Lake Oswego Puts Broadband Issue to a Vote

Lake Oswego's relationship with a high-speed fiber network took a couple of steps back Tuesday night.

After having had taken a couple of steps forward and then another back.

The City Council voted 4-3 to let the voters decide in November whether they want the city to move forward with a high-speed fiber network that would compete with Comcast and CenturyLink.

The Council had approved a plan to negotiate with the local company, Symmetrical Networks.

The Lake Oswego-based company would have borne the brunt of the costs up front but if things went south, they have could have had the city over the barrel for millions of dollars.

So, last week, the mayor pulled the plug on the deal.

The council wants to know that at least 55 percent of voters want the city to move forward.

Here's a previous story on the issue.