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Alexandria, Virginia, Ready to Invest in I-Net
By
on
In early November, the city of Alexandria, Virginia, began seeking bidders to construct an institutional network to connect city facilities. In addition to developing infrastructure to meet the city administrative needs, Alexandria wants to bring local schools, public safety, and its Smart City Mobility transportation efforts together on a publicly owned fiber optic system.
According to the city's website:
In addition to improving connectivity among City facilities and sites, the Municipal Fiber project will create potential partnership opportunities to expand consumer choice and increase available speeds for broadband services available in Alexandria. In response to consistent feedback regarding the lack of options for cable television and broadband Internet services, the City has actively pursued other potential providers. With the construction of the new fiber optic network, the City is planning to seek new partners who could lease excess conduit space to provide broadband service to residents and businesses. This would allow all providers to compete fairly and would encourage providers to offer consumer services.
The city of Alexandria currently leases an I-Net from Comcast and has decided to make the long-term investment to replace that infrastructure. By eliminating the lease arrangement, Alexandria will have more control over the use of the fiber optic network, giving them the ability to expand it in the future to businesses and households or work with private sector partners if the community chooses. The city will also be able to better plan for financial needs if they don't have to contend with unpredictable rate hikes from Comcast.
Alexandria has been looking at developing a municipal network for several years now, but budgeting has been a roadblock. By eliminating an expensive lease from Comcast, they will be able to redirecting those funds toward better local connectivity through a municipal network project.
In order to reduce the cost of the deployment wherever possible:
Because digging and burying conduit is a significant cost of building a fiber network, the City is taking all reasonable opportunities to lay conduit wherever current digging projects are already underway and align with the municipal fiber construction. This approach strives to avoid unnecessary impacts on neighborhoods and businesses.
Interested vendors can register online and find more information here; the bid number is 857.
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