Acting on the advice of the Corus Group, commissioners in Athens-Clarke, GA are examining their options for establishing a city-run broadband service, according to a report from Flagpole.
The Corus Group is a consulting firm which has helped other cities like Valdosta and Kennesaw conduct studies into the potential of municipal broadband networks, and they recommended laying a loop of fiber optic cable around Athens-Clarke county at a cost of between $2.1 – $3.2 million. According to Flagpole, government buildings would act as hubs, dispersing broadband access to neighborhoods at speeds up to 10 gigabytes-per-second, significantly outpacing speeds provided by Charter and its competitors.
Though the costs of such a municipal network would be significant, Athens-Clarke County has a variety of options for funding the network, such as using WiFi to sell ads on buses, leasing the network’s infrastructure to private companies, or even developing into an ISP in its own right, according to Flagpole. County commissioners are seeking partners to help finance the network, with an eye toward the University of Georgia and the local school district, who would no longer have to pay for internet access if the municipal network is implemented.
Proponents of the network believe high-speed broadband and convenient county-wide WiFi service would attract new businesses to the county. Commissioners who represent rural areas of the county, however, told Flagpole they would rather the network start at the outskirts of the county and work its way toward the center, providing access to the underserved areas of the county first.
March 26, 2018
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