English: I took photo with Canon camera in Longmont, CO. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The city of Longmont should be required to provide equal access to any qualified communications company with non-discriminatory pricing so it does not compete with commercial service providers.
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The city of Longmont, Colorado which voted in 2011 to build out its own gigabit municipal network is moving forward on this plan with Calix. Longmont Power and Communications will be the new municipal entity tasked with providing electricity and telecommunications services to residents. Calix will be providing voice and data fiber and network technology for the project.
CivSource has been following efforts in Colorado to work around a 2005 law made at the state level which made building municipal broadband networks challenging. In recent years, cities in Colorado have voted on provisions to go ahead with these networks and gigabit access as telecom companies have been slow to act. Boulder,Colorado most recently decided to move forward with two ballot initiatives that would let residents decide how to move forward on gigabit broadband there.
Longmont is one of the largest communities in the United States to embark on a municipal fiber deployment. The fiber network is being constructed in six phases; with phase one beginning construction in August of 2014. If they are successful, Longmont will be Colorado’s first gigabit city.
Calix for its part has already helped other cities build out gigbit networks. The company will be providing the Calix E7-20 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP), 836GE Residential Services Gateways (SG), and 700GE family of indoor optical network terminals (ONTs) for the network.
“This network architecture was already put to the test during last year’s severe flooding in our area. Our network performed well, keeping the community connected and up to speed,” said Tom Roiniotis, general manager of Longmont Power & Communications.
