Comcast Buys City-Owned ISP in San Bruno, Calif.

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2025 – San Bruno leaders have finalized the sale of the city’s municipally owned broadband provider, CityNet, to Comcast for $8 million.

CityNet, launched in 1971, serves about 5,400 residents and businesses but has struggled in recent years with rising costs and mounting debt–reportedly $21.5 million. The city manager’s office described the service as “increasingly technologically obsolete,” citing annual losses of nearly $800,000.

“This outcome was inevitable given that the enterprise lost over $21 million over the past decade due to skyrocketing costs of programming, and it simply doesn’t make financial nor practical sense any longer to run our own cable/internet enterprise,” city Councilmember Tom Hamilton wrote in a newsletter.

Under the agreement, Comcast will not raise CityNet’s rates for at least 12 months and will invest in network modernization. The company agreed to establish a physical interconnection between CityNet and its existing infrastructure, which is expected to take four to six months.

Comcast has positioned the acquisition as a win for San Bruno residents and businesses. David Tashjian, Regional Senior Vice President of Comcast California, highlighted the company’s commitment to enhancing broadband access.

“We’re grateful for the chance to serve the San Bruno community and to bring our state-of-the-art network and technology to advance the city’s high-speed broadband services,” Tashjian said on LinkedIn.

City officials and Comcast representatives believe the deal will provide long-term benefits by ensuring reliable, high-speed internet access for residents and businesses.

The city will continue to provide services until the hand off to Comcast is complete.