We're almost there! There's just this one final step before the next final step, and then there's that other final final step. But we're basically already there so there's no reason to want any effort to be put into any alternatives.

I believe the sequence is that in 2023 there will be a study to determine the viability. Assuming that goes perfectly, in 2024 there will be a study to figure out how to execute it. Assuming that, too, goes perfectly, 2025 will be spent talking budget. Assuming that goes perfectly, deployment would begin in 2026 and will be centered around limited test deployments in homeless encampments. 2027 would see full city-wide deployment, except there will probably be a delay due to installation temporarily blocking a bike lane. So, we should see this municipal network built from rainbows and unicorns some time around 2028 assuming it all goes perfectly. The more realistic timeline has the network beginning to crawl around 2030.

And before I get written off as just a sarcastic twit, consider looking up Participatory Budget cycles. These projects are vastly smaller scale (like, three orders of magnitude smaller), already budgeted, already approved, and don't require multiple rounds of paid background research. Despite this, they still take 5-7 years to execute if they finish at all (over 7 years later, the signaling project for the #1 bus from 2015's PB2 still isn't complete, the bus signs from 2016's PB3 haven't even advanced beyond the planning phase, etc etc).

Municipal broadband is awesome. My parents have it western mass