[1st-mile-nm] Fwd: High Speed Internet Project Launched

[Richard Lowenberg]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 17, 2013

Contacts: Sean Moody; Project Administrator; Economic Development
Division; 505-955-6350; sxmoody at santafenm.gov

Jodi McGinnis Porter; Public Information/Multi-Media Administrator;
505-795-4169, jmporter at santafenm.gov

HIGH SPEED INTERNET PROJECT LAUNCHED

SANTA FE, NM - A $1 million broadband infrastructure project to improve
Internet speed, pricing and availability in Santa Fe is beginning 
today.
This has been a priority for City of Santa Fe Economic Development for
almost five years. A Request for Qualifications is being issued to
selected firms to compete for the opportunity to design, build, own and
operate a fiber-optic link from downtown Santa Fe to the St. Michael's
Drive corridor.

"It's wonderful that we will finally be able to build this project and
improve Internet in Santa Fe," said Mayor David Coss. "The City Council
heard the request from businesses and community members and made it a
priority for our bond funding."

The project was authorized by the City Council as part of a Capital
Improvements Program bond issue in 2012. Once complete it will enable
local Internet providers to increase their network capacities and 
reduce
costs. In turn this will translate into better speeds and lower prices
for customers. Slow and expensive Internet has been a recurring
complaint among local residents and businesses.

Physically the project consists of a fiber optic cable running inside 
an
underground pipe. Data is transmitted from one end of the cable to the
other over strands of glass fiber using a signal composed entirely of
visible light. This technology allows for extremely high data speeds,
very low power consumption and no electromagnetic noise or 
interference.
The cable will follow city streets using "directional boring"
construction techniques which drastically reduce traffic impacts and
asphalt cutting, trenching and patching. The only visual evidence of 
the
completed project will be new manholes along the route.

Santa Fe is considered "well-served" in a national ranking of the 
number
of local providers, geographical availability and median level of
service. Every home and most businesses already have two physical 
routes
to the Internet: A telephone line and a television cable. In addition 
to
these physical connections, mobile devices, as well as small, fixed
antennas attached to the outside of buildings; provide Internet to an
increasing number of individuals, residences and businesses. But in
spite of this abundance of pathways, there is a crucial missing link in
the infrastructure, an enduring legacy of the former telephone 
monopoly.
This missing link spans from the central telephone office to a location
about two miles away where several fiber optic cables emerge from the
ground after traversing many miles of road, railroad and countryside
from remote junctions across the state. Absent this two-mile link, 
local
providers have only one way to connect to the outside world, and must
pay a steep toll on the data transmitted over it. This effectively
limits the levels of service they offer their customers. The project
being launched today will bridge that gap, allowing providers for the
first time to shop for better toll rates, interconnect with their 
choice
of carriers, and increase levels of customer service.

Once the project is operational, it is expected that local providers
will begin to offer improved high speed Internet to businesses and
institutions along the route, which will run through the Railyard to 
St.
Michael's Drive. Airport Road and other areas will achieve similar
availability as demand grows and providers extend the network to serve
customers in those areas.


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