The Oregon Connections Telecommunications Conference’s award for excellence in telecommunications projects and regional/local strategies went to the City of Eugene, EWEB, Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) LCOG, and the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO) for its partnership to implement a high-speed telecommunications network in downtown Eugene. The award recognized the inter-agency efforts that implemented the successful pilot project that brought a fiber connection to a handful of buildings in the downtown, and led to the Plan to extend the network to the rest of the downtown.
The Oregon Connections Conference awards are based on the extraordinary efforts, achievements, and innovation in community-based approaches to broadband which distinguish themselves in the effort to ensure that more communities benefit from new technology.
The fiber network will cover much of downtown Eugene. It will be an open-access network, where EWEB will own the fiber infrastructure and private internet service providers will have access to the infrastructure and provide telecommunications services to the businesses using the network.