Internet in Los Angeles is slow, and you’re paying more for it. That assumes, of course, that you’re not one of the more than 34% of Angelenos without access to broadband at home or who cannot afford it. Those numbers will significantly worsen with the FCC’s decision to raise the definition of broadband “bandwidth” to speeds in excess of 25Mbps, up from 4Mbps. While the standards for internet service keep accelerating, we in LA have been stuck in the slow lane.

The consequences of our slow service are real and painful. Several years ago, tech startup Skyscraper Holding moved from Los Angeles to Lafayette, LA to obtain 100 Mb/s speeds at a cost savings of thousands of dollars a month. Pixel Magic, a visual effects and animation studio, took hundreds of jobs to the southwestern Louisiana city when they opened an office there in 2010. Meanwhile, California continues to trail the nation in student performance, risking our children’s chance to succeed in a digital world.

We can and must do better. In response, I have been joined by the City Council and Mayor to launch CityLinkLA, an effort to expand broadband access to every home and business in the city.

The internet has become as essential a utility as water, power and gas.

Smaller American cities like Lafayette, Chattanooga, and Cedar Falls, have successfully modernized their broadband infrastructure by building a municipal broadband utility. While many believe that city owned broadband remains the ideal, for a city the size of Los Angeles, build-out, maintenance and upgrades would be cost prohibitive. Additionally, attempts by major cities to expand broadband access have been hampered by court rulings that have capped free speeds, and some have been saddled with technology investments that quickly become obsolete.

Here in Los Angeles, by contrast, we’re pioneering a new model that has the potential to make LA the gold standard for enduring high speed connectivity.

Rather than undertake a costly taxpayer financed build, for which the City lacks both the financial and human capital, we propose to leverage our City’s sizeable assets to attract a private sector vendor to partner with us to improve broadband in Los Angeles. A winning bidder, bidders, or consortium would then be able to marshal city resources — such as light poles, strategically located right of ways, expedited permitting — to build out a vast and super-fast network, quicker and more cheaply than they otherwise could have. In return they would offer basic access to Angelenos at no cost, creating a dramatic expansion of fiber connectivity in Los Angeles alongside a publicly accessible wireless broadband network, which would also be the largest in the nation.

Ultimately, this will increase competition in the marketplace, enhancing speeds and price-points across the board to greatly benefit consumers while promoting innovation and investment. The City has sought expert input by issuing an initial request for information (RFI) prior to issuing a formal request for proposal (RFP), which is forthcoming.

This is not a uniquely LA problem, but a problem of national significance. Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, even Bucharest outpace American cities in broadband speed and price.

The internet has become as essential a utility as water, power and gas. It drives job creation, promotes innovation, expands markets for American businesses, and supports education, health care and public safety. And just as our highways and byways needs to be in suitable condition to allow for the free flow of commerce and a reasonable standard of living, in a digital age, so too do our virtual ones.

In 2015 and beyond, access to information must be a right, not privilege.

That’s why over the last several weeks, and in his State of the Union address, President Obama has proposed a variety of initiatives to increase broadband access and reduce barriers for cities like ours that are ready to confront this challenge. And Senator Cory Booker has introduced legislation to do just that, ensuring local municipalities maintain the right to build out networks.

While the President’s support put wind in the sails of our efforts to expand access to high-quality broadband, we are already moving at a quick clip — ideally build-out will begin in 2016 and be 90% complete within 5 years.

For Los Angeles, the real test will not only be in our ability to work collaboratively to translate the President’s commitment into concrete action, but in establishing our own network as a model for implementation in cities across the nation.

In 2015 and beyond, access to information must be a right, not privilege. Universal access to high speed broadband will increase global competitiveness and educational achievement while paying dividends in closing the digital divide, boosting job creation, and enhancing resiliency in the face of terrorism or natural disasters, including and especially the next major earthquake. It’s time to put Los Angeles in the internet fast lane.

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in The Hill.