A new fiber optic cable, however, is expected to give Santa Fe a much-needed boost, increasing Internet speeds and creating more competition in the market.
“If we want Santa Fe to be competitive in a 21st-century economy, we need to make sure that people have access to infrastructure that will truly unleash the potential of our entrepreneurs,” Mayor Javier Gonzales said Wednesday during a groundbreaking ceremony for the $1 million project.
The two-mile section of fiber optic cable is designed to improve the speed, price and availability of Internet access in the city by introducing competition to a stagnant market. The line will stretch between CenturyLink’s central telephone exchange building on East Alameda Street and a concrete hut on Second Street near the Rail Trail. The new Internet pipeline will run parallel to an existing line owned by CenturyLink and offer an alternative to CenturyLink’s line.
“Effectively, the project can be thought of as a ‘Farmers Market for Megabits,’ ” Sean Moody, special projects administrator for the city’s Economic Development Division, wrote in a memo. “In the newly competitive environment, wholesale prices are expected to drop and restabilize at sustainable competitive rates. Retail providers will in turn begin to compete for customers by offering better speeds and lower prices.”
That’s the hope, anyway.
“The potential of this narrow, two-mile section of real estate is going to be tremendous, and I see great things from this project,” said City Councilor Joseph Maestas, who also attended the ceremony at the Santa Fe Railyard.
“In a way, if you want to call it a ‘monopoly buster,’ that’s just what it is,” Maestas said.
City Councilor Signe Lindell, who also spoke at the groundbreaking, said the project was a priority for businesses.
“The business community made it very clear that better, faster, easier access to the Internet is critical to our future growth and to better jobs,” she said.
Simon Brackley, president and CEO of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce, agreed.
“This is going help startup businesses. It’s going to help existing businesses. It’s going to help people who work from home,” he said. “It’s going to help businesses that work with a great deal of data to move that information around and help to improve Santa Fe’s connection to the world.”
The mayor said the project would help spur economic development, including in the software and post-production film editing industries.
“Today is an important day for Santa Fe’s economy,” Gonzales said. “It’s the start of a project that will allow for us to accomplish some critical objectives. When we talk about growing an economy for the 21st century, an economy that works for every Santa Fean, you have to have infrastructure that is competitive with any place in the world. Part of that infrastructure is high-speed Internet access.”
©2015 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
