Click for the full presentation.
The City of Benicia is working with Lit San Leandro LLC (LSL) to bring a gigabit-class fiber network to the Benicia Industrial Park and the adjacent Arsenal area. That’s the top line from a status report I gave to the Benicia City Council this evening.
Benicia issued a request for proposals last year, asking interested service providers to submit ideas for delivering industrial and commercial-grade broadband service. Among the resources the City put on the table was $750,000. The most attractive proposal – for a full fiber network – was submitted by LSL. Since then, both the City and LSL have been working on solving key challenges, such as how to connect the local network to long haul fiber and Tier 1 data centers.
LSL identified several potential solutions, and is working on more detailed plans. Parallel to that, the City and LSL will be negotiating a formal contract, which will be brought back to the City Council for approval, likely in the next two or three months. After that, LSL can begin construction.
The preliminary network design includes a loop through the central core of the Benicia Industrial Park, with spurs serving the Arsenal area just to the south and the periphery of the park.
I helped the City develop the RFP, evaluate the proposals and get to the point where a tentative agreement is in place with LSL. The work was based on a report I did last year for the City, which looked at alternatives for meeting the broadband needs of current BIP tenants and businesses that might be considering moving there.
If all goes to plan, the Benicia project will be LSL’s second metro fiber network, the first being in San Leandro – another project I assisted with.
Downloads:
Benicia industrial broadband status report, presentation to the Benicia City Council, 15 July 2014
Request for Proposal, Benicia Industrial Broadband Project, 30 September 2013
Benicia City Council minutes, 2 July 2013