OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Uptown Services provided an update on the Ocala Fiber Network at the Ocala City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.

Uptown Services’ Dave Stockton and Neil Shaw, principals, provided the Ocala Fiber Network presentation update of the Oct. 29, 2024, OFN study workshop that reflected additional analysis refinement of earlier assumptions, incorporating feedback received since the workshop and provided clear information to support policy direction and the next steps related to the Ocala Fiber Network.

Uptown Services was in the city council chambers in Dec. 2024, having completed a study of OFN, looking at all of the opportunities and the challenges, and providing some insight going forward, said Stockton. One of the things they addressed was competition. They also provided an update on the OSS vendor selection process that they were going through. Shaw provided council with an update on the design work he’s been doing for OFN.

Competition

Stockton asked what the dimensions and factors in broadband are that make a broadband provider more or less competitive. He provided a list of seven variables based on their experience.

  • Market entry: Are you and early or late entrant into the market? Are you a longtime provider like the area’s legacy providers, who have a lot of subscribers, or are you a newer company that doesn’t have any subscribers?
  • Technology: OFN fiber is the current state-of-the-art technology that’s available, but there are other types of broadband including satellite, cellular, and fixed wireless, and there are ranges of competitiveness depending on the technology that’s deployed.
  • Brand awareness: To what extent is your brand known on the market? The amount of advertising and the awareness that’s been created was something Uptown Services evaluated when they did their study.
  • Brand image: You can have awareness, but you need your image to be positive as opposed to negative.
  • Locality: This is something Uptown Services hears about quite frequently when it comes to municipal broadband, as many providers have no “local roots.” Those who are local can respond quickly and understand the regional customer’s needs.
  • Value: In the broadband world, value translates to how much capacity you’re providing to your customer for each dollar that they spend.
  • Return on investment (ROI) expectations: A provider with a longer-term vision has less ROI pressure; with a public entity like the City of Ocala versus a publicly traded private sector entity, there’s a longer timeframe in which to invest and recoup, which can have an impact on customer service, amount of investment, and how patient you can be with the return.

When the study was done Cox had 68 percent market share and Century Link 12 percent, with broadband within the market being concentrated heavily among the two legacy providers. There are fixed wireless providers, other hybrid fiber providers, and then cellular and satellite, said Stockton.

OFN isn’t legacy, but they were an early entrant having been in the residential market since 1995. When looking at technology, OFN has Fiber Wire 3, the other providers have a lower technology such as HFC or a version of satellite or cellular, which are not as robust and don’t have as much capacity, said Stockton. OFN has a strong brand image and brand awareness. OFN has the distinction of being the only real local provider. The legacy providers have assets in the area in terms of field operations, but in terms of call centers and other management aspects that is a different story, which is advantageous to the city. In the study, Uptown Services looked at value expressing it as the price per megabytes received by the end user, about 7 cents per meg for OFN.

OFN is currently working on greater capacity.