That's a bookmark, Ossy. Thanks. Someday when you're in New York I'll escort you to the top of the World Trade Center. You'd have a field day there with a pair of binoculars.
You probably didn't intend for this to happen < smile >, but there was an interesting side story focusing on Palo Alto's fiber optic initiative (below) in the link that you provided. It evoked a sense that was prevalent during the early Nineties, when municipalities first learned how to extort fiber from startup fiber operators. That is, during the height of installing what were called municipal Institutional Networks, or I-Nets.
Most recently we've seen this in various provinces in Canada and most notably in the Chicago RFI/RFQ for CivicNet, where the procurement processes have been more palatably characterized as cooperatives.
The story in your link that I'm referring to:
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Palo Alto to Get Wired With New Network
Palo Alto intends to become the most-wired metropolis in the world by installing a high-speed telecommunications network as part of its city-administered utilities.
Councilmembers last month approved spending $2 million to install a fiber-optic network under the city's streets. The network will carry data, voice and video signals at far faster rates than conventional wire and cable.
Assistant city manager Bernard Strojny said Palo Alto will lease use of the network to private companies, including telephone, cable and Internet service providers.
The city is soliciting bids from fiber-optic cable suppliers and installers, Mr. Strojny said.
Palo Alto administers its own utilities, unlike most cities which contract for them.
The network will not constitute a new city utility, but will be part of the existing electric utility, Mr. Strojny said. The cable will be routed along the same conduits as local electrical lines, saving the city as much as $8 million in overhead, according to studies.
Companies that lease the lines will be able to splice connections from the 15-mile long network to homes and businesses in the area.
"We expect the system to pay itself off within three to five years," Mr. Strojny said. "The electric utility should make about $1 million a year in net profit after that time." |
