City Council and city staff have asked themselves if there was a need to provide this infrastructure, said City Manager Bill Brock.
After Vice Mayor Suzi Rubin and Councilman Dan Clark commented on a recent article about another city developing a Wi-Fi network, Brock requested two attorneys to make a presentation to council recently on doing the same thing in Monroe.
“I wanted to gauge the temperature of the council to see if this is a project worth pursuing,” Brock said.
Rubin said she has had several people mention to her that they had problems having only one Internet carrier to choose from. However, she said this was not the only reason the city is looking into this issue.
“We are still in the early stages of exploration here, and a good number of existing systems are in a partnership with the private sector,” she said in an email response. “We will need to weigh options of cost vs. increased economic development and improved service for current residents and businesses.
After the presentation by Columbus attorneys Chris Miller and Greg Dunn of the firm of Ice Miller and some discussion by council afterward, Brock said he felt there was enough interest from council for city staff to explore possible options.
Dunn said during the presentation that the city should look at fiber-optic first then expand out, noting the city of Dublin has 96 fibers, the equivalent of 100 miles of fiber-optic cable that is connected to every data center in that city and is the backbone of its Wi-Fi network. He said Dublin invested $5 million into its system, which has resulted in a number of economic development benefits.
Dunn also pointed out that the city of Gahanna, another Columbus suburb, had built its network by extending fiber-optic cable as it added, repaired and expanded roads without a lot of investment.
While Ohio does not prohibit cities from competing with the private sector, Dunn said it’s been difficult for cities to develop a model that would work on a residential level.
“What cities are good at is infrastructure, but have trouble with fast-moving technology and hiring high-priced personnel to manage and operate it,” he said.
Dunn said developing a residential model has usually worked with cities who have their own electric systems or with larger businesses and a relationship with a Community Investment Corporation. He said a fiber optic network is a good idea for a city, especially in the economic development arena. Once the fiber optic network is installed, Dunn said officials can look at Wi-Fi throughout the area. He also said it could be a revenue source for the city pointing out that the city of Dublin generates about $35,000 a month leasing their fiber optic lines to telecommunication companies.
Dunn said if the city was interested in moving forward, Monroe officials will have to look at what assets you have and other available assets. He said the city may want to connect to a data center as that is what businesses are moving toward. Once that is done, businesses can then and that the businesses can then connect to that data center, he said.
“We have put in some dark fiber (-optic cable) as a part of our signal interconnect project last year so that provides an opportunity to look at these initiatives again,” Brock said.
The city of Lebanon, which owns its own municipal electric utility, created its own telecommunications utility in 1998 to provide cable television, Internet and telephone service that was to provide lower costs by becoming a provider to compete with the private sector. That goal never panned out. The initial cost to install the infrastructure was estimated at $5.6 million but the actual cost was closer to $13 million.
“Telecommunications (as a municipal utility)was not a good fit for the community,” said Lebanon City Manager Pat Clements. “We were fortunate to be able to shift that enterprise to the private sector.”
While Rubin said she was not fully aware of all of Lebanon’s experience in telecommunications, she said that would be one of the things council will be looking into as well as the financial implications. “We are still at the absolute beginning stage of research here,” she said.
Councilman Steve Black agreed with Rubin that the city is still in the early stages of the discussion and far too early to speculate what sorts of funding mechanisms that could be used or other available options.
“I think the most simplistic way to think about any potential broadband infrastructure investment would be to compare it to the benefit of having Interstate 75 running through our city; without it, we would be nowhere near as marketable as we are” Black said. “The same can be said for an investment in broadband internet access via a fiber optic backbone. To truly compete for the 21st-century jobs, we need to have 21st-century amenities.”
Black said there is a real need and a real interest from some in the higher-tech business community to locate jobs in Monroe and the city needs to put the tools in place to allow the city’s development team to aggressively pursue those companies.
However, at least one councilman is unsure about the Wi-Fi possibility.
“I personally do not support the city getting into the Wi-Fi business. I don’t think my constituents would like the city to spend the money and manpower to operate and maintain Wi-Fi,” Councilman Todd Hickman said. “We need to maintain the services we have now and make them better. There is just to much work involved that is already provide by other companies and I don’t believe we could provide better Wi-Fi than what’s already out there.”
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