[1st-mile-nm] Glenwood, CO Fiber Network

[Richard Lowenberg]

The City of Glenwood Springs, CO is looking to expand its municipal fiber
optic network and services.
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www.postindependent.com/article/20071221/VALLEYNEWS/448683357

Glenwood city council looks into expanding broadband

By Pete Fowler
December 21, 2007

GLENWOOD SPRINGS - The city of Glenwood Springs is looking at expanding
its broadband network with fiber-optic cables to every home.

"You can send the Library of Congress coast to coast in just seconds over
one fiber strand," said Bryan Wassom, senior account director with Alcatel
Lucent.

Get a phone call that shows up on television, pause the video on demand,
then decide whether or not to send it to voicemail or take it on a video
call over the television.

That would be an option for someone with voice-over Internet protocol
taking advantage of what a direct fiber-optic has to offer, Wassom said.

On Thursday, UTI Inc., of Georgia, and Alcatel Lucent presented a business
model to expand Glenwood's fiber-optic network requiring around $10
million in capitol expenses and $12 million in bond issues.

Glenwood Springs installed municipal fiber-optic infrastructure in 2002
when it created the Community Broadband Network. The city had contacted
UTI to explore the possibilities of expanding the network and its
services.

The presentation emphasized that expanding fiber-optics would lead to
higher bandwidths and increased services that would eventually pay for
themselves.

"You can quickly realize that approximately $10 million a year is going
out of this community to pay for video, data, voice," said J. Allen Davis,
president of UTI.

Wassom and Davis said expanding the network and its offerings would lower
the cost of services by increasing competition. It would also benefit the
city in less tangible ways and build a strong infrastructure for the
future.

For example, Wassom said, Yahoo! Chose to locate server facilities in
Chelan County, Wash., in large part because it has its own fiber-optic
network.

Wassom played a video in which a hospital CEO says the fiber-optic network
has literally saved lives by allowing for quicker consultations and
diagnoses.

Mayor Bruce Christensen said Glenwood had no broadband services available
until just months after the city installed the Community Broadband Network
and service providers eagerly jumped in.

Wassom said by taking an increased role in providing voice, data and video
with fiber-optic infrastructure, the city can better control its own
destiny. He said it would allow Glenwood to do things traditional service
providers never would: allowing free or discounted access for hospitals,
schools or even households of certain incomes.

"It strikes me as odd when the telecommunications industry steps up and
says you shouldn't do this," Wassom said.

Christensen said the difference he's noticed between a wireless connection
to the city's network and a fiber-optic connection is phenomenal.

"All of these technologies discussed are not available to our citizens
right now," he said. "We do provide fiber to a number of businesses in
town, but there's really no affordable way for people to get that
technology and that bandwidth to their homes. If we do that, as we're
seeing, there's this huge variety of services that are available."


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Richard Lowenberg
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110,  505-603-5200 cell

1st-Mile Institute
New Mexico Broadband Initiative
www.1st-mile.com
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