City plans to lease fiber optics
Network would connect all Hub services
The city of Boston is seeking a $10 million investment to lease fiber infrastructure that would connect and provide broadband internet service to 170 city-owned buildings.
The proposed contract with Crown Castle Fiber LLC, which would rent fiber optic infrastructure for up to 30 years, would expand on its existing network — with the goal of connecting all the city’s services, such as schools, public housing and public safety locations, to city fiber.
Patricia Boyle-McKenna, the interim Chief Information Officer for the Department of Innovation and Technology, said the expansion would put the city “way ahead of other big cities.”
“Having a well-connected fiber infrastructure throughout the city of Boston that will provide good quality high-speed internet to every neighborhood in the city of Boston is crucial, and this is the infrastructure that will allow for that,” Boyle-McKenna said during a city council hearing to seek authorization of the contract.
Because the project involves using available assets, it will be a “service contract,” and “not a construction project,” according to Mike Lynch, the innovation and technology department’s Director of Broadband and Cable. He says this is the first step in bringing a fully connected network to the city.
“The goal of this project is to get connectivity through all city buildings,” Lynch told the Herald. “Once we get that, the rest of the applications that people want: available Wi-Fi services, good surveillance, smart city technologies on intersections, that will come after this gets built.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, District 9 City Councilor Mark Ciommo, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, said he will recommend passage from the city council, which will vote next week.
“It’s a contract for infrastructure that’s already there,” Ciommo said. “It’s a really good deal for the city of Boston. It’s going to better connect everybody in the city.”
Lynch said building a new infrastructure would more than triple the cost of leasing, as they’re proposing to do with the contract.
“This investment will bring back a savings to us probably within four to five years,” Lynch said. “Because we’ll have the big reduction in the MRC, the monthly recurring charge.”
The BoNet, or Boston Fiber Network, was originally developed by utilizing fiber infrastructure owned by Comcast, RCN and Verizon. According to DOIT, the expansion would meet the city’s need for fiberconnected public services through a newly acquired division of Crown Castle called Sunesys.