arguments against AI is I, I'm a big, I'm a, I'm a early adopter, but Sure. Some of those, uh, assistants that are on that you could talk to on the phone, you're like, if this is ai then where are we going <laugh>, because it drives me crazy. Anyway, I I'm a, I I applaud you for that <laugh>. So, um, you guys also are, were digital inclusion Trailblazer in 2024. And as a nonprofit connected nation, we really care about digital inclusion and digital empowerment. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Why was that important to you guys, and what was it that you did that to earn that, that moniker? 

Chad Crager (16:16):
Yeah, I think the big reason is going back to that 6% that we set aside, that funds not only that lower price internet for the same speed, but that funding also provides, basically we're funding a position at our local school district that is going into mobile home parks and other areas to really be a digital liaison. That funding is funding hardware. That funding is funding different programs at the, at the county. Um, not only that, but because we have, we actually have commission-based pay employees, which are the only ones in the state of Colorado are public employees. We now have a bilingual, um, commission-based salesperson because we recognize that there are challenges sometimes when it comes going door to door. And so we want every resident in Fort Collins, regardless of, of demographic or where they live or anything else to be, have the ability to get our amazing internet. And we're doing everything we can to increase those number of customers. 

Jessica Denson (17:20):
Well, we applaud, I applaud you for that. I think everybody at CN Connect Nation would, uh, <laugh> echo that. 'cause that is something that we really care about is wanna bring everybody up. And that really leads into my next question with how, what does that look like for Fort Collins when it comes to economic development and really, um, making the city as great as it can be? How important do you think those connections, broadband for everyone, um, is? 

Chad Crager (17:47):
Yeah, I, I think it's extremely important. I think as we, uh, talk to partners and those that will, um, move to Fort Collins, whether it's home builders, we have become sort of the default for new homes that are being built in Fort Collins, which is fantastic. Um, we're also talked about when we make trips all over the world, whether it's for bringing Quantum engine into this region or other things, part of the discussion, there's a number of things, but part of it is that we have such reliable internet and sometimes what we're learning, it's not just about our high speeds that the staff can bring, but with Quantum, it's about having actual glass in the ground. 

Jessica Denson (18:27):
Mm. 

Chad Crager (18:27):
And so how, you know, how do we get those, basically how is, does Quantum talk to each other? For example, we have some of the most accurate clocks in the world, which is sort of the foundation for Quantum because it all comes down to like, the nanosecond are here in Fort Collins and there's one in Boulder, and they need to talk to each other with glass. And so a big piece of this region is the economic development that happens, but how do we do it not just in the way from a home builder all the way to the future with AI and quantum physics, quantum 

Jessica Denson (18:58):
Physics, um, yeah, I've talked to <laugh>, I can't think of the, the Tennessee city, um, just escaped my mind. That's quantum. It's calling itself the quantum city. Um, and even trying to understand some of that is so <laugh>, it's so deeply complicated. 

Chad Crager (19:13):
Yeah. Trust me, I, I've tried, I've gone to several lunches where I really am trying to understand everything and I still have barely scratched the surface. 

Jessica Denson (19:21):
Oh, I have no 

Chad Crager (19:22):
Hope. Um, so <laugh>, but, but all, all we're trying to do is provide a tool uhhuh that those that are much smarter than me in an industry that I barely understand can 

Jessica Denson (19:32):
Use. That's, that's amazing. Um, so let's talk the future. What are, what are, where do you see Fort Collins connection in the next year, five years? Are there are, is there any growth that you really want that would be like this is, this is perfection chef's kiss kind of thing down the road for our organization? 

Chad Crager (19:51):
Yeah, I think as we grow and we are able to continue to really almost double our number of customers that we have right now we've got over 24,000. And so as we double that and we pay back our bonds because we do have debt that we have to pay off, I think what we're looking at doing is expanding beyond our city limits into what we call the growth management area, which is really into the county. And so, um, that, that is one of our goals because there's a lot of those areas that for years they haven't had investments from sort of our competitors and they're just really need to have faster internet. And so one of our goals is to expand in those areas at the same time continuing doing, to invest in the, basically the assets that we have so that our current customers have some of the best technology that's available. And so that's, that's how we do both. And I would say that we can't lose sight of that. We need to do what we can for our current customers while also expanding. And eventually, I'll tell you Jessica, it may be that we end up, uh, you know, changing our price to a lower amount if it makes sense after our, all of our debt is paid for and we have the revenue coming in. 

Jessica Denson (21:06):
So really because it is a community based ISP, you could think community first rather than profits first. 

Chad Crager (21:14):
That that's exactly right. And as a matter of fact, it's, besides paying back our debt, we obviously have to be in the, always in the black mm-hmm <affirmative>. Everything is going back into the community. And I can't underline the importance of that enough. Um, we're, you know, we're not sending funding out to not only outside the city or state or even country, but it's all going back into Fort Collins. 

Jessica Denson (21:36):
That's fantastic. Well, uh, before I let you go, I just have a couple of a couple more questions. Yeah. I promise. Um, what, what kind of encouragement would you give others, or what kind of advice would you give others that are, are, maybe they don't have the same model, but maybe there are some, um, mistakes made or lessons learned along the way that you would share with others who are hoping to expand their access or improve their, their internet connectivity? 

Chad Crager (22:03):
Yeah, from challenges or things that, if I had to do differently, what I would do for folks that are starting this out is when you're building out, be as transparent as possible. Um, it took our build out because we're all underground, uh, three years, and we for different reasons weren't as transparent as we could have been. That was challenging. But the one thing for positive, I would say is make sure if, if someone, you're gonna do this, you're not just doing this to put technology in the ground and let someone else run it, but you are doing it to create an amazing customer experience. I, I think that as we talk about this and, and serving others, I think we've gotta talk about really providing an amazing customer experience, or what we're doing is gonna be exactly like the traditional competitors have been and just result in the same frustration. So I, I wish this industry would talk more about that customer experience because without that, um, even with all the technology in the world, people will continue to have the same experience they always have. Um, even if it's better technology. 

Jessica Denson (23:09):
Um, I think that I would agree with that being a customer <laugh>. Um, and you're right that when I go to the conferences that, because I do go to a lot of broadband conferences, um, you don't ever really hear much conversation, many conversations or many panels based on the customer experience. Right. So it's interesting that you would say that because you're right, that's a missing piece that really is important. Um, so is there anything that you want people to take away about Fort Collins connections or that, that you think people should remember, um, about our conversation? 

Chad Crager (23:43):
No, I think we certainly have a lot of lessons learned. I think that things are going very well for us, and we could always learn from others. What I always encourage is if any listener or entity wants to talk more about the challenges that we've had or the, the opportunities that we have coming forward to reach out, um, I'm more than happy to be transparent and candid with anyone that would like to have further discussions. 

Jessica Denson (24:06):
That's fantastic. You know, um, I'm struck, you're, you were, I was struck by the fact that you came from Austin, um, and then landed in Fort Collins for this position. And, uh, we're an engineer, but you've won these awards, so you're doing something right. So I would encourage people to, to reach out. Um, thank you so much, Chad. I really appreciate your time today. 

Chad Crager (24:29):
Thanks, Jessica. 

Jessica Denson (24:38):
Again, my guest today has been Chad Krieger, the broadband executive Director for the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. I'll include a link to the website for connections in the description of this podcast. I'm Jessica Denson. Thanks for listening to us. As always, you could find us on connected nation.org or look for the latest episodes on all major podcast worms.

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