[1st-mile-nm] National Lambda Rail shutting down

[Steve Ross]

Even though the new owner walked away from NLR, maybe it still has assets,
or NM could challenge the deal... or NM could move over to the I2 system.
Long shots all. But the original NLR "lease" on the fiber would under
normal circumstances run to 2026, if what I remember is correct. Certainly,
the lease document itself and the issue of who provides the managed
services (lights the fiber, mainly, and maintains it), should be known by
university (customer) IT departments.



Steve Ross
Corporate Editor, Broadband Communities Magazine (www.bbcmag.com)
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On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 12:00 PM, Owen Densmore <owen at backspaces.net> wrote:

> Could someone summarize/simplify for this noob!?  Fascinating stuff.
>
>    -- Owen
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 10:17 PM, Steve Ross <editorsteve at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> That's odd. I thought the IRU ran for 20 years starting in 2006. I think
>> your friend meant the managed service contract with Level3, which would
>> have been due to expire in 2013 (It was the typical 7 year deal, I think,
>> and also started in 2006, because NLR was originally on a Qwest backbone
>> for the first few years). Does this mean the NLR leased fiber, though dark,
>> still is an NLR asset? Or did the IRU go back to Level3, perhaps to settle
>> the debt on the service contract? As I remember, the IRU was for a fiber
>> pair going everywhere Level3 went, or everywhere in the United States. I
>> know a lot of the colleges on NLR also are on I2, and not many probably
>> need both, but I2 isn't secured by an IRU -- Level3 lights it more or less
>> the way Level3 wants to light it. So it isn't as useful as a research tool,
>> I would think. But it still is capacity that maybe NM schools can use?
>>
>>
>>
>> Steve Ross
>> Corporate Editor, Broadband Communities Magazine (www.bbcmag.com)
>> 201-456-5933 mobile, 781-284-8810 landline
>> 707-WOW-SSR3 (707-969-7773) Google Voice
>> editorsteve (Facebook, LinkedIn)
>> editorsteve1 (Twitter)
>> steve at bbcmag.com
>> editorsteve at gmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 11:20 PM, C Steven Lucero <
>> cstevenlucero at latingroupllc.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Richard,
>>>
>>> I met this week with a person intimately familiar with this. In short
>>> Level3 issued a policy in recent years that they would not renew any fiber
>>> IRU's. Simulataneously, it was learned that NLR was 3 yrs in default of
>>> payments, which was not disclosed to Dr Soon-Shiong. Given that the term of
>>> the IRU was coming up, he declined to pay the balance due and L3 cancelled
>>> the contract. This happened in Jan.
>>>
>>> Just an FYI.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Steven
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Richard Lowenberg <rl at 1st-mile.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks for the posting, John.
>>>>
>>>> It would be good to hear from UNM, State IT staff or others with
>>>> knowledge about this, as there has been little press coverage on the matter.
>>>>
>>>> This from Wikipedia:
>>>> In November 2011 the control of NLR was purchased from its university
>>>> membership by a billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong for $100M, who indicated
>>>> his intention to upgrade NLR infrastructure and repurpose portions of it to
>>>> support an ambitious healthcare project.
>>>> The upgrade never took place.   NLR ceased operations in March 2014.
>>>>
>>>> RL
>>>>
>>>> On Mar 26, 2014, at 7:51 PM, John Brown wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Various educational institutions are reporting that the National
>>>> Lambda Rail will cease operations shortly.
>>>>
>>>> What does this mean for NM,  UNM, NM State, and the taxpayers of NM
>>>> who have invested heavily into this infra-structure.
>>>>
>>>> Santa Fe's recent "fiber RFQ" was relying on using NLR assets to get
>>>> to the world and thus hopefully reduce the cost of bandwidth...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  ---------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
>>>> 1st-Mile Institute          www.1st-mile.org
>>>> P. O.  Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM    87504
>>>> 505-603-5200                 rl at 1st-mile.org
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
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