[1st-mile-nm] Santa Fe Fiber Conduit Project Update

[Richard Lowenberg]

 Following are some excerpts from an article in today's New Mexican.
 To read the entire article, go to:
 www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/City-aims-to-upgrade-Internet-access


>>A proposal to improve broadband access in the city initially was 
>> included on a list of property-tax bond projects that voters will 
>> decide on during March's municipal election. However, city councilors 
>> last week decided instead to allocate $1 million for the broadband 
>> project from a $23 million bond issue that doesn't require voter 
>> approval. That bond issue will be paid off with revenues from an 
>> existing gross-receipts tax.

 The basic idea, according to Sean Moody, a city Economic Development 
 Division project planner, is for the city to install the infrastructure 
 for high-speed Internet — empty conduit and access points from the 
 underground pipes to privately owned interconnection facilities. Those 
 pipes can be filled with fiber optic cables by companies that want to 
 start providing high-speed service. The intention is that such service 
 could be made available at a more competitive price and in areas where 
 it's not even an option now. <<


>>Moody's proposal envisions three corridors where users are or could 
>> be, but critical decisions can't be made until the next step when the 
>> city spends up to $130,000 of the planned allocation to hire a 
>> professional business consultant to put together an analysis and 
>> engineering plan.

 Empty pipelines already exist underground in the recently redeveloped 
 Santa Fe Railyard, where officials laid the pipes with the hope that 
 someone would run fiber optic cables through them later. In the St. 
 Michael's Drive corridor, the city would have to trench and bury new 
 conduit that could connect with the pre-piped campus of the Santa Fe 
 University of Art and Design. The third potential service area is the 
 Santa Fe Municipal Airport on the southwestern edge of the city, but 
 that facility does not have any infrastructure in place for fiber 
 optics. <<

 

-- 
 Richard Lowenberg
 1st-Mile Institute
 Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
 505-989-9110 / 505-603-5200
 www.1st-mile.com
 rl at 1st-mile.com