Lauren K. Ohnesorge
Staff Writer-Triangle Business Journal
The City of Raleigh officially put its stamp of approval on AT&T’s (NYSE: T) plan to bring its “GigaPower” fiber-based internet service here.
Gail Roper, Raleigh’s chief information officer, says the timing is still up in the air. “That would be dependent upon when we finish out all the legal negotiations,” she says, adding that the hope is that things get rolling before the end of the year.
And no, this will have no impact on the city’s ongoing plan to entice Google and its Google Fiber service.
“It’s a separate initiative, she says. “Both will bring high-speed fiber to the region, which we know we need. One does not impact the other.”
And Time Warner Cable (NYSE: T) and other bidders in the North Carolina Next Generation Network – the initiative working with AT&T to bring fiber here – still have a shot at the City of Oaks.
“It is an open market,” she says. “Anyone who wants to enter that market is certainly able to. … We’re excited about the opportunities.”
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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.
