By OLIVIER UYTTEBROUCK
Nov. 10, 2000 (Albuquerque Journal)—Albuquerque's sewers could earn an estimated $1.2 million a year if a Maryland company follows through with plans to run fiber-optic cables through city lines, officials said Thursday.
"This is really exciting and innovative technology," Mayor Jim Baca said shortly before a company official handed him a check for $50,000, the company's initial licensing fee.
An agreement approved by the City Council on Monday requires CityNet Telecommunications Inc. to pay the city 2.5 percent of its Albuquerque revenue.
CityNet plans to sell its service to telephone companies, Internet and cable TV service providers, as well as other companies that want to deliver high volumes of data and video images, company officials said. CityNet is negotiating with about 60 such companies, it said.
CityNet will give Albuquerque businesses, including those in the city's Downtown core, access to high-speed data services without the need to tear up city streets to bury fiber-optic cable, Baca predicted.
Erik Pfeiffer, director of the Office of Economic Development, estimated CityNet will pay the city $400,000 a year for each of three "mini-rings" the company plans to build in Albuquerque. The mini-rings will serve the Downtown, Uptown and Interstate 25 business corridor, he said.
Revenue from the project will be earmarked for sewer line maintenance and replacement, Pfeiffer said.
CityNet of Silver Spring, Md., plans to use a robotic "mole" called SAM — short for sewer access module — to run narrow pipes through city sewer lines. The flexible pipes are anchored to metal collars inside the lines. Then 72 fiber-optic strands are blown through the pipes using compressed air.
Bob Berger, president and chief executive officer of CityNet, said the company plans to complete the first mini-ring by April. Each mini-ring initially will serve about 30 buildings but could ultimately serve up to 60, he said. The service is intended for businesses and high-rise apartment buildings, he said.
Berger said CityNet is the only U.S. company that uses sewer lines to connect individual businesses to the large fiber-optic networks that ring Albuquerque and other large cities. The technology is in use in some European cities, including Hamburg, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, he said.
The company has agreements with Omaha, Neb., and Indianapolis and is negotiating with others, Berger said. However, Albuquerque will be the first city to have the service, he said.
The company's licensing fee will remain in effect for an initial period of three years, according to the city's agreement with CityNet. The company has the option of extending its license for seven three-year periods. The agreement also is "non-exclusive," meaning the city can form similar agreements with other companies.
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