[1st-mile-nm] Fiber Installation Creates 'Digital Backbone' in Albuquerque, N.M.

Tue Dec 6 08:46:37 PST 2016

Fiber Installation Creates 'Digital Backbone' in Albuquerque, N.M.

Albuquerque is paying $1 million for the line, half of what it would 
have cost if the city didn't include the fiber installation in an 
ongoing private-sector project.

BY KEVIN ROBINSON-AVILA, ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL (ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) / 
DECEMBER 5, 2016

http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/Fiber-Installation-Creates-Digital-Backbone-in-Albuquerque-NM.html

(TNS) -- Businesses and neighborhoods along Central Avenue could soon be 
getting high-speed internet service at an affordable price, thanks to a 
fiber optic line the city is installing from Louisiana to Coors as part 
of the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project.

The city included the fiber line in its contract with HDR, the 
engineering firm managing ART construction. The fiber line will cost 
less than half what it would as a separate project, because ART 
contractors are already ripping up streets and digging ditches where the 
line will be installed, said Peter Ambs, the city’s chief information 
officer.

Albuquerque is paying $1 million for the line, using city bond money 
approved by voters in 2013. Had the fiber been laid separately from ART, 
it could have cost about $243,000 per mile, or a total of about $2.5 
million, according to estimates by CTC Technology and Energy, a 
Washington, D.C., consulting firm contracted by HDR.

Installation will run parallel to the ART construction timeline, 
allowing the fiber to come online as rapid transit service begins in 
late 2017, Ambs said.

The city will own the fiber infrastructure. But it will provide open 
access for community broadband and internet service providers to hook up 
businesses, institutions and neighborhoods to the system. That could 
allow those providers to offer broadband access to end users at lower 
costs than what is available today, Ambs said.

“We’ll provide open access to the fiber backbone, making it available to 
any and all community groups and internet providers to offer broadband 
services to constituents along Central Avenue and adjoining 
neighborhoods,” Ambs said. “This can help them provide internet services 
at lower costs because the core foundation will already be installed.”

In addition, the project will connect the emerging Innovation District 
along Central Avenue, the University of New Mexico and the city’s own 
networks together into a high-speed platform that could significantly 
advance research, development and deployment of next-generation “smart 
city” initiatives and potentially entice more private sector investment 
Downtown.

“It’s all part of our revitalization efforts along Central Avenue,” 
Mayor Richard Berry told the Journal. “It’s a digital backbone for 
connecting our citizens with public services online and connecting 
businesses along Central to high-speed internet. It can be a catalyst 
for investment.”

The fiber line will help facilitate plans for new digital services and 
infrastructure, such as smart LED street lighting, mobile pay and 
ticketing for ART users and smart parking meters, Berry said.

The new fiber line will immediately offer huge broadband capacity, plus 
ability for easy upgrades in the future, Ambs said. The line itself 
includes 288 strands of fiber.

“With just a pair of fiber strands, you can provide gigabits of 
capability, so with 288 strands, it’s almost unlimited what you can do 
with it,” Ambs said.

The piping that holds the fiber has four separate tubes, with the 
current line occupying just one of those tubes. That means more fiber 
can be pulled through the other tubes as needed to increase capacity in 
the future without ripping up the streets again.

“We want to see the Google fiber-type service that exists in other 
cities become available here, with gigabit speeds at about $79 per month 
and 100 megabits at $49,” Ambs said.

Ricardo Aguilar, founder and CEO of the cloud-based computer, storage 
and network infrastructure provider Seamlus LLC, said the new fiber line 
could significantly improve the availability of affordable broadband by 
making the market more competitive for more internet service providers.

“It will provide the infrastructure needed for smaller guys to tap into 
and start bringing down costs,” Aguilar said. “It could allow them to 
better compete with the bigger players by offering more affordable 
services. That will give our citizens and our universities and research 
institutions better access to high-speed internet.”

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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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