IP: Chicago Civicnet to bring fiber to every neighborhood

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

For several years, in my talks (which I sent pointers to to IP) , I have 
referred to this activity in Chicago as a way that many cities will take to 
get broadband. It makes sense like cities providing sewers, roads etc.  djf


> http://lw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=130648
>
>
>
> [Some excerpts - BSA]
>
>
> Chicago's CivicNet to bring fiber to every neighborhood
>
> Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) deployments have
> already begun popping up around the country-driven by an unexpected source:
> small-town local governments. Among those municipalities that have built
> their own fiber-optic                    networks to bring high-speed
> Internet access to their constituents are Braintree, MA; Ashland, OR;
> Coldwater, MI; Harlan, IA; LaGrange, GA; and Wadsworth, OH. Now,major cities
> are taking note.
>
> Three years ago, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley established the Mayor's
> Council of Technology Ad visors, a group of 70 individuals from the public,
> private, and academic sectors who were charged with attacking "the digital
> divide" and bringing more jobs into the city. The result was CivicNet, a
> public-private project designed to bring fiber to every neighborhood in
> Chicago.
>
> Of course, financing a fiber-optic network is easier said than done. "The
> reason why broadband hasn't succeeded terribly well in neighborhoods around
> the country is that the return on investment hasn't been there for companies
> to really take a whack at it," asserts Doug Power, assistant commissioner
> and director of Chicago's CivicNet roject.
>
> While most of the other city-driven FTTH deployments are managed by the town
> utility company and financed through bonds or loans, Chicago has come up
> with a plan that will not use any taxpayer money. The Mayor's Council of
> Technology Ad visors has
> decided to take an outsource approach.  "We are aggregating, for the first
> time, the voice and data leased-line business of all the city agencies, the
> park district, the housing authority, transit authority, city colleges,
> Chicago public schools, and the city itself," explains Power. "Prior to now,
> most of us had been on separate networks, so we're aggregating our voice and
> data leased-lineg costs, which add up to $31 million a year, and we're
> positioning ourselves as an anchor tenant."
>
> As anchor tenant, the city will guarantee the winning entity its business
> for the next 10years, with an option to extend the contract to 25 years. The
> city will also provide its spare fiber, space in city buildings for use as
> node sites or central offices, and the "right-of-way" to existing
> infrastructure, including ducts, conduits, freight tunnels, and alongside
> rapid transit lines.
>
> The city envisions a consortium of private companies tackling the project,
> which, in the  beginning, will involve aggregating existing copper and
> fiber.  In addition, there must be a carriers' carrier or vendor-neutral
> element to the project,                    contends Power, "so other
> companies will be able to lease dark fiber or wholesale unbundled services
> from CivicNet at the same fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory rates as
> any other retail user, including the in-house retail user."
>
> "Part of the intent here is to get high-speed services at competitive
> pricing into neighborhoods," he explains. "By having a vanilla,
> vendor-neutral element to this that's available to any telecommunications
> provider, that should keep anybody from getting too carried away on high
> pricing."
>
>
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> -----------------------------
> Bill St. Arnaud
> Senior Director Network Projects
> CANARIE Inc
> www.canarie.ca/~bstarn

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