Palm Coast FiberNET Co-Lo Facility Introduced

Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts, Vice Mayor and Council Member Mary DiStefano, Council Members Bill Lewis, Holsey Moorman, and Frank Meeker used their golden scissors to 'cut the fiber' the morning of May 11, 2010:



The 'fiber cutting' ceremony marks the opening of the colocation facility housing the Palm Coast FiberNET and providers' equipment.

Also in attendance were:

• City Manager Jim Landon
  
• Chamber President Doug Baxter
  
• City's IT Director Courtney Violette
  
• CEO of Florida Hospital Flagler, David Ottati
  
• President of Design Nine, Dr. Andrew M. Cohill
  
• President of Lux Communications, Rob Beach
• and Office Divvy co-founders Lisa and Ky Ekinci
  

FiberNET is an open access, multi-provider telecommunications network that has been developed by the City of Palm Coast in response to requests from the business community to use City-owned fiber infrastructure to help spur business and jobs growth. Over the next two years, the plan is to get fiber connections to most businesses in the City. FiberNET will be operated as a digital road system, the City will build and maintain the digital road system, but private businesses (providers) will use the digital road to deliver goods and services to customers.

FiberNET is an exciting project for Palm Coast, primarily benefiting select business locations along the Palm Coast Parkway and Town Center. Office Divvy headquarters at the West Pointe Plaza were in the phase-1 of the project, with all infrastructure already underground. We expect to have fully up and running at Office Divvy in early June.

City of Palm Coast FiberNET Co-Location Facility Ceremony

The City of Palm Coast will introduce its new open access FiberNET network at an official 'fiber-cutting' ceremony on Tuesday, May 11th, at 8:15 a.m.

The ceremony will take place at the FiberNET collocation facility adjacent to Heroes Park, located approximately 1/2 mile west of the Flagler County Library on Palm Coast and Belle Terre Parkways. Brief facility tours will also be available from 9:00-11:00 a.m.



Palm Coast's FiberNET is Florida's first municipally owned open-access network, planned to serve select local business locations. City itself does not play the provider role, but rather charges for their infrastructure at wholesale rates to providers.

Office Divvy ™ already signed up for Palm Coast FiberNET through Lux Communications, one of the Palm Coast Fiber Net providers. At Office Divvy ™ we expect to be up and running with our fiber connection by late May, with speeds up to 10 times our current broadband connection.

A Tech Opportunity for Palm Coast >> Google

Google is planning to launch an experiment to make Internet access better and faster for everyone, by having ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country.

Google’s networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections; all at competitive rates.

Until March 26th, Google is asking interested municipalities to provide them with information about their communities through a Request for information (RFI), which the company will use to determine where to build the high speed network(s).

This represents an interesting opportunity for the City of Palm Coast, and the stars may be aligning for Palm Coast to be a top-contender to partner with Google for this project:

1. The City of Palm Coast has already implemented Florida's first municipally owned open-access network, serving select local business locations.
   
   
2. That network can be extended to more locations, including residential communities in Palm Coast, and the City indicates they are open to the idea.
   
   
3. Palm Coast has terrific new infrastructure. As a young (only 10 year old city), and well planned community, the implementation of Google’s project may be much easier compared to more mature cities.
   
   
4. City itself has a progressive approach towards technology, several high tech companies already operate in the Palm Coast landscape, new ones are being courted and brought in thanks to incentives offered.
   
   
5. The population of the city is diverse, entrepreneurial, and looking for opportunities.

Palm Coast City Leaders already stated that they “believe a Google operated open-access network focused strictly on residents would create a perfect synergy with the existing Palm Coast FiberNET network, Florida's first municipally owned open-access network which serves our local businesses.”

According to a news story published in Daytona Beach News Journal on March 13, Palm Coast Mayor John Netts said:

"We are a city that's investing in technology. We are a city that's on the forefront of the green movement. I think that would be significant to Google."

The same article reports that Seattle, St. Louis, Portland, Ore., and Grand Rapids, Mich., are among the many cities angling for the high-tech network. In Florida, Sarasota, Leesburg and Orlando reported to be courting Google.

Office Divvy ™, supports the City of Palm Coast’s effort and bid for the Google’s High Speed Fiber Optic Trial project. We have already done our share by posting this blog entry, and nominating Palm Coast through Google’s official nomination web-page. We are communicating with our members and friends to also nominate Palm Coast for this project...

How Can You Nominate Palm Coast for the Google Project?
Go to Google’s webpage where residents and community groups can nominate their city. Hurry, as this must be done prior to March 26th.

Follow this link:
- Nominate Palm Coast for Google Fiber Project -



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Resources:
• City of Palm Coast Announcement for Google Fiber Optic Trial
• More information on Palm Coast FiberNET Project
• Link to nominate Palm Coast for Google Fiber Optic Trial
• News Journal Article dated March 13, 2010