03-08-10 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Applications for the BTOI"s second and final round are due by March 1 S, 2010. In the second round the NTIA has adopted a "comprehensive communities" approach as its top priority in awarding infrastructure grants, focusing on middle mile broadband projects that connect key community anchor institutions -such as libraries, hospitals, community colleges, universities, and public safety institutions. As noted above, the City of Roseville manages an established technology partnership with metro area municipalities and service organizations including fire service districts and a watershed management district. Collectively the group is called Metro-INET to identify the transitive relationship that has developed amongst the participants of the network. Metro-INET is a communications network comprised of 67 public facilities located within 4 metro counties. - Of these facilities, 39 are police and fire stations making Metro-1NET one of Che largest public safety networks in the State of Minnesota. Currently the agencies of Meu•o-INET• rely almost exclusively on the use of the Comcast provided Institutional Network (INET) to provide the facility network interconnections necessary to cost share information technology services. But while the current INET is nearly all fiber based, it does not reach to all facilities within Metro-INET. Most of these unserved facilities are fire stations that are a critical component of the Metro-INET public safety network. s;:! The City (and the consortium group) has been approached by American Fiber Systems (AFS) to enter into a public/private partnership to build a fiber network that will replicate the I-Net. AFS is a privately held communications company that owns fiber optic networks in 9 metropolitan areas including St. Paul, MN. AFS owns over 76,000 fiber miles with a primary business of providing dark ftbet• to telephone carriers and businesses. AFS also provides managed network services to businesses in the communities where they operate. The AFS -Saint Paul network extends between the downtown areas of St. Paul and into Minneapolis and provides services to businesses within this area. AFS seeks to expand their network and services to businesses in the north east metro area and is seeking federal funding through the BTOP grant to accomplish this goal. ; AFS was aware of the Metro-INET collaborative and is seeking our support of their application to the NTIA for consideration of a BTOP grant to construct a 100 mile fiber optic ring throughout the northeast metro area to serve business and our public safety institutions. AFS would serve as the grant applicant. Members of Metro-INE"f arc asked to serve as public sponsors of the grant application and the public beneficiary by virtue of a grant to use the AFS Fiber network to interconnect the public safety facilities and other public buildings within our networking group. Additionally AFS will provide dark fiber capacity on the existing AFS fiber ring located in St. Paul. In total, AFS is proposing to provide to Metro-INET access to 140 route miles of fiber. City Staff will be available for any questions. POLICY OBJCCTIVIs Joint cooperative ventures are consistent with past practices as well as the goals and strategies outlined in the Imagine Roseville 2025 process. In addition, the preservation of successful partnerships provides continuing financial and operational benefits for the City. Page 2 of 3 5