SLED Opportunity · CALIFORNIA · CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
AI Summary
The City and County of San Francisco's Department of Technology issues an RFI to explore partnerships for expanding affordable high-speed internet via fiber network expansion and dark fiber leasing in underserved neighborhoods, supported by a $10.4M grant.
**Update #2** -Q&A Addendum emailed to NDA recipients -Fiber Trunk Map emailed to NDA recipients -Extended due date to 1/16/2026 by 12pm pst **end updates #2** **Update #1** Extended the RFI proposal due dates to 12pm pst on 1/9/2026. This will be reflected on the Q&A addendum form when this is loaded on 12/17/2025. **end of updates** The Department of Technology is issuing this Request for Information. The City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Technology (DT) has built an extensive, redundant fiber network connecting 880 City buildings, 360 traffic signal cabinets, and other City resources. DT also leverages this fiber network to serve the Fiber to Housing (FTH) program that provides free, high-speed internet service to over 150 affordable housing sites with more than 20,000 residential units. In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD), FTH is part of a citywide strategy to bridge the digital divide that provides multilingual support services for FTH users as well as grantmaking to community-based organizations for device distribution and digital literacy training. DT has received a $10.4 million grant from the CPUC’s Last Mile Federal Funding Account (FFA) for a new “Fair Shake Internet” project to expand the FTH network to deliver high-speed internet service to 261 unserved locations in three neighborhoods: Bayview, Tenderloin and Chinatown. In this Request for Information (RFI), DT invites telecommunications carriers, ISPs, and network operators to submit information and ideas for partnering with the City to expand a diversity of high-quality internet options for residents, businesses, and City needs. This RFI is exploratory and will inform a potential subsequent Request for Proposals (RFP). DT invites proposals from Respondents on one or both of these two tracks: • FFA Partnership Track: Respondents commit to offer affordable internet service to interested customers at market‑rate housing and commercial addresses designated by the CPUC as unserved in the Bayview, Tenderloin, and Chinatown neighborhoods. The City will offer neighborhood-specific incentives to support Respondents in offering affordable service. • Dark Fiber Lease Track: Respondents lease or negotiate indefeasible right of use (IRU) to unlit City fiber segments for their own network purposes. These arrangements may be either independent or inter-related to FFA partnerships.
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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