Provo council approves funds to hire consultants for plan B

At least the mayor of Provo realizes the benefits of the network and is looking for ways to continue its existence should Veracity default.

Genelle Pugmire – Daily Herald

Provo Mayor John Curtis said he is following the Boy Scout motto to be prepared when it comes to the future of the city’s fiber optic network.

The Municipal Council made another move towards the mayor’s working contingency plan, or Plan B, at Tuesday’s Council meeting. The council voted to appropriate $50,000 from the city’s fund balance to hire two consulting firms to help develop the plan.

For nearly a year city administrators have been discussing the need to have a plan B if the need should arise. It’s something they haven’t had since iProvo was sold.

“We are committed to preparation,” Mayor Curtis said. “This does not mean that Veracity hasn’t been fulfilling their contract. In fact they have made upgrades to the system.”

However he did say that a request for qualification has been put out for companies who might be able to take over the fiber optic network if needed.

“We have made a request for qualification last week,” said Wayne Parker, chief administrative officer. “We want to move expeditiously on the matter.”

According to Curtis, interested companies have 45 days to respond to the request.

“We want them to come tell us what they do and get pre-qualified,” he said. “We want to see what they can offer and we want to know they are qualified to be a serious contender.”

Article Continued on the Daily Herald

About Mark Milliman

Mark Milliman is a Principal Consultant at Inphotonics Research driving the adoption and assisting local governments to plan, build, operate, and lease access open-access municipal broadband networks. Additionally, he works with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to increase the value of their intellectual capital through the creation of strategic product plans and execution of innovative marketing strategies. With more than 22 years of experience in the telecommunications industry that began at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Mark has built fiber, cable, and wireless networks around the world to deliver voice, video, and data services. His thorough knowledge of all aspects of service delivery from content creation to the design, operation, and management of the network is utilized by carriers and equipment manufacturers. Mark conceived and developed one of the industry's first multi-service provisioning platform and is multiple patent holder. He is active in the IEEE as a senior member. Mark received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.