Seattle will formally ask companies in September for proposals to construct a fiber-to-the-home broadband network, a project that would challenge the Comcast-Qwest lock on the market, reports the Seattle Times.
But at least one City Council member Wednesday questioned whether Seattle should give more consideration to managing the system itself, rather than simply offering its assets to subsidize the $450 million project. City Councilman Bruce Harrell is not yet convinced that case can be made.
“I (don’t') see how we still know…whether or not there’s a market for it,” Harrell said.
He also asked what transpired between 2005, when the idea of a city-backed broadband network was endorsed, and 2008, when the Mayor’s Office had decided that the city’s objective should be helping a private company create the system.
The city already has about 450 miles of fiber-optic cable strung primarily through the downtown core. The council’s Task Force on Telecommunications (pdf) recommended the city explore potential private partners and consider municipal ownership as well to use that existing fiber to offer broadband service across Seattle by 2015.
The study estimated that a $450 million network financed with 18-year bonds would be successful even if the system was used by only 24 percent of homes and businesses.
At the end of the bond period, consumers would have saved more than a $1 billion in rates and the city would have $129 million in cash from operations.
The system envisioned would offer speeds of 25 megabits per second residential broadband service, which is fast enough for multiple streams of high-definition video and more than double the speed of Comcast’s best service.
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