Just some background on MetroNet... Original intent was for the City of Eugene to have EWEB build out fiber for local Metropolitan Area Network (Initial Phase) then later bring fiber to the curb for everyone in 2007 (Universal Build Phase). Plan also included opening up the network (Open Access/OpenPlatform) so other vendors could utilize capacity.
A revenue bond measure and then later a city charter change allowing the City to proceed with the build out passed with much grassroots support, but with wide opposition coming from local business interests and from Qwest, ATT Broadband (now Comcast) and other self-interests. Then not soon after EWEB (owned by the City of Eugene) nixed the Universal Build Phase and decided to serve only public, quasi-public and institutional facilities via the Public Agency Network (PAN). Reason given was EWEB did not want to incur additional debt and have electrical or water customers subsidize the Universal build phase. So the MetroNet idea was transformed with a focus to run fiber ONLY to "existing customers only". That meant EWEB's current partners in PAN with a scope which continued to include large businesses and large users only. Besides EWEB and the City of Eugene PAN (or PANet) includes the ESD 4J, LTD, Lane Co, SUB, LCOG/RIS, UofO, LCC, City of Springfield, LaneESD and other public entities. Note that EWEB utilized (and continues to utilize) the proceeds of the bond sale to finance fiber build out related to build out of "EWEB fiber network" for internal operations. Was the idea of the Universal Phase "used" to promote the bond measure to get the "Initial Phase" done. Was there truly any real dedication in making the Universal build phase a reality? Wondering what major changes occurred with performa numbers between the time the measure appeared on the ballot and the time EWEB and City of Eugene changed course and nixed the Universal Build idea? The end-result is EWEB ratepayers and City of Eugene taxpayers backing the debt financing the "Initial Phase" servicing private properties/facilities owned by large businesses and large local developers. It is very likely many involved in the grass-roots campaign supporting the bond measure and charter change would not have if they had knowledge of the current status/end result. EWEB has ran fiber to many of it's PAN partners including schools in Eugene School District 4J. Some of the fiber is leased but much is still dark. Each year 4J continues to lease more fiber capacity from EWEB to replace Qwest T1 lines and also to continue 4J WAN build out (e.g. 4J schools are also implementing voice services on the data network). EWEB has ran fiber to the city libraries, fire stations, the airport, satellite police stations, etc. And the plan was for EWEB to run fiber to and/or share fiber with private entities, i.e. Reg-Gd, Hynix, Valley River Center and Country Club Road medical offices and other ancillary businesses, BLM, USFS, State of Oregon and Lane County buildings, Peace Health, etc. (I still don't understand the Chambers involvement with "Light The Apple"? Could not EWEB and 4J done this on their own at effectively the same or lower cost?) Wondering how many private businesses located in downtown core are now connected via EWEB fiber? And I'm wondering what has happened to this idea of City of Eugene/EWEB making MetroNet independent? Acquiring info on any of these topics is quite difficult. The local media was all over the subject back at the start of the decade, but the subject does not appear to be discussed publicly any longer. Is anyone aware of a current local fiber map? Found a 5.5 year old version (produced in 2001 when the original push for MetroNet was underway) at http://cc.uoregon.edu/fiber/ BTW on an "unrelated" note, today accessing docs from the City of Eugene's public web server is like pulling teeth. Must be by-product of running on IIS with FrontPage Extensions. Or an Oregon IX or OWEN issue? Anyway local hop times over wcg.net (Williams) and nero.net are very sluggish today. See http://netfoo.nero.net/cgi-bin/netviewer.cgi?meta=partner&locale=CityEugene Darren ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Eugene Unix and Gnu/Linux User Group" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 7:54 PM Subject: Re: [Eug-lug] wi-fi hell--let's talk WiMax That sounds like a utility that wants to spend money (Loads of money), but has no clue on how the technology works. Or how the end user is going to use the service / technology. {snipped} _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
