After being passed over by both Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG) with their fiber to the premises (FTTP) network plans, the city of Baltimore is taking matters into its own hands.
Baltimore spent a year lobbying Google Fiber to build a FTTP network in their city, but lost out to Kansas City, which became the Internet search provider's first fiber target.
According to a Baltimore Business Journal report, the city sought the help of broadband Internet consultant Magellan Advisors to create a plan to extend higher speed services to residential and business customers.
Magellan has been tasked with examining the costs and risks of expanding its 30-mile fiber network that serves as the backbone for its public safety radio system. It also will help the city understand how it can overbuild into additional areas and "identify key anchor tenants" such as another local Internet provider or even Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) that could rent part of their city-owned network.
Although the fiber ring "cuts across a big portion of the city," Baltimore's Chief Information Officer Chris Tonjes said that it can't reach everywhere and the city's geography makes it difficult to expand network infrastructure into new areas.
Two of the key questions that Tonjes wants to answer is how they can effectively extend more bandwidth to underserved parts of the city, and how much private funding the project will need.
For more:
- Baltimore Business Journal has this article
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