By Michael Pollick
- Image via Wikipedia
On Florida’s East Coast, Martin County already is doing what Sarasota County is considering.
The county — home to Stuart — had been paying Comcast for connectivity between all its schools, public safety and administration branches.
That contract was up for renewal, and Comcast was about to raise its fees substantially.
“We decided for the kind of money these people are asking us, we would be better off doing this on our own,” said Kevin Kryzda, the county’s chief information officer. “That is different from anybody else. And then we said we would like to do a loose association to provide broadband to the community while we are spending the money to build this network anyway. That was unique, too.”
The new project will use a contractor to build a fiber network throughout the county and a tiny rural phone company willing to foot part of the bill in return for permission to use the network to grab customers of broadband service. The combined public-private network would not only connect the sheriff’s office, county administration, schools and hospitals, but also would use existing rights of ways along major highways to run through Martin’s commercial corridors.
That would make it simple for a shopping center or office building to get hot-wired with fiber. And the setup might be inviting enough that another player — like Google Inc. — would come in with the goal of ultra-high-speed to the home, Kryzda said.
Article Continued on HeraldTribune.com…
Related articles by Zemanta
- Reservation Telephone Cooperative Builds FTTP Network Using ADC Equipment That Serves 19 Communities In Central North Dakota (eon.businesswire.com)
- An Information Community Case Study: Washington, D.C. – Broadband and Library Access | NewAmerica.net (mediapolicy.newamerica.net)
- How To Finance a Community Broadband Network When Incumbents Fight Back (gigaom.com)
