A $1 million broadband infrastructure project to improve Internet speed, pricing
and availability in Santa Fe is beginning today. This has been a priority for
City of Santa Fe Economic Development for almost five years. A Request for
Qualifications is being issued to selected firms to compete for the opportunity
to design, build, own and operate a fiber-optic link from downtown Santa Fe to
the St. Michael’s Drive corridor.
“It’s wonderful that
we will finally be able to build this project and improve Internet in Santa Fe,”
said Mayor David Coss. “The City Council heard the request from businesses and
community members and made it a priority for our bond
funding.”
The project was
authorized by the City Council as part of a Capital Improvements Program bond
issue in 2012. Once complete it will enable local Internet providers to increase
their network capacities and reduce costs. In turn this will translate into
better speeds and lower prices for customers. Slow and expensive Internet has
been a recurring complaint among local residents and
businesses.
Physically the
project consists of a fiber optic cable running inside an underground pipe. Data
is transmitted from one end of the cable to the other over strands of glass
fiber using a signal composed entirely of visible light. This technology allows
for extremely high data speeds, very low power consumption and no
electromagnetic noise or interference. The cable will follow city streets using
“directional boring” construction techniques which drastically reduce traffic
impacts and asphalt cutting, trenching and patching. The only visual evidence of
the completed project will be new manholes along the
route.
Santa Fe is
considered “well-served” in a national ranking of the number of local providers,
geographical availability and median level of service. Every home and most
businesses already have two physical routes to the Internet: A telephone line
and a television cable. In addition to these physical connections, mobile
devices, as well as small, fixed antennas attached to the outside of buildings;
provide Internet to an increasing number of individuals, residences and
businesses. But in spite of this abundance of pathways, there is a crucial
missing link in the infrastructure, an enduring legacy of the former telephone
monopoly. This missing link spans from the central telephone office to a
location about two miles away where several fiber optic cables emerge from the
ground after traversing many miles of road, railroad and countryside from remote
junctions across the state. Absent this two-mile link, local providers have only
one way to connect to the outside world, and must pay a steep toll on the data
transmitted over it. This effectively limits the levels of service they offer
their customers. The project being launched today will bridge that gap, allowing
providers for the first time to shop for better toll rates, interconnect with
their choice of carriers, and increase levels of customer
service.
Once the project is
operational, it is expected that local providers will begin to offer improved
high speed Internet to businesses and institutions along the route, which will
run through the Railyard to St. Michael’s Drive. Airport Road and other areas
will achieve similar availability as demand grows and providers extend the
network to serve customers in those areas.
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